Kapiti Island and Wellington: Birds and Big Cities

Kapiti Island and Wellington : Birds and Big City
After we left Whanganui, we headed south to Kapiti Island, a nature reserve island just offshore, north of Wellington. The island is sacred to the Maori, and apparently, one of their leaders is buried there. It has been a nature reserve since 1897, but was farmed and also used as a whaling base. Since 1998, after 10 years of eradicating possums, rats, stoats, goats, dogs, etc. it is officially predator free and is home to a wide variety of birds that are rare or extinct elsewhere. It was wild and stormy the night before we left, but the morning was sunny and clear for our short ride to the island. We had a brief introductory talk from the naturalist about the birds and the area and then had the whole day to explore ( only 50 people are allowed on the island each day- and they have to leave by 5 pm). We were struck by the chorus of birdsong there. Many birds that we had heard but not seen on the mainland (like the bellbird) openly serendaded us. There is a native parrot called the kaka that was very aggressive and comical, perching on people's shoulders and trying to grab tidbits of lunch, even though we all obeyed the rule of not feeding the wildlife. We saw the endangered saddleback, hihi and the abundant but cute weka (that also tried to scavenge food). The forest was lush and had abundant tree ferns and the view from the top made the climb worthwhile. We returned for a sunset walk on the beach and a return to the garden of our lovely accomodation.
Wellington was a bit of a culture shock after the nature preserve. We toured marine drive and saw the lovely norfolk island pines along the promenade, great beaches and griz got to get up close and personal with an Easter Island head, donated by the president of Chile. That evening we were graciously entertained by Wendy's sister Linda and her husband Robert, who insisted that we stay to dinner even though she was off to hospital to check out an eye emergency after we left. Luckily Linda was fine the next day- an example of Kiwi hospitality.The next day we saw a great exhibition on whales at the Te Papa museum and saw videos of a sperm whale diving 1 mile deep to catch a giant squid, heard the sonic noises of different whales and saw videos of Maori elders telling the legends of the whale. We dined well and saw great views of the city from Mount Victoria and finally headed to the ferry to begin our south island adventure. The ride was reasonably calm and not too windy, but not loving boats and being a bit motion sick, I was glad when our journey was over.