Kiwi country and railcars

We left the Wai-O-Tapu that day and headed to Rainbow Springs for the Kiwi Behind the Scenes tour. 

We just chose to do the Kiwi encounter rather than the whole wildlife thing.  There were only three of us on the tour.  That, in itself, was a great treat.

The tour was wonderful, with our tour guide having an incredible amount of knowledge on these interesting birds.  The ones at Rainbow Springs are Brown Kiwis, although there are four others, including Great Spotted, Little Spotted, Rowi and Tokoeka (with some subspecies).  Of the Rowi and one species of Tokoeka there are only about 100 adults left, so conservation efforts are imperative.  Luckily there are a number of places in New Zealand that have programs such as this one to help expand their numbers. 

We weren’t allowed to take photos so that was a bummer, but totally understandable.  We were excited anyhow.

Their feathers are shaggy, like coarse hair, and they are the only bird to have nostrils at the tip of their bills.

The guide took us to see some in their nocturnal setting as that is how they live, rooting around at night with those long beaks in the dirt and roots looking for bugs.  They were bigger than I expected, with fluffy brown feathers.  Those feathers, at one time, were used for a number of things, including ceremonial accessories. 

We went into where they weigh and measure the eggs they have daily.  That was pretty cool as the eggs are way bigger than expected.  In fact, the Kiwi is one bird that lays one of the biggest eggs in proportion to its body weight.

So far 118 Kiwi chicks have hatched this season, and there have been a total of 1,623 chicks released into the wild.  Chicks hatch fully feathered although it takes 3-5 years for them to reach adult size.  About 50 percent of Kiwi eggs fail to hatch.  Of those that do hatch, about 90 percent of them are dead within six months.  About 70 percent of those are killed by stoats and cats.  About 5 percent reach adulthood. 

Kiwis are under extreme danger from everything so Rainbow Springs gathers their eggs in the wild, incubates and hatches them and returns the chicks to where the eggs were laid, by six months of age.  Long ago, stoats, kind of like ferrets, were brought in to eradicate the plague of rabbits and other rodents that the New Zealand people wanted to be rid of.  Mistake.  They, and a couple other species like them, have nearly taken out all of the Kiwis.  In fact, they are the Number One killer of young kiwi.

In 1995, Rainbow Springs received its first Kiwi egg from the Department of Conservation.  Kiwi Encounter opened in 2004 as the only specialist incubation facility in the country.  About 120 chicks are hatched yearly.

The Kiwi is also in danger from cats, dogs, ferrets, pigs, possums and others due to their strong scent that makes it easy for them to be found.  But I certainly see the impact that places like Rainbow Springs is having as they release a number of chicks all the time.  The chicks are chipped so they can track them.  It’s an incredibly interesting program and this was worth seeing and learning about.

On Friday, March 17, we headed out.  We were on our way to Waitomo to see the glow worms, but found a couple of other stops we had to make.  One of those was a self-driving railcar cruise.  What fun.  It starts at an old railway station at Mamaku, near Rotorua where we’d been staying. 

The Rotorua Railroad was planned in 1877 to bring tourists to see the pink and white terraces, considered the eighth wonder of the world.  Before the railroad was completed, in 1886 Mt. Tarawera erupted burying the terraces.  The railway was finally completed into Rotorua in 1894. 

The Mamaku Railway Station. 

The railway eventually became unused and sat neglected and overgrown for 13 years until 2014.  The people who own and operate the railcars worked to whack bushes and rebuild rails, putting in new ties where needed.  They made it a railway again.

There was a lot of sweat, blood and I'm sure a few a few tears rebuilding some of this line.

It's a pretty area, but not much around it.

The other step in this process was to build a self-driving railcar that would maneuver the rails.  The current one is the third type built and used, each one being better and more modern. 

The cars are parked in vans and brought out on a track and then moved to the station.

They operate on a computer system that can automatically slow you down and speed you up, and has an anti-collision system so you don’t run into the car ahead of you.

They move them forward, turn them around on a turntable track and back them in by the side of the station. 

We got in and off we went.  Each car is maybe a quarter of a mile ahead of the one behind it. 

I was operating the handbrake.  Look out!!!  The railcruiser is fully automated.  It's a state of the art petrol-electric, four-seat self-drive hybrid rail vehicle.  It is also outfitted with waterproof sides, windscreen wipers and comes with onboard heating.  It doesn't get much better than that.  It was a bit cool to start but warmed as we rolled on down the tracks. 

We rolled through some beautiful farmland in the Dansey Native Forest and saw lots of sheep.  The fence lines were cool, and I happen to like the lines as they go here and there.

Cruising along at 20 kph, we rode through pastures with sheep and cows and rock walls on either side of us.  We listened to a some New Zealand rail history and enjoyed the scenery. 

We even went under a couple of car bridges.

We turned around at Tarukenga Station, that isn't much.  It had an aluminum and some pretty fancy chickens.

We crossed a couple of little roads where we had to be slowed down.   We had to be sure to have our hands on the handbrake just in case.  We also made sure to use the horn to let everyone know we were coming.  Perhaps we were a bit heavy-handed on the horn.

And then, the clickety clack of our railcar stopped.  We were done.  It was great fun, and something we hadn't expected to find.  You never know what you'll find when you pick up a travel brochure.

Back on the road, but now, I'm tired and done for the night.  More later.