NZ Day 11: Kiwis, Redwoods, and 2024!

We all enjoyed our lie-ins with nothing specific planned for the day. After the suggestions from Vicky yesterday and our own preferences, seeing some kiwis remained the highest priority and the redwoods sounded great, so they set the agenda for the day.

A lie-in for Janet and I is not as late as for the kids, so we enjoyed some time wandering around the property where we were staying and checking out the animals.

Then it was off to the Agrodome where the National Kiwi Hatchery had very recently moved to. There wasn’t much hoopla about the kiwis at their reception. I’d tried booking online which did not work, and they told me that was because they had sold out, but there was availability at 3pm. Will we see kiwis? Certainly, we are assured, so we booked the spot.

After a successful trip to the one chemist/pharmacy that was open on Sunday, we headed to a local eatery that Bailey had selected, and enjoyed a fine brunch with the local crowd.

The redwoods were close by so we went to check them out. They had an expensive 2-hour guided tour called Altitude with lots of climbing and zip lines, but it sounded no different from Go Ape stuff we’d done before, except with a guide. There was a half mile walk along raised platforms in the trees which looked cool, but they sounded extra cool when lit at night. They were open until 12:30am so we decided on the crazy idea to bring in the new year up a tree in the forest! We had some spare time so we chose a 2km track to walk on through the forest and then grabbed a coffee before heading for our kiwi tour.

The kiwi tour was AMAZING. I’d read reviews that we might not see them as they are nocturnal birds that don’t like people. But we were not disappointed. In a group of about twenty, we started off with information sessions led by our very knowledgeable guide, complemented by posters, stuffed animals, and video presentations. We learned why no photos of live kiwi are allowed (the flash can blind them for weeks, and some people don’t know how to turn off their flash).

The eggs are huge compared to the mother that bears them, and they lay six a year. After laying, the dad looks after the egg and the mother abandons him. He sits on the egg for 21 hours a day, but needs to feed himself so much go and find food. It is during that time that predator, and eggnappers, grab the egg. Kiwis are feisty creatures and not to be messed with.

Next was the nocturnal enclosure where we saw a 2 month old baby. There was also a mature male and female which we did not see, though we managed to see one of them at the end. They were SO cute to watch.

Next was our walk through the hatchery which was all about the lifecycle of the egg and young chicks. Most of their eggs are “eggnapped” from the wild, where they only have a 5% survival chance because of predators, and a near 100% chance at the hatchery. When old enough to hold their own with the predators, they are released back into the wild. We saw the eggs in the incubators, with lots of stories about their hatching, and saw a biologist at work checking out a chick that was less than a month old.

We got to see a biologist care for a live young one before we saw videos, that I could take photos of

So why are the New Zealanders called kiwis? It seems that when the national rugby team first toured England in 1904 and won most of their games, the British press were not impressed so described them according to their small, defenseless, flightless bird. This compares to the British lion or the American Eagle. However, the name stuck with pride. Māori culture gives high importance to the kiwi and their feathers.

By the time the tour was over at about 5pm, it was bucketing down with rain. We grabbed a Chinese takeaway for dinner, after which the others watched Lord of the Rings films while I napped.

We headed back to the redwoods at about 11pm, and the rain had driven away the crowds such that there were only two other groups on the whole walk. The rain had eased to drizzle and we had so much fun on the walkways between the trees, trying to take photos for our midnight Happy New Year post. There were lots of cool lights and information boards.

I must admit that I was glad when we finished at 12:30 am so I could go back to bed, but we had brought in the New Year appropriately, at the first time zone in the world and nineteen hours before Texas! It makes me tired just remembering it!

This page is part of our New Zealand trip set of posts