Visit New Zealand

- By Diana Tijoriwalla

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• About New Zealand
• Primary Schools
• Rotorua, the Volcanic City
• Kiwi Speak
• White Island Volcano
• National Bird
• Fruits & Vegetables
• The Sky Tower
• Driving in New Zealand
• Flora & Fauna
• Tranz Metro
• Underwater Aquarium
• The Waitomo Caves
• Traffic Regulations

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National Bird

The kiwi has no wings & cannot fly. It stays awake all night long & sleeps the whole day through. It is seen only in NZ & that too mostly inside a zoo. It has floppy feathers hanging down to its toes. It has a very long beak that can sniff like your nose. It can fight a fierce fight with its feet, knocking down any bird of its size. It has bristly whiskers just like a cat & little pink ears . It wobbles from side to side when it runs & can lay big eggs! It does not make its nest in trees, but lives in tunnels, underground.
With no real wings, no tail, & a very long bill with nostrils at the tip, the kiwi is quite unlike any other bird alive today.
Many people think that kiwi are gentle, slow-moving, half- blind birds that defend themselves with their beaks. In fact, they use their razor sharp claws as weapons. They can also run fast when they need to, shooting through the underground like a bullet. They miss all the obstacles, so it is clear that they can see very well in the dark. Rather than fight with their very long beaks, they use them for sniffing out food. Kiwi is while liking earthworms, spiders, fallen fruits & seeds, beetle larvae & cicadas, also sometimes eat animals as large as freshwater crayfish & even frogs. We are 4!

There are 4 species of kiwi: the brown kiwi, the tokoeka, the great spotted kiwi & the very rare little spotted kiwi. The little spotted kiwi is the smallest of the four. Take Care!

Stoats, dogs & wild cats all attack & eat kiwi .It is particularly important that dogs are not allowed to run loose where kiwi live.
This is where you can help: Please spread the word.
Kiwi Trivia

Keee-Weee

Have you ever heard of a bird so absurd, with a name the same as the sound that it makes? Keee-Weee! Yes, a Kiwi.
Egg-Fact!

Kiwis' eggs are so huge that it is hard to imagine how they could have fitted inside the mother bird! Kiwis are about the same size as chickens, but their eggs are almost as big as those of ostriches!
Finger-Tip!

If you look beneath a kiwi’s feathers where you would expect to find its wings, you’ll find instead a stubby pink ‘finger’ with a claw on the end of it.

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