The Early Bird Catches The Worm

February 29

Happy Leap Day! To celebrate the occasion, we enjoyed another bird encounter and got up close with a lot of native NZ birds we haven’t seen yet.

According to the Department of Conservation, a.k.a. “DOC,” NZ is known as the seabird capital of the world and is also home to a number of forest birds that live nowhere else on Earth.

Our 10 a.m. tour at the Orokonui Ecosanctuary was nice and small, just us and one other person. Taylor was our awesome guide, a botanist who also loves birds.

The Ecosanctuary is a 900-acre not-for-profit conservation project with 100% of the revenue used to protect and manage the Ecosanctuary.

Orokonui is a Māori word meaning “a peaceful phase of the moon.”Peaceful is definitely the word I would use to describe where we were today.

There is a fence around the sanctuary to keep predators out. Rats, possums and ferrets are the main predators to the birds. The birds are completely free to fly in and out of the sanctuary. However, those that stay predominantly inside tend to have a longer lifespan.

The huge land mass that comprises the sanctuary and the surrounding hills was created by two volcanos millions of years ago. The sanctuary sits atop these forest covered mountains creating a rich habitat for bird life.

Meet the Takahē. These birds are flightless and were the first we came across on our tour. There are 600 in the world and the sanctuary hosts a friendly family of 4.

There are 126 different species of lizards in NZ. We saw just 1, probably due to the chilly, sunless day.

It was actually sort of strange because down in the harbor it was sunny and hot but as we drove up the mountain to the sanctuary, the weather completely changed. Our guide told us there’s essentially two weather patterns. Even though the city is close by, the sanctuary often has opposite weather to the city.

There are 5 different species of kiwi at the sanctuary. We saw 0 due to the fact they are mostly nocturnal and we were there during the day. We did see some kiwi feathers from an apparent shakedown our guide said must have taken place last night, because the feathers were scattered all about in the kiwi enclosure.

Luckily we saw a lot of other really interesting birds to make up for seeing only one lizard and no kiwis. It was also interesting to walk through the lush and damp cloud forest.

The Tui is a bossy bird that can mimic sounds, even language. They feed mostly on fruit and flower nectar. These birds are symbolic to the Māori, associated with life fulfillment and spiritual harmony.

The Kākā, a large native forest parrot, are very smart birds that only nest in holes in large trees. The Māori called them tomahawks for their ability to rip apart trees as you can watch them do in the video we captured.

They are beautiful, talkative birds with a strong beak that they use like a third leg for climbing trees.

On our tour, we tasted leaves from the Horopito, or Pepper Tree, which is native to NZ. It was definitely spicy!

The leaves were used by early New Zealanders to treat cuts and bruises and also for skin diseases. Today, Horopito is a helpful aid to digestion and inflammation, which is just what we need at this point in our trip!

We spent 4 1/2 hours at the sanctuary. After our tour, we grabbed a light lunch at the cafe and ventured back out for more birdwatching. We saw South Island Robins (not red in color), Bellbirds and Fantail birds.

We headed back to town, stopping at the Port Chalmers overlook and then in the village to mail some post cards and pop into an art show.

Back at the apartment, Mitch made dinner and we packed up for an early departure for Queenstown tomorrow morning. We thoroughly enjoyed our time on the Otago Peninsula and we are so glad we worked it into the itinerary.