Kakapo Trip

Last Wednesday we were lucky enough to get to go to Invercargill to see some kakapo chicks that were being hand reared before they were released back into Codfish Island. We were so excited and learnt lots about the kakapo before we left so that we could fully appreciate the rare birds that we were looking at. Miss McKenzie and the DoC Rangers were super impressed by how much the children knew about kakapo after all the research we had done prior to the trip! 

We went to Queens Park before we visited the kakapo. 

Here we are looking at the kaka at Queens Park. 

Hanging out with the Queens Park kea. 

One group was lucky enough to see the kea being fed!

In the aivery with more parrots! We know these ones aren't NZ native parrots though! 

We LOVED the playground at Queens Park! 

We were not allowed to take any photos of the chicks. This was to keep them safe  and so they didn't get scared or stressed. 

We split into 2 groups for the kakapo viewing. While one group was looking at the kakapo the other got to look at some photos of the DoC Rangers working with the kakapo on Codfish and Anchor Island. 

This is the tracker they wear on their backs so the Rangers can track them and find them. They need to find them to see how the kakapo are going and check they are still healthy. 

For such a big parrot they sure do lay tiny eggs!

The DoC ranger told us a story about how a kakapo egg was accidentally squashed by its mother. A ranger found the egg in the nest and patched it with glue and tape and incubated it.....amazingly the chick survived and hatched! Its name is Ruapuke.