Shops; Zealandia; War Memorial & Te Papa

Earthquake damaged carpark being knocked down.

I joined up with Karla and her friend Derilyn from London to visit Wellington for a few days. It was after the Kaikoura earthquake so we weren’t surprised that a number of buildings were closed and fenced off. The first day was a wander around the shops and watching a large carpark building slowly getting knocked down. This would be the best free show in town for a few months! Not too good for the owners of about six to eight cars still parked in the building though. I wonder if they have been paid out by their insurance companies yet?

Wellington Green Gecko.

Male Stitchbird.

A visit to Zealandia was the top of the list and catching the free shuttle van to be dropped off right at the entrance was pretty good. Zealandia is a 225 hectares pest fenced sanctuary not far from the city centre with a number of rarely seen native forest birds besides tuatara and gecko inside the enclosure.

At the nice looking entrance building one can pick up a plan of the area and also a check list of the animals that can be seen in the reserve. Besides the more common birds like tui, bellbird, fantail, native pigeon and grey warbler we were hoping to see takahe, saddlebacks, stitchbird, kaka, parakeets, whiteheads, North Island robin plus maybe a tuatara and some geckos. Well, the only species we did not see on the list was the saddleback and weta. The stitchbirds or Hihi, are hard to take a god photo as they flit about and hardly sit still for more than a few seconds. Why do we say that birds sit on a branch? They are actually standing aren’t they?

Tuatara near den.

Visiting Te Papa (the national museum) when in Wellington is almost a must. The World War 1 display was still on and we also called in on the National War Memorial Park and had another look at the Great War Exhibition. Weta Workshops, of Peter Jackson certainly put on a realistic display at both locations.

In Memory.

The Flora

A Riflemen fluttering its wings while searching for food. Flora Stream.

With our walking group in mid-January, our intention was to climb up Mt Arthur but the rain didn’t clear quickly enough so instead the group split up and walked some of the lower tracks. Some walked up to the Mt Arthur Hut and then down to the Flora Hut but I just wandered down and then along a little towards the Flora Hut mainly watching out for any riflemen. With all the trapping going on in the area these birds, our smallest, have made a comeback so I was hoping to see maybe some families of them. And I did. Several, but it is very hard to get a photo as they move around so quickly. I came across several families with their young demanding any food that was found by the adults. They walk upside down under branches seeking any insect, fluttering their wings when they happen to stop briefly. A robin appeared now and then to see who was intruding on their territory.

Weka eating ants or their larvae.

The odd weka was about and one was spotted pecking away into the ground. I wondered what it was after and it seemed that it was feeding on ants or perhaps more likely, the ant larvae. it turned quite cold at the carpark with the temperature at 12º but when we got back home it was a pleasant 27º in Richmond.