New Zealand Day 8

We departed New Zealand today, but before we left we visited the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in Christchurch.  The main reason for visiting was to see the elusive Kiwi.  Kiwis are nocturnal so the reserve created a special enclosure for the birds in which the lighting was adjusted to trick them into thinking it was dusk when the tourists arrived.  Fortunately we got to see several of them foraging around for food, but due to the dim lighting we couldn’t take any pictures.  We did see and photograph a few other native New Zealand birds which we’ve included below.

This is a Buff Weka which looks a bit like the Kiwi,but has a shorter beak.
This is a White Faced Heron.
Here are two Kea parrots like we saw on the way to Milford Sound.
We were surprised to see how big and stocky the Takahe was. We knew they are related to the Purple Swamp Hens which are common to our backyard in Australian and thought they would be of a similar size. By the way, the statue the kids posed next to on Day 5 was a giant replica of this bird.

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