Kapiti Island, bird birds everywhere.

After a nice long stay in Wellington it is off to Kapiti island. The drive isn’t to long and in total pretty boring. Along the coast, so that is good. But lots of road works and ( shocking I know) to busy.

The town that the ferry to the island sets of from is okay. Small and little to do. And it seems the ferry and island do not have an office. It is take a seat on the terras of a restaurant and they will find you. The restaurant people are so used to it. They refuse to serve the guest of Kapiti island. So even after asking for tea three times. I did not get it. Weird.

The trip over was of course by boat. But it works in a strange way over there. The boat is on the beach on a high trailer behind a tractor with extra high wheels. The tractor backs into the sea until the boat starts floating and then the boat takes off. At the island the beach is a lot steeper and with pebbles and the boat almost beaches itself and then you can walk off getting wet feet. Okay.

Only I didn’t prepare for the trip and felt miserable after. so went to bed in my cabin for a few hours. After that I felt a bit better but still not good. Drinks and a bite before dinner was fun. It was outside and the Kaka ( a wild parrot) is very cheeky and will land on your shoulder or hand even just to steal your food. And they are good at it. A 100% success rate.

Dinner inside was less spectacular. Then after dinner the Kiwi hunt started, not to hurt the bird but just to get a glimpse of a kiwi in the wild. And we did. But just a glimpse.

But they are there by the 100 unless they locals have hidden speakers all over the island to broadcast Kiwi screams. And Weka and the moreporks ( the local owl) where very loud as well.

All that is good. Now the not good thing. Sleeping is in a cabin on a platform, underneath the platform the birds also live. So all night things rustle and move underneath the place I sleep. And while my brains know that it are not rats because all rats have been eradicated on the island, my instinct is still screaming RATS RATS RATS  or other creepy crawlies. So I didn’t sleep well.

Second: the toilets where about 100 meters further, so every time I had to go pee ( and I need to pee about 2 times at night and if not sleeping well more often ) I had to get dressed, put on my shoes, get the flash light and make my way to the toilets with rustling, moving things all around. Might be birds might be dinosaurs. I don’t know. So no good. And the toilets where very light so attracting all the insects and they have big insects over here. Very big ones. ARGGG.

And this is me. The not so easily scared of creepy crawlies person. Even for me this was bit to much nature.

The next day I was feeling better but there was a heat wave going on. Really to hot to move. Let alone to walk to the top of the hill on the island. Everybody told me it was the best walk of all, but I declined, had enough hills by then.

Dinner that day was okay, the bird during nibbles was less active because they had a good lunch. And that night the Kiwi’s decided to put on a show. It was so at ease with the 10 or so tourist tramping through it woods that it didn’t run or hide. And even walked by over the path at about 50 cm from my feet. ( I was standing in front of course.)

It was amazing.

That night again many noisy creepy crawlies underneath my cabin, was happy to leave by morning to get back into civilization. During the boat ride there where dolphins. So good times.