Posted – April 20, 2022
Several years ago, New Zealand called and I answered, after all, where else can you see a
Kiwi?
In addition to being the nick-name for anyone from New Zealand and the national symbol and icon of New Zealand, Kiwis are also fascinating as real birds. They only live in New Zealand, likely the product of its long isolation from outside biological influence. The five species of Kiwis are nocturnal and flightless with poor vision, almost no wings, and hair-like feathers. Their excellent sense of smell is tied to nostrils and numerous nerve-endings at the end of a long flexible bill, which they use to probe for prey in the undergrowth and duff of New Zealand’s forests. Their legs are stout and muscular with a large claw at the end of each of their four toes. Kiwis nest in self-excavated underground tunnels, and the females lay proportionally the largest egg of any bird. In most species, only males incubate for 80 days, but helper Kiwis sometimes assist.
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| Halfmoon Bay |
ferry boat (the Aurora) ride from Invercargill at the south tip of the South Island across Foveaux Strait landing at the only town on S.I., Oban in Halfmoon Bay. Stewart Island is not your ordinary place, think small town (population 440), isolated small town, isolated small town with few roads. No chain stores of any kind including grocery, motel, car rental, gas station, restaurant. Somehow, I lined up a rental car from Stewart Island Experience Rental Cars, which said “Ford” on the hood, but it looked more like a VW bug. No power, four speed manual transmission set up to drive on the left.
It had been some time since I had driven a manual and now, I had to switch what each foot did, oh and, no power. It may have been the only car they had because later a local resident commented that I had “The Car”. Our motel was on a hill overlooking Halfmoon Bay and getting the car up that steep hill was a constant challenge. The motel was comfortable, but no front desk, no clerk. The woman who checked us in was there only because the ferry had just landed and she was expecting us.
When
I called Joe Blow to get our boat ride to the Kiwis, he asked how long we would
be 
Lodge
on the island. I told him three nights,
and he replied, “Let’s do it tomorrow.” Disappointed,
but with no recourse, we checked into the motel and got supper at the South Sea
Hotel, the best restaurant in town. The next
night the weather was terrible, no boat trip, and on the third night Joe Blow
did not even bother to call me because again the weather blew us out of the
water. I did call Joe and he was mildly sympathetic
that I was not going to see the Kiwi, my entire purpose of going to Stewart Island. Our contact at the motel told us that the reason
he did not take us the first night was because he had company – small town, everyone
knows everything.
South Sea Hotel
Now
I was ready to do whatever it took to see a Kiwi. Our motel contact told us that they sometimes
come out on to the nearby Rugby field, especially on rainy nights. Well, this was certainly a rainy night, the
source of my dilemma: my wife agreed to go with me in the dark and rain to the
Rugby field. Scanning the field with a
powerful flashlight revealed no Kiwi, prompting us to follow a trail though the
adjacent forest. In the dark everything appears
different and mildly threatening, and this trail filled that bill: it was
narrow and roofed over with vegetation. Walking
it was like descending into Middle Earth, and still no Kiwi.
Early in the dark of the next morning the rain was still coming down. Too cold and wet for my wife to leave a comfortable bed, but I could not pass on my last chance to see a Kiwi. Arriving at the Rugby field parking lot in total darkness, I again scanned before entering the field with no luck. Middle Earth was all that was left. Walking across the soaked grass toward Middle Earth, I noticed something else also walking - a Kiwi!!! – the Stewart Island subspecies of the Southern Brown Kiwi, Apteryx australis lawryi.
Nothing else left to say.
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