A Northland big cat sanctuary closed to the public for nearly eight years will roar back into life tomorrow - this time with strict safety measures in place.
Whangārei's Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary is the latest iteration of the park, which was once run by Craig Busch - the Lion Man, and was also the scene of a fatal tiger attack on a handler in 2009.
But the new operators say the set-up is completely different these days, and other than the cats, there's nothing that remains from that time.
Owner and park director Janette Vallance said the 17 endangered cats at the park - lions, tigers a leopard and a cheetah - are living very different lives than they were several years ago.
She first visited the park in June 2017 and was concerned about what she saw - the lack of safety protocols and the conditions the cats were kept in.
There were unsafe conditions and cramped enclosures, she said, with guns at the ready for some cats' feeding.
"It's completely different."
"They didn't have dens, they didn't have lock off areas, they didn't have two keeper access points, the fences were too low, or too big of a hole, or no footings.
A cheetah at Whangārei's revived Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
"The openings in the mesh were too big, you could get a cat paw through and Savannah's notorious for putting her paw through and giving a keeper a tap on her way past, the mesh wasn't high enough," she said.
More than $10m has been spent on the sanctuary over the past four years to get it up to scratch - Vallance brought it in June 2019 but most of the work's been paid for by Bolton Equities.
The park was recently given the green light to open to the public by the Ministry for Primary Industries.
Vallance said she had come in to fix a problem at the park, and felt she had done that. "It was a mammoth project".
When they arrived the cats were highly medicated and "looked like hippies from the seventies," she said.
But Vallance weaned them off the drugs and they were now much more "chill cats".
Many of the animals are older and while Vallance said the aim is not to be a "retirement village," they would take anyone who needs a home.
Most of the animals are older - around 15 to 16 years. Vallance said without their claws, and having been used to captivity, they would not survive in the wild.
She is hopeful of bringing in more cats who need homes, but never from the wild.
"I cannot see the point in euthanising something that does not need euthanising - if we've got a spot where if their only other option is they're going to get euthanised, then we'll [house them]."
Lions at Whangārei's revived Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
Vallance said bringing visitors in to the park would help pay the bills and was mainly about helping educate people. But she said the cats would always come first
"If they don't want to come out of the rock to see you that's fine."
Adrian Metcalfe was among guests at a recent open day for suppliers of the park - he has looked after the locks and security for years, going back as far as when Craig Busch was running the place.
He was especially impressed with the current set-up.
"These guys are probably the best management this place has had.
"We've seen how it's been run over the years and just to see the way that they've come this far with all the enclosures and the fact that they've managed to open the park again is just fantastic."
He said it was just the boost Northland tourism needs and hoped it would be popular with visitors this summer.
Ticket prices start at $37 for an adult entry and $21 for a child - bookings are essential as the park is currently limited to 100 visitors at a time.
But Jannette Vallance encourages everyone to come for a visit.
"Come and see what we've done, there's always a lot of gossip and it's a very notorious place... see what we've done and appreciate what we've done."
