Melissa Nightingale spent a night at Ngā Manu Nature Reserve in Waikanae where guests can interact with native wildlife. Photo / Ngā Manu
Melissa Nightingale spent a night at Ngā Manu Nature Reserve in Waikanae where guests can interact with native wildlife. Photo / Ngā Manu
Melissa Nightingale spends a night at Ngā Manu Nature Reserve in Waikanae, joining in encounters with native wildlife including a special night visit with kiwi
I have made a new friend, and he has little respect for personal space.
While I’m trying to listen to senior ranger Bosun Henderson Batty tell me about our native wildlife, my new friend is rubbing his beak on my face and climbing on my head like it’s a piece of playground equipment.
I’m meeting native birds at Ngā Manu Nature Reserve in Waikanae, one of several encounters offered at this Kāpiti Coast tourism spot.
Bosun has brought me into the aviary where a vision-impaired kererū lives peacefully with some kākāriki and a pair of kākā - one of whom has wasted little time landing on my shoulder to smell my hair, something he is fond of doing with visitors, the ranger says.
Melissa Nightingale gets up close and personal with a kākā. Photo / Melissa Nightingale
This is just one stop in our tour, which ends in the kea aviary, where mum, dad, and baby have been spending some quality time away from the general public.
The kea, said to have the intelligence of a 4-year-old human, are curious and not particularly shy, walking up close to inspect me. They don’t go so far as my friend the kākā; my hair remains unsniffed.
Time with the birds is a great way for visitors to start a trip to Ngā Manu, and it’s even better if combined with several other encounters available at the reserve.
Like me, they could also poke their nose in at the tuna (eel) feeding, where some lucky guests can hold a feeding stick over the writhing jumble of slithery bodies in the water and watch as the eels blindly try to snatch their lunch.
Bosun explains how the longfin tuna, endemic to New Zealand, amazingly travel all the way to Tonga along the sea floor to lay their eggs before they die.
The currents bring the fertilised eggs back to New Zealand, which is the sole reason this species of eel is found here and nowhere else in the world.
Guests can join in an eel feeding session at the reserve. Photo / Melissa Nightingale
I have a go dangling some meat over the feeding pond, impressed by their strong bodies as they yank on the end of the stick.
From there I stroll around the grounds, visiting the nocturnal enclosure, the aviaries, and peering at geckos and tuatara as they relax in the warmth.
Ngā Manu has beautiful bush-filled walkways around the reserve, including a roughly 40-minute loop walk. The wide, mostly flat paths make for an easy stroll, and there are numerous spacious benches throughout for those who want to sit and soak in the birdsong.
Unlike the rest of the guests on the reserve that day, when the gates close at night I’ll still be here, staying at a tiny cottage on the pond’s edge.
Theo’s Cottage is available for booking for anyone keen to enjoy a quiet night totally alone with nature.
The cosy cabin is small but has everything you need, including a kitchenette, laundry and bathroom, and a selection of local snacks and breakfast items.
Guests can book Theo's Cottage at Ngā Manu Nature Reserve in Waikanae and spend the night totally alone on the reserve. Photo / Ngā Manu
I spend an hour or so relaxing in the accommodation as activity winds down around the reserve, and soon it’s time to get ready for my third experience - the night-time kiwi encounter.
A group of about eight guests gather in the reserve’s gift shop as dusk falls, listening to the knowledgeable volunteer guides explain the different types of kiwi and the dangers they face today.
Once it’s dark enough outside, the group heads quietly out to the kiwi enclosure, which is lit with dark red lamps that aren’t strong enough to disturb the kiwi.
We speak in the softest of whispers as the kiwi snuffle around in the dirt, sometimes just a few metres away.
A pair of solemn ruru also share this enclosure. We almost don’t notice one perched motionlessly on a nearby post, watching us watch the kiwi.
Our guide uses a pair of tongs to place some food on another post for the ruru, and with a near-silent flutter of wings, the food disappears the moment the tongs release it.
Guests can book encounters with kiwi at Ngā Manu Nature Reserve. File photo / Ngā Manu
There is tiered seating in the back, or gardening pads in the front for guests to kneel right at the low barrier of the enclosure. I perch at the front and watch, mesmerised, as the male kiwi rustles to the fore, digging his long beak under logs and dirt, seemingly unaware of the breathless audience watching his every move.
