Kiwi encounter

Having been told that I would never see a kiwi in the wild, I went to the Wellington Zoo yesterday to ensure that I would encounter these handsome creatures. Kiwis are nocturnal, so they are kept in a special "twilight" enclosure, which is completely dark except some eerie red lights. I managed to see the kiwis foraging for insects and bouncing around in the enclosure like wallabies, although it was apparent that they were sensitive to the noise of crying babies. Then I watched a zookeeper feeding Tahi, a kiwi who had lost one leg in a varmint trap at the edge of a farm. My camera performed even worse in the twilight than my eyes did:

But here's what a kiwi actually looks like:

This has to be one of the cutest animals ever! Kiwi feathers don't interlock like most bird feathers do, so they're actually kind of furry! Adorably, they have whiskers like cats so they can feel around at night. Also, their nostrils are all the way at the end of their beak, which is highly unusual for a bird. The zookeeper said that bird beak length is usually measured from the nostrils to the tip of the beak, so technically kiwis have the shortest beaks in the world. And they have incredibly tiny, basically vestigial, wings that we can't really see when we look at them.

After I saw the kiwis, I went to as many animal talks as I could. I ended up seeing the zookeepers feed and check up on the kakas (local parrots, which are mostly dark brown), the Sumatran tigers, the sun bears, and the Australian pelican. The sun bears were really fun:

I also got to see the vets doing surgery on a bird's feet. The Wellington Zoo has a great bird breeding and rehab program, which makes sense because NZ was once an island where birds were the only wildlife. 

For today's cuisine I have chosen some candy:

When I was at a cafe earlier this week, I saw that they had a gelato flavor called "hokey pokey". I had no idea what that could be, so when I saw a bag of hokey pokey at the convenience store, I had to get it. I think it's supposed to be a NZ thing, but it is almost identical to a confection from Western New York: sponge candy. This candy is basically a super-light, airy toffee (almost like a crunchy cotton candy), covered in chocolate. It tastes a little bit buttery and melts in your mouth. While it shares some similarities with malt balls, it is a thousand times more appealing than malt balls. Yet another thumbs up to the Kiwis.