Okarito, New Zealand (Center on Interactive Map)

A small beach town on the west coast of the South Island.

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Trips

New Zealand

1/17/2012: We continued up the west coast of the South Island passing by a couple of small glaciers. We took the hike up to one of the glaciers, and while the hike was scenic, the glacier was possibly melted, and at any rate, underwhelming.

But our reason to visit the west coast was to find the rare Okarito Kiwi. Some people say that it is a subspecies of the Brown Kiwi, but others say it is a separate species.

We checked into our guest house that provided free wi-fi, and within minutes, I managed to wipe out the data on my phone-with-an-operating-system-made-by-a-certain-company-based-in-Mountain-View, CA. Whenever you read about how many people are signing up for their email service, you should know that there are many people like me out there who have multiple fake accounts. Why should I consent to being tracked by some corporation as a condition of using a product that I purchased with my very own real money? Believe it our not, I can survive in this world without targeted advertising.

Anyway, by the time I sorted this out, it was almost night and time to find the kiwi. We wandered over to the garage to find the guide, this guy named Ian. Ian is possibly psychic as he knew who we were the minute he saw us and he know who we were when we called him (and he knew the names of the other couple that was standing next to us as well).

The rest of the group arrived, and we went out to the swamp where the kiwis are living. We were instructed to be very silent, but it was difficult not to slap at the squadron of mosquitoes that were buzzing my ears. If you are going out with Ian, say "yes" to the head net. Back on the kiwi front, we were not seeing the kiwi despite the radio tracking device, walkie-talkies, and Ian's psychic powers. One of our group started getting the sniffles at this point, and it looked like all hope might be lost. Luckily, the sickly one bowed out early, and the silence was back. Sure enough, after a little while, we heard the kiwi pair calling. Two Kiwis were crossing the path right next two us!

By now, it was close to midnight. The sky had cleared up to a spectacular starry sky. We were not allowed to get into the van until someone saw a shooting star.

Back at the guest house, we had left the window open. There were at least twenty mosquitoes buzzing around the room.




Previous Visit (Blue Pools: 1/16/2012)
Next Visit (Arthur's Pass: 1/18/2012)

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Lifelists

Australasia
World