Visit to Kapiti Island

Today we finally got to go to Kapiti Island. We rang the boat to check it was going and got up to Paraparaumu about 8.40. They did a bag inspection in case we were carrying stray or pet rodents (you know how attached Sandra is to them), loaded us into the boat which was attached to a tractor. The tractor then took us what seemed like half way to Kapiti before the boat detached and completed the trip. We were dropped on the beach and trailed along to the fairly basic shelter where we were read the DOC bible and then set free for a few hours. Sandra is convinced that the climb up towards the 550 metre peak was configured as a Mobius strip as we seemed to eternally wend our way up and all the turns seemed to bring us to the same stretch of track. The birds were amazing and would have been even more so if a couple of families hadn't walked in virtual tandem to us...the instruction if you wanted to see birds was to stand still and silent...but they had misheard this as make as much noise as possible. Even so we saw takahe

and saddlebacks

Anyway, great trip and recommended to you all!

The weather was perfect, not too hot and fairly still, and I suspect this is not the normal way of things on Kapiti Island.

These photos are not mine but I'll put up some I took on the Gallery if it lets me.

and many other birds. By about 400 metres or so we ran out of birds and decided to eat lunch then head back down to look at the birds on the flat. We tried to convince our bodies that it was all very leisurely but they eventually worked out that much more than usual was expected and complained accordingly.