Pukaha Mount Bruce

Pukaha Mt Bruce is a wildlife centre that runs an active breeding programme for New Zealand's rare & endangered native birds & reptiles. As avid birders we wanted to visit the centre on our way south, it was the main reason we choose to take SH2 to Wellington. The 942 hectares Mt Bruce reserve is the largest remnant of ancient forest that once stretched stretched  from Masterton to Norsewood. An extensive & continuous pest control programme had dramatically increased the population of birds in the forest including many of our endangered species; this involves over 130km of trap lines through the forest, 1000 bait stations for possums & rats and 500 traps for stoats & ferrets.

A pair of kakariki (red crowned parakeet) cosy up in one of the flight aviaries; they have already fledged five chicks this season & from this display I would say there will be more before the summer ends.

We arrived at 10am and even this late in the day the forest was alive with bird song. There are numerous large flight avaries near the entrance to the park along with a kiwi house. Many of  Mt Bruce's captive bred birds are released at other pest free sanctuaries around New Zealand, including Boundry Stream in Hawkes Bay & Tiritiri Matangi Island in the Hauraki Gulf.

One bird I was very keen to see was Manakura the rare white North Island Brown Kiwi. Manakura is two years old & is not albino, she is white because her parents have a rare recessive gene. In fact there have been two white kiwi hatched at Mt Bruce & there are likely to be more. Manakura was feeding in the kiwi house but spent quite a bit of time aggressively chasing a normal brown kiwi around the enclosure. No flash was allowed in the darkness of the make believe night time forest floor so this is what I got. A little more than what I heard a Canadian wife telling her husband he captured- “It’s totally black, you’ll have to go back & try again!”

We stopped by the tuatara display to watch a keeper feed the male & female a locust each, their only meal for the next 3 days. Tuatara spend most of their day staring into space hence the reason why they live to such a ripe old age & don't need much to eat. This pair are around 65 years old & all going well will live to be at least 150 years of age. Tuatara are rare, medium-sized reptiles found only in New Zealand. Most New Zealanders know that the tuatara is as ancient as the dinosaurs and a species that hasn’t changed in over 200 million years.

Next we watched one of the latest batch of kiwi chicks being force fed his dinner. This little guy has held out for 64 days, he is yet to get the hang of how you do it by yourself. Any day now the keepers are hoping that he’ll work it out so he can join his fellow new season chicks in the pre-release aviary in preparation for being moved to one of the numerous kiwi sanctuaries around New Zealand when he reaches one kilo in weight. At this weight he will be able defend himself against most predators & stands a good chance of reaching adulthood.

Isn't that the most cutest fluff ball you ever did see?

David decided to do the hour & half walk to a lookout at the top of the reserve but because of my feet I decided it might be a bit too much for me to cope with so I stayed behind to watch over 30 kaka fly in from all over the reserve to a feeding station. The kaka is a large parrot similar to the kea and just as destructive & comical. They are a beautiful dark glossy olive brown colour with a hint of iridescence and bronze with a splash of beautiful deep red coloured feathers under their wings.

The kaka have a wide vocal range, the bush & sky filled with their squawks, clucking & shrieks. Their keen acrobatics kept me entertained for nearly an hour as they swooped in low and long through the paths scaring a few people who were unaware of how close they were to their heads. They also chased each other through the bush & from branch to branch, some even ended up tussling on the ground.

We both enjoyed the visit although I think we’ve been spoilt a little by visiting so many other sanctuaries that aren’t quite so commercialized & involve avaried birds albeit for a good purpose. The kaka were the highlight for me & I was thrilled to see Manakura & the kiwi chick being fed. Hopefully somewhere down south, either Stewart Island or on the West Coast we will see a kiwi in the wild.

Wind Farm & the Wairarapa

We didn’t leave last night’s spot by the Manawatu River until early afternoon, we woke to a rather cold & bleak day after yesterday’s brilliant blue sky and warm sun. The cloud hung low on the range above us and the drizzle came and went in fits & starts.  We took our time in getting ready as we knew we only had about 60kms to travel today. David went for another fish until the drizzle became persistent & we were a little worried we might not get good traction in the long grass pulling away from the river bank so we headed off just after lunch, lunch being the time of the day not the meal we should have eaten. As it was we didn’t have any lunch today, we kept saying we’d stop at the next rest area but it didn’t happen & before we knew it, it was late afternoon and then we were thinking about where we were going to stop for the night. Once again we had a couple of places in mind and once again they turned to custard.  

But before we headed south on SH2 we took a small detour up to the top of the Saddle Road, an alternative route over the range to Ashurst & Palmerston North, to visit the Te Apiti Wind Farm lookout. From our camp site down by the river we were overlooked by 3 turbines a little further up the valley & just the blades of another one right above us at the river.

What an impressive sight they were as we wound our way up the Saddle and once at the lookout it was quite a surreal getting out of the ute beneath one of the huge monolithic turbines and hearing the deep “whoop, whoop” of the blades going round. And as if to prove the point that they are in the right spot, a bitterly cold & ferocious wind was whipping across the ridge. All around us marching across the rolling hills were dozens of turbines. 

Meridians’s 55 Te Apiti turbines are on this side of the gorge and cover 12 square kms with another 134 turbines belonging to Trustpower stretching off into the distance southwards, those cover a staggering 700 hectares of land.  The turbines are 70 metres high and each of their 3 blades is 35 metres in length. It was a pity that we didn’t have a nice sunny day & blue sky to view them but we’re fast learning you have to take each day as it comes and make the most of it as we never know when we’ll be back this way.

Further south & well on the way to our next overnight stop there was one stop we had to do for the obligatory photo,  the "World Famous in New Zealand" Tui Brewery at Mangatainoka.

And it wasn't, we drove straight on by.

Blink & you'll miss it. Eketahuna that is. From the far reaches of my memory I recall this was a standing joke that as children we told each other even though my family would have only passed through the tiny country settlement once or twice during our childhood.

And here we are in Eketahuna where we are staying for the next two nights, in a quiet grassy & tree lined District Council campground down by the river. $6 per person per night unpowered, find yourself a site & the manager will be around in due course, he lives off-site. We’ve tucked ourselves into a small grassy alcove with tall trees cocooning us on three sides and a winding mown track through the bush behind that leads down to a rough path along the river bank.

We seem to have the habit of picking secluded spots under or near trees and forgetting that we need a clear view north if we're wanting the satellite dish to pick up TV for us. We decided we could do without it tonight and will move the van around the corner tomorrow.

The bird song is amazing & tonight David took his head torch out looking for birds & found instead, just 10 metres or so down the track, a large possum with her joey riding on her back. Next time I will have to take my camera with me as they did look in spectacular condition and stayed still in the light for quite some time. What a pity they are such pests. 

We are here because our “Bible”, the NZMCA travel directory which as members we have access to, has put us crook once again. The directory lists over 6000 overnight camp sites (& dump stations) up & down the length & breadth of New Zealand and we had selected a couple to check out near Mt Bruce Wildlife Centre, which we are going to be visiting on Sunday. And in fact one of the sites was at Mt Bruce itself but as I soon found out, when I called ahead, the directory wasn’t correct. There definitely was no staying in their back yard! The lady I spoke to suggested we could stay in the ANZAC Bridge reserve just up the road but when we got there we found that it was just a small pull off area behind the trees & with no room for a rather large fifth-wheeler!

 The ANZAC Bridge was built in 1922 by a local resident Alfred Falkner as a memorial to the local people who served in WW1, and also because there was a real need for a bridge at this spot, as fording the Makakahi River could be dangerous after rain. In 1956 a new bridge was built but thanks to local appeals the Anzac Bridge was preserved as a memorial and it's where ANZAC services for the district are held here every April 25th, ANZAC Day.  

There was also another place listed with coordinates about 10kms from Mt Bruce and towards the coast. We thought as we were nearby we might as well check that out so off we drove through narrow country roads until we turned into a metal road with the final destination a couple hundred metres along & what looked like a nice grassy patch inside a small fenced pine plantation. 

Hmmm…..the gate was securely locked and although it didn’t look like part of a farm there was no way in and no way for us to turn around so we continued on until we found a gateway & did a U turn (so manoeuvrable is this fifth wheeler) and decided we’d had enough of traipsing all over the countryside and headed back up the road to Eketahuna & the campground we’re now parked at!

Although we arrived here to be confronted by a few dozen teens in and around the ablution block & out playing ball on the grass along with a few caravans & tents dotted down the far end of the camp. While checking out the rates in the kitchen one of them informed David that they were here to celebrate two birthdays. Oh-oh…a noisy night ahead. When the manager arrived later to collect the fees he informed us that he was staying in one of the cabins to keep an eye on them & that they had been here a couple of years ago celebrating the same birthdays and had been very well behaved. In fact we hardly heard them. That was until a thundering haka rung out at some stage late into the night followed by the loudest firework display I have ever heard. This morning is was all quiet on the Western Front when we left for the wildlife centre at 10am and they were gone by the time we got back later in the afternoon.

The remains of an old swingbridge just behind our campsite