Hi, everyone!  This week in Queenstown, I’ve gone for a hike at Wye Creek, volunteered at the Kiwi Park, and… surprise… went to my first rugby match!

Volunteering at Kiwi Park

Saturday was my first time volunteering at Kiwi Park.

What is Kiwi Park?  It started as a conservation revamp during the 1980s.  The space actually used to be an unofficial rubbish tip… so it’s certainly better off now than it was back then.

Kiwi Park has a number of wildlife enclosures – from a tūī with a broken wing to tuatara, Antipodes Island parakeets, kākā, kea, morepork owls, and… yes, KIWI!

Fun fact… Tuatara are basically living dinosaurs!

I think I mentioned it before, but I was initially hesitant to go to Kiwi Park.  I thought maybe it was something of a zoo, but it is not that at all.  The animals at Kiwi Park have been provided by the Department of Conservation (DoC) for breeding programs and the likes.  Majority of the animals are cared for and eventually brought back to the wild. 

Upon arrival, I met up with Suria, who talked with me about the volunteer program.  She explained there is a Facebook group where they send out the weekly rosters and also post when interesting things are happening at the park (like kiwi weighing).  Suria mentioned they might be weighing the kiwi chick today, so I was super excited.  Unfortunately, upon arriving at the “office,” Lexi explained the kiwi chick was feeling a little overwhelmed the day before and so they were going to skip taking its weight.  They decided the chick is big enough now that they don’t have to do daily weighings.  How cool would that be to see, though? 

Suria passed me off to Lexi, who joined me throughout my first shift.  Lexi is incredibly knowledgeable about the wildlife at Kiwi Park.  She is full time staff at the Kiwi Park.  She told me that she is particularly interested in toxicology/conservation, which I will dive into a little more in the next section.

After showing me around the office and getting me a T-shirt, Lexi took me to our first enclosure – the Campbell Island teal and Antipodes Island parakeets.  The teal are only found on Campbell Island.  There are only four in captivity in the world, and two are at Kiwi Park.

After cleaning and feeding the birds, we went to our next enclosure… the South Island kākā!  Lexi warned me that the kākā might hop on me.  Sure enough, as soon as we walked in, one flew onto my head and the other landed on my shoulder.  They liked my earring and were trying to pull it out.  Eek!  It was such a fun encounter, though.

When Lexi was walking me around, she told me “these two [birds] are set to return to the wild in X months”. 

Last but not least were the kea.  The kea are one of the most intelligent birds in the world and so they need constant stimulation.  Lexi told me that the staff/volunteers change out the kea “enhancements” every day.  Enhancements are… well, puzzles basically.  It might be food in a Tupperware container that is in a cage covered in stones.  The kea have to figure out how to get their food.  They need the constant stimulation.  It was kind of funny that the weekend prior, I had devoted my entire weekend to seeing kea and then at Kiwi Park, it was as easy as walking into their enclosure.

Once my shift was over,  Lexi told me I was able to have a walk around the park.  I decided to go to the kiwi house, of course.

Upon entering the room, I was surprised by just how dark it was.  Although, within a minute, my eyes had adjusted to the darkness.  Kiwi are nocturnal. No phones or pictures of any kind are permitted.  Good! 

To see my first kiwi in real life was pretty exciting.    The way they bumble around is so fun to watch.  If you haven’t seen kiwi before, go look them up on YouTube! 

I was surprised to see just how deeply the plunge their noses into the ground to search for insects.  Nearly all the way! 

I felt slightly hesitant to see the kiwi because I wanted my first experience to be in the wild, BUT the way I justified it was that these were Northern Brown kiwi.  The kiwi I’ll hopefully be seeing on Stewart Island are Southern Brown kiwi!  Yes, there is a difference!

Some Kiwi Background

Kiwi are the national bird of Aotearoa New Zealand.

There are something like 68,000 wild kiwi left and some recent studies have had them declining at around 2% annually… which is bad.

Kiwi are flightless birds, but they have evolved to be that way over time since they don’t have any natural predators on the islands.  However, there are lots of introduced predators.  Stoats came from England, possums from Australia, and the rats came when the Māori came.

These predators eat kiwi chicks.  Since these predators (most notably stoats) breed so quickly and are very intelligent predators… it spells trouble for kiwi.

Kiwi birds only have one chick every year on average.  Female stoats, on the other hand, are pretty much always pregnant.  When a litter of stoats are born… the dad comes around again and impregnates all the baby stoats. 

Kiwi have a very distinct and strong smell, too, making them an easy target for the stoats.

Kiwi need to weigh about 1,000kg to be able to defend themselves.  Until then… they are in a lot of trouble.

I read a few DoC blogs recently called Fiordland Kiwi Diaries which was really interesting.  A team of DoC workers were in the remote areas of the Fiordlands, at a place called Shy Lake.  They tracked down kiwi, put transmitters on them, and when the kiwi were having chicks, they went to put transmitters on the chicks, too.  They monitored ten kiwi chicks that first year… and all of them were eaten by stoats.

The next year, much of the same.

In 2020, DoC carried out a massive and expensive operation in the hopes of reducing the predator population.  They sent out a bunch of helicopters that had a device attached to them. The device evenly distributed toxic 1080 pellets.  The idea was that the rats would eat the pellets and the stoats would eat the rats.  The success rate was pretty incredible.  At their stoat-monitoring sites, there were no records of stoats that year.

Of course, it’s sad that these animals had to die, but it’s important to Kiwis to preserve their endemic wildlife, and rightfully so.

After the 1080 operation, the team monitoring kiwi were FINALLY able to successfully see a chick reach 1,000kg. 

The contents of the blog were also made into a documentary.  The doc is very brief (30min) but certainly worth a watch.  It is a little sad at times and there are some images of dead kiwi chicks but I think it’s important for us as humans to see both the negative and positive impacts we can have on our world.

When talking about the operation with Lexi at Kiwi Park, she mentioned that 1080 is controversial to some.  In less remote areas, 1080 operations have been carried out and unfortunately, some peoples’ dogs have eaten the pellets and died as a result.  This is an unfortunate byproduct of toxicology but overall, the concept is a good one.  Possums and stoats have no natural predators in Aotearoa New Zealand.  Unchecked, they multiply exponentially.

Other birds have been similarly ravaged by these predators – including the famous kākāpō, the world’s largest parrot.  The kākāpō used to be the third most common bird in Aotearoa New Zealand.  Imagine if that were still the case!  While I would love to see this bird, it is incredibly unlikely since there are less than 300 in existence and all of them are being very closely monitored by DoC.  Basically in remote, access-only facilities haha.  Large efforts are being taken to get the kākāpō to breed and continue growing the population to save them from extinction.

Rugby

I know it might seem a little unbelievable, but YES, I went to my very first ever rugby match.  On Friday night, I hung out with Lauren and Emily after work and they invited me to join them the following day.  Lauren’s cousin and my former roommate, Cammy, was going to be the referee on the rugby pitch right in town.  I decided I’d join them after volunteering at the kiwi park… and after a short nap.

I had attempted to snap a picture of the match but after looking at my camera roll a moment ago, I realized… the picture did not take.

Rugby is such a brutal game.  The pile-ups are crazy.  One guy pounces, then another and another and another.  Surely, people sport lots of injuries from rugby haha.

It was cool to see Cammy be the ref.  I don’t know anything about it, but it seemed like he knew what he was doing haha.

After the game, Alexis, Cammy, Lauren, Emily, and I went up to the “club room,” where they had some drinks.  The organizers gave some speeches and congratulations, etc. since it was the first match of the season.  They welcomed Cammy as the ref, brought the team members up to the front of the room, etc.  Emily turned to me at one point and laughed, “How are we here?”  It was kind of bizarre.  I certainly didn’t imagine my Saturday afternoon to look like that. 

Although, that’s the trend with Aotearoa New Zealand.  I didn’t imagine myself re-learning Spanish, practicing slackline, volunteering at Kiwi Park, buying a van, etc., etc., etc. 

The others hung around the club room for a bit longer but I decided to head back to the hostel.  I was going out dancing and wanted to have some time to myself beforehand.  I saw Lauren and Alexis later in the evening and they were smashed haha.  That’s what happens when you drink all day and night, I suppose! 

Wye Creek

I have been hearing about Wye Creek pretty much from the first week or two after arriving in Queenstown.  I’ve been keen to go check it out.  The views were supposedly incredible and the trail takes you to a literal heli-pad.  How wild is that?

I haven’t been able to get out there until now because I didn’t have a mode of transportation.  But thanks to my new van (I think her name is Goldie), I was able to drive there in thirty minutes.

The drive up to the carpark was rough.  I wasn’t expecting it and neither was Goldie.  Very gravelly/rocky and at one point, I wondered if she would be able to make it up.  She did just fine.  Imagine, my van breaks down not even a month after buying it haha.  Fingers crossed that does not happen while I’m here!

I began the ascent.  My old roomie Nick warned me it is a pretty steep incline, so I was mentally prepared for a challenging hike.  It was nowhere near the difficulty as Lake Marian, though.  And Lake Marian wasn’t even that bad, I just was sweating a lot haha.

The trail had a lot of switchbacks as it went up the side of the mountain.  Eventually, it led through the forest.  I’m always grateful for shade on hikes, so I took advantage of it.  At certain points, I heard birds calling out so I stopped to try and spot them.  My fantail made an appearance again, hopping from tree branch to branch, showing off its tail.  It flew right towards me a couple of times, maybe two feet in front of my face before it flew off to another branch.  Hi, bird!  I didn’t bring my camera with me this time as I wanted a break from lugging the extra pounds. 

The leaves are starting to change color. I had to take a picture of these since there were so many different shades!

It wasn’t long before I made it to the first waterfall.  It was surrounded by large boulders covered in moss.  The picture doesn’t really capture the beauty, but alas.

The trail continued on and this is where it got interesting.  There is a large water pipe that I had seen a few times hiking up to the first waterfall… and now, I had to actually walk across it.  DoC had built planks and a one-sided handrail atop the water pipe… and that was the trail to get to the helipad.  WHAT?!

It was really fun.  You know I love my boardwalks and this was a weird one.

I was surprised to find that the trail led to not only the helipad, but also a tall, cascading waterfall!  Yahoo!  I admired it for some time. 

The trail (kind of) continued on, branching off into little areas where people were rock climbing.  I walked along one of the trails but they were pretty narrow and I was close to the edge.  I am mostly okay with heights, but sometimes I freak myself out.  This was one of those instances.  I felt if I continued on, there may be a disaster haha.

I sat down in the shade and soaked in the view of Queenstown off in the distance.  Sometimes, I have to remind myself how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place.  It is truly incredible.

I went back down to the helipad, had a French lady take my picture, and then continued back towards the first waterfall.  The trail had forked at that point and I decided to see what was up the other way.  The track technically goes all the way to Lake Alta (an 8-10 hour hike one way).  It wasn’t my intention to do the whole hike, but I figured I could do some more of it.

The track continued up, up, and up through the forest.  I broke through the treeline and proceeded to zig and zag even higher.  There were lots of insects out and about.  Grasshoppers, spiders, etc.  I was surprised to see so many of them.

Finally, I made it to what I considered the “end” of the hike.  A grand view of Lake Whakatipu and the surrounding mountains. 

Miscellaneous

What else?

I almost went to a big Slackline event over the weekend that was happening in Twizel.  However, it was three hours away, making for a six hour round trip.  I am trying to be a little mindful of money since I am going home soon and then on holiday to Stewart Island for a week once I’m back in Aotearoa New Zealand.  Fuel is expensive!  So, I did not go this time.

I went out Saturday night with Abby, Yvonne, and Jasper.  We went to Winnie’s, Bungalow, London, and Seek.  We had fun together but the music wasn’t the best, unfortunately.  That’s okay!

On Sunday, after I returned from my hike, I went to the kitchen and was invited to have some food for Dev’s birthday.  Dev and some others are from the Philippines and they had the most awesome spread!  Spring rolls, Filipino spaghetti, some other kind of spaghetti/pasta dish… some kind of jelly-like dessert with coconut shavings on top.  And a fruit punch drink with a whole bunch of jelly bits in there.  YUM!  I was glad they invited me to join.  I am not super close with that group aside from Daisy because most of them work at Kamana and tend to keep to themselves.  Gleenka was even singing karaoke after we ate!  Cute!

As is the trend, I went to slackline on Wednesday and then to Sound Healing Thursday.  Sound Healing was so good!  Liv and Roshan made gnocchi for us and we played a lot of music that evening.  I posted some videos of the music to Instagram, and my friend Joey asked me, “did you join a cult?”  LOL.  I haven’t… but it is certainly very hippy-dippy.

Here is what my weeks typically look like. 

Monday – Blog

Tuesday – NA meeting

Wednesday – Slackline / Silent Disco

Thursday – Sound Healing

Friday – Dance

Saturday – Hiking Adventure / Dance

Sunday – Chill

I also work Monday through Friday every week.

Art of the Week

I drew this for my cariño José, since this is my final week with him in Queenstown.  It’s slightly devastating, but I know he is ready to move on and begin his next adventure.  We talked after slackline one day and he said that he is sad to be leaving some people, but he doesn’t feel as sad with me because he has a feeling that we will meet again one day.  I hope so, too!  Mi amiguito, mi primero amigo en Queenstown.  Te amo mucho!

My RedBubble site is now officially live, which is exciting!  Please check it out.  I think as with anything, there will likely be some growing pains.  For instance, the “stickers” don’t seem to be cropped in the way I’d like… but I suppose that’s what happens when you’re outsourcing products through a third party (RedBubble).

Reflections

All is good here.

I have been doing so much lately and mentally, I know that I need a break from… people.  Haha.  I have always been an extroverted introvert, but as Jasper pointed out the other day, “You say you’re introverted, but… you’re always with people!”  Maybe I am actually an introverted extrovert???  I do need to relax soon, though.  I tried to do it yesterday after my hike but it didn’t really pan out the way I planned lol (Filipino dinner, Yvonne came to hang in our room, etc.).

ONE DAY.  If anything, I’ll definitely be doing some relaxing when I’m with my family!

Speaking of family… I got a card in the mail from them! So nice 🙂

T-minus three weeks.

Until next time – sending you all my love. xx