Otorohanga

We arose quite early Saturday morning and had breakfast in the community room. That too was fun as we were joined by a line dancing group who were going to perform later that morning a few miles away. I would have like to have watched them but we had already planned to go to Otorohanga, a Kiwi house. We had seen one Kiwi before and that was quite a disappointment as it just moved slowly for just a few minutes and it was so so dark. We arrived at the Kiwi house about 10.15 just before feeding time and the Great Spotted Kiwi was running around looking for food. In fact` when we first arrive it was so dark in the room that I thought I saw 2 or 3 Kiwi’s running around the small enclosure. But when my eyes became more adjusted to the dark I saw that it was only one who was very active and looking for worms. That was so fun. In the enclosure next to it was a small brown male Kiwi who was also looking for worms and he came up very close to the glass. We were not allowed to take any photos but I did get a post card of the Female Great Spotted Kiwi. Anything else we saw that day was just an added bonus because the Kiwis were so great to watch. So what did we see. Two very clever Keas, apparently they are the most intelligent of birds. We had to distract the birds as the keeper was going into their enclosure because they would have tried to escape. We watched as she placed food around their home. They followed her and one kept jumping on her shoulder in preference to being fed. The keeper even managed to get one of the birds to squawk on command, very funny and clever. We went to see the Parakeets being feed in the aviary and had no idea that it would be us feeding them.  We saw many other birds and lizards. Overall we spend a very enjoyable visit there.