We heard a kiwi!

An addition to the Optimist’s Week
We heard an unfamiliar noise the night we stayed at the campground in Northland where we met the American Ultimate players the first night we had our new car Sandy. It was a series of ascending, rapid notes that repeated a few times. We thought it might have been a kiwi but just filed it away in our heads until we could check.

On Friday we visited Opossum World, a shop in Napier devoted to all things made from possum fur and skin. They had an exhibit with native bird sounds to demonstrate what the night time forest should really sound like, instead of the just the sound of possums screaming and eating all of the native plants. Matt asked me to pick which sound we heard a few weeks ago without seeing the labels, and it was definitely a kiwi!

We haven’t seen a kiwi yet on our trip and this was the only time we’ve heard one. Matt is holding out to see one in the wild, but we might just have to see one in captivity. I saw one at a zoo (Brookfield Zoo?) as a kid but that was ages ago. We’ll keep looking.

Carrie