Kiwis and Cable Cars!

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After my morning horse riding I obviously grab a quick shower and head off to the lunch spot recommended by the stable girl as a good veggie options place on the way to the cable car or Sky Gondolas as they prefer to call them here. In my mind gondolas are long, pointy boats quanted along by singing Italians so I'm hoping more for the cable car version as the ride up the mountain looks incredibly steep!

As I'm finishing my lunch it starts to drizzle. Good job I picked the morning option for horse riding which was lovely and sunny. I decide I may as well go up the mountain anyway as the skies are still pretty clear for views from the top despite the drizzle, but I don't bother with the luge thing, not really something I fancy doing in the rain. I get a 'gondola' all to myself and off I go up the mountainside. It's a long way up and it's as steep as it looks from the bottom, but of course this means I can see for miles around when I do get to the top. I see the bungy jump station and a girl is bouncing up and down, just having completed her jump into the abyss below. Not for me, no thanks siree!

There are still some people out doing the luge on the wet track, but I'm glad I haven't wasted my money on that. There's a great view of the lake and mountains all around from the viewing platforms.

I don't stay up long and soon I'm zooming back down in my gondola 'Just one cornet to, give it to me...'. I see some gondolas with mountain bikes fixed to the outside and guess this is the lazy mountain biker option - that is until I get to the bottom and see the full face helmets the riders are wearing and how much mud they are covered in. It's obviously one of those insane tracks through the woods with skidding and jumps and hair raising twists and turns. Think I'll leave it to the crazy pros!

Instead I opt for a visit to the Kiwi Wildlife Centre just opposite the entrance to the cable car rides. It's just about to be feeding time so I get kitted up by the lady with my audio guide - never to be used - I hate them! And then go straight to Kiwi House number 1. It's almost pitch black, just the light from red lamps to let you see a bit once your eyes have adjusted. Kiwis are nocturnal so the lights are controlled to be night time for kiwis in the daytime so we can get to see them more easily. They are not able to pick up the red light, so to them it's really dark, just how they like it. There are too many of us so the last few, including me, are directed to Kiwi House number 2 instead and this is good as there's less of us.

Our kiwi keeper tells us loads about kiwis and we get to ask her lots of questions too. The kiwi we are seeing is a female who has been unlucky in love and is awaiting a new boyfriend, currently in quarantine. She is a north island brown and is part of a breeding programme raising chicks and releasing them into specially protected areas with predator fencing to keep out stoats, possoms and the like. The kiwis have as little human interaction as possible to make sure they are able to be released into the wild fully equipped to look after themselves. While they are being raised at the centre they are given a protein rich diet with all the appropriate vitamins to fatten them up. They also have grubs and insects to forage for to get them used to feeding themselves. She tells us that males and females are quite hard to tell apart but usually the female is larger and makes a grunting noise, while the male screams like a baby! When the keeper went to put the tubes full of food into the ground within the enclosure the kiwi ran off to hide in her burrow as predicted, but she came out straight after the keeper left and went straight for the food, pushing her long beak in and tossing up bits of food to gulp down. Because of where the food tubes are placed we are able to see the kiwi really close up. What a funny little creature and so cute she is.

Brilliant! I came to New Zealand and saw kiwis! Tick!

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