Otorohanga

In Otorohanga, we did one of the things I've always wanted to do: See a live kiwi bird!

We went to the Otorohanga Kiwi House.  Yes, kiwis are still in the wild, but they're very rare and nocturnal, so we decided to go with captivity instead of wild kiwis.

The kiwi house was filled with plants and other birds, so we enjoyed ourselves. Here is a wheki, New Zealand's notable HUGE tree ferns.

They were really tall.

Malay Dove.

Me, very excited at seeing kiwis soon.

More Whekis.

Additional jungleness.

Again, I was very happy. :)

KIWI!!!! We've had to rely upon googleimages to find this photo since photography wasn't allowed. Still, she looked exactly like this one.

This little Papango wanted to come home with us, badly. VERY friendly little thing.

This kingfisher, however, could have cared less.

I was in heaven.

A Pukeko bird!!!

They are so weird but beautiful. Huge red combs and blueish feathers. We saw these guys in the wild too. And yes, I squealed each time.

More jungle and beautiful plants.

A wild Tui bird!

More huge Wheki fronds. This one was easily 6' long.

A HUGE KEA BIRD (moutain parrot).

A kakariki parakeet. Cute little things were total chatterboxes.

"Please can we take a Kakariki home???" Bob: "No. Bailey would think it was a squeaky toy."

"Sigh, ok..."

Afterward, we did the obligatory posing by the giant kiwi statue.

Luckily, Bob kept this picture G-rated so it can go on the blog. :)