Last night I got to see an actual kiwi bird in the wild! Kiwis are the national bird of New Zealand, they can't fly and can live for around 40 years. It was very exciting as we had to wait until dark before venturing out into the forest next to our campsite (One of the few campsites in New Zealand found next to where wild kiwi roam) to start our search.
It is not good for kiwis to see bright lights so we wandered in to the forest with our dimmed torch. Our campsite was only small but other people came from further away to try and spot the birds and as we walked through we passed a number of people waiting quietly. Eventually, Nadia and I got to a deserted area and stood patiently and silently in the darkness with our torch off. After a few minutes we heard some rustling on the ground, a few minutes later and it had gotten closer. We decided it was time to turn on our dimmed torch and as we shone it around we spotted it! In amongst the undergrowth was the rare, brown bird foraging for food. It was much bigger than I thought, about the size of a small chicken and it stayed hunting for insects for a few minutes before disappearing off into the night.
It is probably the most exciting animal I have ever seen because; a) It was in the wild b) We found it ourselves and c) They are famously hard to spot.
Obviously, without being able to use a flash I couldn't get a photo but I have attached a photo I took the this morning. The forest we were in was a rare Kauri Forest and this is a photo of a large and rare kauri tree.
Did You Know?: The kauri tree in this photo is about 14 metres tall and over 1200 years old! It now has other plants living on it's branches but when it was younger it was so small that a kiwi bird could have crushed it if it stood on it!
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