A Zealandia adventure

This week, the Autahi explorers were at Zealandia. It poured with rain, but we zipped up our raincoats and headed out into the ngāhere to see what we could find. Luckily for us, it seemed like the creatures of the bush really like the wet weather. There was so much to see.

'We touched the energy rock.' This special rock is just as you enter the sanctuary. 'We give it our mauri and it gives us some back.'

'We saw the special weasel-proof fence. We tested it with our fingers.' The holes have to be very small because many predators can squeeze through tiny spaces.

'The kererū is my favourite bird.' The kererū had fluffed out their feathers to stay warm, and were hiding from the rain amongst the trees.

'We saw four kererū!' We learnt that they pair up when they are young and stay together for life. 

The tākāhē were sneaking away from us.' We felt very lucky to see them because have just had their bird flu vaccines, so are feeling even more shy than usual.

'The tākāhē were new so they had a new fence to stop them climbing the bank.'

  

'We stood on the fence to try and see the tākāhē again.'

We spotted Pōpokotea (Whiteheads) hopping about in the trees. 

'We saw Tieke in the bush!' And there were lots of them. We could also hear their distinctive calls as they hopped energetically through the branches.

'We saw a gigantic spider!' This is an Orb Spider sitting on its egg sack, which is waiting to hatch out hundreds of tiny spiderlings.

'A stick insect is a rō.' This one likes Tōtara and is a female. You can tell because she's quite large: the males are much smaller and often get mistaken for babies.

It was pretty chilly for Tuatara, but we managed to find a brave one out in the rain. We learnt how to look out for their burrows as they are often close by.

'We saw a shag's nest. Their poo is very smelly because they only eat fish.'

'We found a really big, dead wētā.'

And we also saw tree wētā in bug hotels that were very much alive.

And here's where a kiwi lives. Maybe one day we'll come back for a night safari and try to spot one!

Thank you to our parent helpers who generously gave up their time to help us. And ngā mihi nui to our wonderful guides at Zealandia for leading our expedition and sharing their knowledge with us.