TALES FROM THE BUSH
Brief encounter
A long hike and a quick peek at a brown kiwi
STEWART ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND
“THERE WAS NO MISTAKING IT. A distant, sharply inflected, screaming ‘woo-eee’ penetrated the gloom as the flames from a couple of candles flickered, and shadows danced about the inside of the remote hut where I sat with my companion. It could have been a scene from a horror film.
Two days it had taken me to walk through undulating forest and scrub to this spot, and we were still half a day’s walk from our destination of Mason Bay. I was muddied, exhausted, scratched and bitten, but a rest and a meal of instant noodles and mussels picked from some nearby rocks had revived me somewhat.
I was on a mission. A backpacking gap year had taken me to the wilds of Stewart Island, New Zealand, and my self-imposed job here was to see a brown kiwi. Not in the zoo, but in its true wilderness home.
Leaving my companion, I followed the direction of the sound, walking ever more slowly, my eyes darting left and right, ears straining to pick up the slightest noise. After 2km or so I sensed I was close. I was almost tiptoeing now, stopping every few paces. Was that a rustle in the undergrowth ahead? I couldn’t be sure. I crept nearer.
A shape like a large chicken materialised on the path ahead and my raised binoculars transformed it into a plump, shaggy looking long-billed avian form with powerfullooking legs and an air of absent-minded preoccupation. I edged closer, reaching for my camera. This was 1999 and my shoestring budget had me hitching to every destination and taking pictures with a succession of £5 disposable film cameras (remember them?). I’d have to get pretty close for a shot!
The next instant it spotted me and was running off through the bush, its plump body, outstretched neck and great feet creating proportions that lent an air of comedy to the moment as I lamely fired the flash, then sat back to reflect on this momentous encounter.
It was another five days before I returned to civilisation (and seven months before I had the film developed), having covered about 100km on foot, walking up to 9 hours a day, and limping the final stretch in boots that had split at the front and dug painfully into my toe. I never saw another kiwi, but it had been worth every step!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Hanlon is a freelance ecological field surveyor, author and natural history writer who lives in South Cambridgeshire with his family.
You can find him on Twitter @jahanlon2.
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