Zealandia is a big piece of property in Wellington that has been seriously fenced off from outside predators, and over the last 10 years has been working to preserve a great wildlife sanctuary for native plants and animals. We were told their nocturnal walks were worth the visit so we finally made it out to see for ourselves. We were guided around the preserve, and first saw a video of how New Zealand has lost a lot of native plants and animals based on the arrival of humans to the Island, but how the Karori Sanctuary has a goal to restore that native existence as much as possible.
As we walked around we learned again about Kiwis (flightless, defenseless, nearly extinct creatures), Wetas (giant grasshoppers), Tuatara (reptiles from Dinosaurian ages), Tuis and other native birds. We were quite happy to spot a Kiwi feeding about 10 feet away from us on the tour. We watched for a good five minutes. Its pretty amazing to see a Kiwi in the wild at all, let alone for that long of a sustained time. We were also quite shocked to see a Tuatara out and about. The guide mentioned that the oldest known Tuatara is 110. We asked if his name was Henry. It was. You know you have lived in New Zealand for a while when you know the local Tuatara….
Because of the night tour and 'no flash' policy we didn't get too many pictures. So here is Weta:
After the tour we were going to get dessert but John was a little sicky, and we chose to save dessert for another time.
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