Paragliding and the Kiwi Birdlife Park

Matthew from GForce and me.

Alan the bird keeper with his dumby of a kiwi.

Wednesday, January 13th. PM

After that I went back to the paragliding company and asked if they had room for me. He said that they had just had a four person cancellation and asked if I wanted to go straight away, to which I replied 'yes'. I was loaded into a van with an Australian woman and we drove back up the switchbacks from yesterday to the top of the valley. We watched as our pilots got the sails ready. 

She went first and I watched her sail off. When it was my turn we had two false starts as we tried to run to the edge and the sail drifted in the wrong direction and we had to abort. The third worked like a charm and we were airborne and floating peacefully above the canyon with the wind in our faces. The view and the ride was spectacular and my guide Matthew from France was fun to talk to as we drifted around as he caught the updrafts and we turned round and round. The ride lasted about fifteen minutes and we landed gracefully in the designated field.

When they drove us back to the bottom of the gondola I decided to visit the Kiwi Birdlife Park and see some of the local wildlife. This is a company that breeds and displays local endangered birds in an effort to protect them. Originally there were no mammals in New Zealand the birds didn't need to fly to escape so they lost their ability to fly. When the Europeans imported some mammal predators to control the rabbits (which they had also imported) the local flightless birds were decimated. I watched a bird show in which a few parrots did some tricks and listened to the presenter talk about the issues and the birds. Then I wandered around the property with an audio guide listening to all the information about the birds. Finally I watched the keepers feed the kiwi birds. These birds are amazing, they are noctural, have their nostrils on the end of their beaks, have feathers more like hairs and can pack a powerful kick to defend themselves. We were not allowed to photograph them because the light would frighten them, so I took photos of a poster.

I headed back to the hotel about 6:00 to backup pictures and get ready for dinner. We met up in the lobby and headed out to Winnie's, a gourment pizza place. I had a Moroccan lamb pizza and a Tui beer. Max asked why I didn't meet up with the paragliding company. Oops apparently I went with the wrong company, that explains why I didn't meet up with Jan Eric.

After eating we all dispersed. Some people were heading off to the Ice Bar where the inside temperature is -5, that didn't sound like fun to me as it was cold here all day, and I was wearing a sweater and a jacket and was still cold. So I went for a short walk around the beach and harbour area before heading back to the hotel for the night.