Wandering around the Pan Pac Kiwi Creche

It’s World Environment Day today so to celebrate I thought it would be a great idea to get out into the bush.    I have been wanting to take a trip up to the Pan Pac Kiwi Creche for a few weeks now and it’s also another spot where Alex could collect a codeword for a Kiwi Guardian medal.    We arrived late morning and there was only one other family in the area, we had this beautiful spot basically to ourselves.   We decided to head around the lake, which is a suggested time of 30 minutes.  However, plan for 45-60 minutes if you have little ones like us.

The area is protected by a predator-proof fence and you will notice all the way around they have traps.   The kids looked in every single one of these traps, which were all free from predators!

 

Checking the traps to see if there are any stoats or rats.

 

This is a beautiful walk and you will see and hear Native Pigeons and Tui, different Fungi growing on trees, we looked for fish in the lake but could not see any.  In the summer this would be a great place to come for a Kayak or swim and you are allowed to fish here.

At the Southern end of the lake is a small dock which you can walk out onto.   There is a BBQ Table and a covered area you can sit in out of the weather.

On Tuesdays, volunteers work in the area with the Kiwi so we will definitely plan another trip up here to see if we can get up close to a Kiwi.

 

Kiwi Guardian Post.

 

The Kiwi Creche is a 40ha pest free area where kiwi chicks are taken from the wild to so they can grow up in the safe environment.  Once they are old enough they are then returned to the wild.   Although there are estimated to be 20,000 brown Kiwi in the North Island, they are now extinct south of Hawkes Bay.  95% of kiwi are killed by stoats and dogs, so it is really important that you don’t take your dogs out into our bush unless they are aversion trained which means Kiwi-trained.

There are plenty of other great walks around this area, Shine Falls, Boundary Stream and Bell Rock are all beautiful and not far from each other.   Plan a trip up to Tutira sometime soon it’s definitely worth the trip.

Becks 🙂