Wellington - Zealandia and Te Papa Museum

February 5, 2023

I woke up at around 4 in the morning and through the window saw a beautiful moon shining on the ocean. A couple hours later, the moon had set and a beautiful sunrise took its place.

It was a beautiful beginning to a lovely day, my favorite in New Zealand. I had been looking forward to returning to Zealandia and seeing the native bird and plant life of Zealandia. The tour was a bit late getting started and the driver got a little turned around in the city, so we didn’t get quite as far as we had in 2019 on our walk through the preserve. Despite this, we saw a variety of bird life.

Zealandia is a special wildlife preserve with a goal to restore the area to how it used to be before the Maori first arrived from Polynesia and named the islands Aotearoa.. They know this won’t happen overnight. In fact, the goal is to restore this over 500-acre eco-sanctuary within 500 years. The first step was to keep out all non-indigenous species and non-native plants. A tall fence was constructed around the entire reserve specially designed to keep out rats, rabbits, possums, cats and other feral mammals. Then the entire area was poisoned to kill the pests already there, as well as removing all non-native plants and trees. Then native species were introduced to the area, including some that had been absent from the mainland of New Zealand for over 100 years.

The first birds we saw were the cormorants, or shags as they are called in New Zealand. The nesting season was almost over, although we did spy one big baby (almost as big as it’s parents) waiting to be fed.

Next we saw the takahe. Once thought to be extinct, this brightly colored flightless bird was rediscovered in 1948. By removing deer and stoat from its habitat and undertaking breeding programs and reintroduction to the wild, the takahe now number about 350 birds in all of New Zealand. If you listen closely to the short video, you can hear its unique call.

When leaving the takahe, we spied the tui bird we had been hearing as we walked through the forest. The bright white tuft on its chest is distinctive of this bird found only in New Zealand. Known for its beautiful calls and ability to mimic, the tui was a greatly prized pet of the Maori people, much as parrots and parakeets are prized in other areas of the world. Although once rare, the tui are beginning to make a comeback, especially in Zealandia.

We next spotted a pair of pateke (brown teal) swimming and foraging for food. Although we first spotted them in the water, they also forage in the forest and often raid the kaka bird feeders.

Our next sighting was not a bird, but a reptile, the tuatara. Although it looks like a lizard, the tuatara is actually its very own order. All other members of the order died out over 65 million years ago. The tuatara themselves almost became extinct before the first Europeans arrived to the islands. They were devastated by the rats who came over on the Maori ships when they came to New Zealand from Polynesia. For a while, they could only be found on the small islands around New Zealand, but are now slowly being reintroduced to the mainland in preserves like Zealandia.

Our final stop was the kaka bird feeders. We saw several kaka flitting between the feeders and the forest. This brown parrot likely got its name from one of its distinctive calls as “ka” means “screech” in Maori.

We were lucky to see a juvenile kaka chick, evidence of Zealandia’s successful breeding program.

In addition, we saw a bellbird and a blackbird at the feeders. The feeder for the bellbird, a kind of honeyeater, is specially guarded against the kaka as they can be aggressive to other birds.

The blackbird is not a native New Zealand bird and is not encouraged in Zealandia. It was brought to New Zealand by European settlers.

In addition to the amazing bird life, we were surrounded by a lush forest of native ferns, trees and other plants.

After the bird feeders, we needed to head back quickly to stay on schedule for our tour of the Te Papa museum. Te Papa is one of the most popular museums in New Zealand. The second floor exhibits focused on the natural history of museum. We learned how the large moa bird once reigned supreme on New Zealand. This giant bird was not only couldn’t fly, but had no wings at all. It was the only wingless bird known to exist. Its primary predator was Haast’s eagle which was the largest raptor in the world until it became extinct. To escape the giant eagle, the moa would freeze in place. Although a very effective strategy for avoiding the notice of the eagle, it made the moa extremely vulnerable to the Maori hunters. Sadly, by the time Captain Cook arrived on Aotearoa’s shores in August, 1768, the moa had already vanished. Although the kiwi was once thought to be one of the closest living relatives to the moa, recent DNA evidence shows that its closest living relative today is actually a flying bird in South America called the tinamou.

We also saw a preserved colossal squid – the largest known specimen and the only one on display in the world.

Next, we learned how the Maori came to New Zealand from Polynesia, Accomplished and daring sailors, they converted canoes to ocean-going vessels and colonized island after island as population levels grew too high. They followed the paths of the whales to discover new lands.