I am now in Wellington, New Zealand. I've been here nearly a week now. I'm in an actual house and have a comfortable bed in a room of my own. I've been catching up on sleep after being very busy for the past six weeks or so. I've also had various tasks to do like going to the opticians, opening a bank account and registering with a doctor. I am now waiting for a debit card to come in the post and a call telling me my new glasses are ready so I think I will wait until I have both those things before I set off on any further travels. It's been fun explaining to people that although my accent doesn't fit and I've just arrived here, I am a New Zealand citizen and have the right to live, work and access medical care here.

I've been to the Zealandia eco sanctuary twice, once during the daytime and then last night I went on a night tour. Zealandia is a sanctuary in a valley with a predator-proof fence around it, which aims to reproduce the conditions of pre-human New Zealand, where there were no land mammals (except bats) and the birds ruled. Sadly some of the bird species have become extinct due to a combination of predatory introduced mammals (ferrets, cats, dogs, rabbits, rats, mice, stoats and possums), hunting and habitat loss. The flightless and ground nesting birds didn't have a chance. The reserve is having a big impact on the locally and nationally rare birds, with tuis and kakas being common in Wellington now. Tuis are about the size of blackbirds and look black at first but closer examination shows they have shiny blue on their backs. They have distinctive white dangly bits on their throats (don't know the technical term) and a wide range of songs and calls. Kakas are large brown parrots. The reserve has also been successful in breeding kiwis and tuataras. Tuataras are ancient reptiles from the time of the dinosaurs that look like lizards with spines on but apparently belong to their own separate species group. I'd never seen them outside of captivity before. They're not free to leave the sanctuary, but within the sanctuary they are living wild lives. I saw a number of tuataras, including some young ones. I discovered a new bird species I'd never heard of, called takahes. They're a fairly large flightless bird that can weigh up to 4kgs and they look like a giant pukeko (a pukeko is similar to a moorhen) with a huge beak. They're very rare and were thought to be extinct until 1948.

Last night I turned up as it was getting dark I turned up at the sanctuary and with a group of about 10 other people and two guides, we went in search of creatures of the night. We got a good look at a morepork, which is a small native owl. We saw a big eel in a small stream. I find eels creepy but also interesting. We saw some of the daytime birds and the guides gave the takahes some food. We saw some nighttime ducks. We saw a lot of glowworms and I got an up close look at the threads they produce and use to trap small insects. But what everyone really wanted to see was a kiwi. The guides pointed out the sounds of the male kiwis calling - they have a higher pitched call than the females. We saw a burrow where kiwis live. But we were headed to the exit and about to give up before one of the guides spotted a kiwi up on a bank. They are quite noisy as they forage and they aren't particularly scared of people. We saw two on the bank wandering around and then they moved away. Then as we were nearly back at the visitor centre, one of the guides radio'd in saying she'd found another kiwi and we were asked if we wanted to go back or not. Nobody said anything, we all just started walking back along the path. We caught sight of the kiwi, then it disappeared and then somebody pointed out that it was out in the open on the path right behind us. It shuffled around and went to investigate one member of the group's feet. They look furry rather than feathered and their beaks look ridiculously long. It was a really exciting encounter, seeing wild kiwis for the first time.

Today I went to the botanic gardens here and saw fantails. One of their calls sounds like a dog toy squeaking so it was hard not to giggle. At the duck pond they provide free maize to feed the ducks with so I fed the eager little quackers.

There will be no photos of kiwis because it was dark, it was under cover of trees, they were moving around, they are dark coloured and I lack the cameras and skills necessary to capture photos in those conditions without flash so I didn't try and just enjoyed my time with them.