Today we had a beautiful day on the offshore Kapiti Island, a protected nature reserve owned by the local Maori tribe about 3 miles off the mainland. There are no predators whatsoever on the island - rats, mice, possums etc. Although a stoat somehow got onto the island recently, goodness knows how, but it was trapped. Fortunately, it was a male. Had it been a pregnant female it could have been catastrophic.
http://www.kapiti.org.nz/kapiti.html
Access to the island is very limited, only 18 people per day are permitted to the north end of the island that we went to. Lynne, Terry's niece, came with us and we set off on a small boat from the beach at Paraparaumu. There is no landing stage there so the boat was towed onto the beach by a very large tractor. We had to have our bags searched to check we were not inadvertently carrying a rodent.
The day dawned disappointingly cloudy and drizzly, but fortunately it cleared up to be a lovely sunny day with unbroken blue sky. The crossing only took about 15 minutes, and we disembarked onto a beach.
After an introductory talk by a local Maori resident we set off on a 2 hour nature trail. We climbed up to one of the peaks, not the highest on the island although in the hot sun it felt like it.
We had our picnic lunch at the top, accompanied by an ever hopeful Weka. They are known to take food out of picnic bags. We had to be very careful as the feeding of birds on the island is strictly prohibited.
The whole day was very scenic, beautiful views both over the unspoilt island and across the Otaheke Straight to the mainland.
The walk down seemed almost as arduous as the way up. We took a slight detour at the bottom to go to the area around the Okupe Lagoon which is very popular with water fowl. There is no fresh water inlet to it so it was a bit brackish and somewhat smelly, but that didn't bother the birds!
We arrived back at the beach about an hour before the boat was due to depart so we went to a local house that served tea and scones - very welcome. There were lots of Kaka's there (a brown New Zealand parrot) who would take the food out of your mouth if you weren't careful! Again, bird feeding is not allowed - I wished someone would tell the birds.
We were also very fortunate as we saw the very rare Takahe. This lovely bird (which looks a bit like a blue chicken and about the same size) was thought to be extinct until a few were found in the late 1940's. There are now 14 on the island with others in protected areas on the mainland. We saw a mother and daughter:
On arrival back at Paraparaumu the boat was towed out of the sea by the same huge tractor, over the beach and right into the car park. Very novel.
All in all, a lovely but tiring day. Takeaway was on the menu for our evening meal!
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