For work yesterday I got to do something I never thought I would get to do, at least not without a lot of planning and groundwork to work out how to get my name on a list... and then the opportunity arose at work and I jumped at the chance (even said yup I'll come before I checked with my manager lol, though when I did ask her she said she had been waiting for me to ask as she knew I would be keen as). What did I get to do you are wondering, well I got to help with a kiwi release 💜
It was so amazing and special, and very magical. Altogether 13 kiwis were released, our group took 6 and the other group took 7. We were on York Road Loop Track just out of Midhurst. The Kiwis we released were all pretty well behaved, a couple were not impressed at having been stuck in boxes for so long but they calmed down quick enough and most went into their burrows perfectly happily. One even fell asleep on Tane (the handler, him and Sue were the only two that got to touch the kiwi, which made perfect sense to me), which was rather sweet. I didn't photograph many of them (only 2), as I wanted to experience it not behind the camera, but I did get a few photos as you can see below. And I decided to film one of them being put into their burrow, that was the only one who decided that it wanted to escape and make a break for it. Kinda happy I got that one on video as it was cool to see one running hehe.
We carried them in pairs, one on each side of the box. I was with my workmate Michelle and she sung our kiwi a waiata (song) as we walked which was also very special. Turns out they are quite heavy, and when you pick it up with your dodgy shoulder it gets even harder quickly. The other option was my dodgy hand and I thought overall the shoulder was the best bet out of the two lol. We had to keep the box level and not let it brush the ground or the bush at all so there was a lot of concentration when we were walking with the kiwi. It turned out that all kiwi released into the wild are at least 1.9kg (fighting weight) so when combined with a wooden box they are not light.
And how did this opportunity arise you might be wondering, well the Iwi does mahi (work) with one of the partners who do the releasing and our youth programme helps as well. They helped with the release at Stratford Mountain House on Thursday and us kaimahi (workers) were invited to the Friday one as they know we are also keen to help and experience releasing kiwi.
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