Good Friday - Kaori Wildlife Sanctuary

Yesterday Rich and I decided to head up to the Kaori Wildlife Sanctuary - whilst walking up there we were kinda wondering whether we should go or not because we thought it might be super packed being Easter and the start of school holidays as well - but thankfully it wasn't too busy and I'm really glad we went along:) During the course of our walks I got to see HEAPS of Tui's - some of them were HUGE as well, a stitchbird, some other random little bird I didn't recognise (with a bit of a shrill call) and also - most exciting of all - a Tuatara! The Tuatara's are in their natural habitat behind a wee fence so you get to see them "in nature" - I was quite surprised how unfazed there were at having so many people stare at them and take photo's of them.

Anyways - here's a few photo's that Rich and I took when we were at the sanctuary.

Ok - you may be asking WTF is going on here? Well at the Santuary they have an "exploration centre" which is essentially a big A-Frame struture (it's a veiwing platform) which you can walk to the top of and have a view of the park - this is a view from part way up the structure looking straight up - it's my one crazy arty shot of the day.
Photo of Rich and I taken from the "exploration centre" AKA Viewing platform
View of the Sanctuary from the viewing platform - I really like this picture - everything is SO green
In the wildlife sanctuary there is an old damn and this photo of Rich and I is taken from the top of the dam - as you can tell it's quite windy there!
Another photo of me standing on the dam
Rich checking out the park on the binoculars at the top of the dam - I had a bit of a look with them as well - but I actually found the view to be kinda boring - the only water foul I could see were boring old mallards

Just another photo of my lovely self by the dam
View going down to the wetlands in the park - I was a bit disappointed by this though - lots of Mallards and no Pukeko! But I did see a Weka hanging around here.