Takahe

Holiday backblip- New Zealand- Day 7

Today we went to an island with an amazing name- Tiritiri Matangi
If you're interested in birds it's worth a google as it's a fascinating place. It's an open sanctuary that 150 people (1 boat load) are allowed to go to 3 times a week. Volunteers then do tours for a couple of hours round the bush on the island telling you about and showing you some of the birds that live there. We saw lots of birds we'd never heard of, some of which are rare in NZ and some aren't but were still interesting to us. We saw Tuis, Saddlebacks, Stitchbirds, Whiteheads ("what's that one with a white head?" I asked), a Quail, NZ Robins and Fantails ("what's that one with a fan tail?" Ross asked).
Then out in the open at the top of a hill we saw severel Pukekos which we saw lots of over the holiday. They're like giant moorhens and quite fun.

The highlight though is a bird called Greg who is a Takahe which is one of the World's rarest birds (I didn't get a photo of him but this is one of his Takahe friends). They were though to be extinct but a few were found in Fiordland about 60 years ago and now there are about 150 in the wild. More info on Takahes and the island can be found here

It was a stunning day again and the boys got to play in the sea again at another beautiful beach on the island before going back to the mainland.