The day started off beautifully yesterday, the scatter of white cloud in the bright blue sky was an awesome sight from our sofa. As always the need to get out and enjoy it was high on our list. So we decided to head for the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary.
252 hectares of native forest, located only 2km from Wellington City Centre, is hidden in a secret valley filled with the songs of rare, native birds. Karori Wildlife Sanctuary reminds us of our past mistakes in handling our precious environment and gives us hope for the future. We were excited to see what the trees and plants would be like in the winter season.
As we arrived at the Sanctuary the sun was just slightly peaking over the valley hillside. We headed through the main gates where you are greeted by the obligatory self check area, where you must check your bags for any pests that may be on board...for a while I used to wonder how anyone could possible not know there was a mouse in their bag, but with our recent mouse drama here I can now understand why!! We had a lovely stroll to the Valve Tower, it features intricate machinery used in the reservoir era. Bethany loves to look down the water hatch to the well at the bottom.
We continued our gorgeous walk along through Birdsong Gully, passing Weta Hotels and birdcams. At the Weka Fence we were greeted for the first time by an actual Weka. This is the first time we have seen this wonderful bird and such a treat to see it close up. One of the passing tour guides said all of the birds at the Sanctuary had become very friendly towards visitors lately! 
We then made our way up to the Historic Dam which looks down over the whole Sanctuary. Bethany loves to stack the foot stools and look through the huge binoculars, today Michael and his wisdom thought you may like to experience the wonder of the binoculars! 
After all the video excitement we then walked our way back through the lush greenery, and on the way another friendly bird flew down to say hello, a stunning bird called the Kaka. They are a parrot species which unfortunately are now endangered.
By the time we emerged from the forest the clouds had gathered and the rain was on its way, such a change from the start of the day. 
So we made our way back where Bethany, as always, no matter what the weather, enjoyed an ice-cream!
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