Our Community

The Whale Song Pakake Waiata Charitable Trust is delighted to announce the launch of its completely refreshed website, providing the community and visitors with the most comprehensive look yet at one of Kāpiti’s most significant cultural, environmental and visitor projects.

Developed over many months, the new website has been designed to tell the complete Whale Song story. Whether you’re discovering the project for the first time or have followed its journey over recent years, the website offers a richer, more engaging experience that explores not only the sculptures themselves, but the vision behind them.

A familiar feature remains the spectacular fly-through video, now refreshed in a shorter, more engaging format. While retaining the sense of wonder created by seven life-sized bronze humpback whales emerging from the landscape, the revised version allows visitors to quickly experience the scale, beauty and emotion of Whale Song before continuing their journey through the website.

The new website introduces several major features designed to help visitors understand why Whale Song represents much more than a public artwork.

One of these is the Impact Explorer, an interactive tool that demonstrates how destination projects can benefit an entire region. Drawing on recognised economic modelling and tourism research, it illustrates how increased visitation has the potential to support cafés, restaurants, accommodation providers, retailers, transport operators, attractions and many other sectors throughout the Kāpiti Coast. Rather than simply presenting statistics, the Explorer helps people understand the wider economic ripple effect that successful destination projects can generate for local communities.

Whale Song also seeks to encourage a deeper appreciation of our relationship with water.

Located alongside a significant new wetland restoration being created as part of the redevelopment of central Paraparaumu, Whale Song provides an ideal setting to explore the journey of water from our streams and wetlands to the sea. Through storytelling and education, the project encourages visitors to reflect on the impacts human activity has on our rivers, streams and oceans, inspiring people to become better stewards of these environments for future generations.

The website highlights its two books, The Legend of the Seven Whales of Whale Song, alongside Blood, Oil and Bone, which reflects on an important chapter of Kāpiti’s history through a retelling of the district’s early whaling days. Together, these stories acknowledge both the legends that shape our identity and the realities of our past, providing a broader understanding of how our relationship with whales has evolved over time.

Visitors can also explore the cultural narratives developed alongside mana whenua, discover the remarkable engineering and fabrication required to create sculptures of this scale, compare Whale Song with other successful New Zealand visitor destinations that support projected visitation, and learn more about the growing network of organisations, businesses and individuals helping move the project steadily from vision towards reality.

Another significant addition is the new Support section, which includes a secure online donation facility. Individuals, families and businesses can now contribute directly through the website, whether by making a donation, exploring sponsorship opportunities or learning about the different ways they can help bring Whale Song to life. Every contribution supports the continued development of the project, with all funds applied to the design, engineering, fabrication, transport, installation and completion of the seven-whale sculptural park.

The website also brings together project news, educational resources, engineering information, funding updates and interactive content in one place, making it easier than ever for people to follow Whale Song’s progress and understand the many layers that make the project unique.

Whale Song has always been about more than creating seven extraordinary bronze whales. It is about creating a destination that celebrates Kāpiti’s culture, history and natural environment while encouraging visitors to explore everything our district has to offer.

The Trust invites everyone to visit the new website, experience the refreshed fly-through, explore the interactive features and discover how Whale Song is steadily becoming one of New Zealand’s most exciting community-led destination projects.

Visit www.whalesong.kiwi and explore the journey.

The Whale Song Pakake Waiata Charitable Trust also gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of Coastlands Shopping Centre. Coastlands has played an important and strategic support role in helping the project engage with thousands of residents and visitors over recent years and continues that generous support by sharing the launch of this exciting new online experience with the wider community.