The GCW Tour, Sydney & New Zealand: More Birds

Since I posted some pictures of Australian birds, I thought I should post a few from New Zealand, especially since they have some pretty cool birds.

The most obvious, of course, is the kiwi...

Admittedly, I did not take that picture of the kiwi. I stole it off Google. It's pretty much impossible to catch a picture of wild kiwi without going all the way to Stewart Island, though we did see two of them in a Kiwi conservancy in Hokitika. Unfortunately, you weren't allowed to take pictures. Although even if photography had been permitted, the pictures would've looked less like the above and more like this...

The kiwi, you see, is nocturnal so the pens were lit with very low red lights to mimic night. Cute little guys, though. 

Next up, the weka. This is a weka...

The weka is another flightless bird that the sign said was endangered, but we saw them all over the place at the pancake rocks. I can sort of see why they might be endangered, though, as they weren't terrible cautious creatures. People and dogs everywhere, and the birds are just wandering along the paths. Not quite as unique as the kiwi -- can't beat that nose -- but still notable.

And last, the Abel Tasman National Park was crawling with these weird black birds with red beaks and blue chests. Google tells me it's called a pukeko. 

And since my picture sucks pretty bad, here's one from Google...

Again, no kiwi, but still pretty snazzy as far as birds go. 

Unfortunately, despite the signs, we never caught site of a Little Blue Penguin.