Story 83 Kiwi Survey.

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            Hi to all our friends in India. It is Lizamoa here.  

            We hope all on the Indian Team are well as our trip is now coming up so fast. Here in New Zealand, we are all doing well too. Like you, we are all looking forward to the resort on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and also we are looking forward to meeting old friends again and getting to know some new ones too.

            I have met Mootie and Hansini only two times but I do not know Mega and Brian at all. And yes, I have met Katrina only once as well. Sorry Katrina for my teasing about you in one of my early letters. I was really meaning it at Mike rather than you. I hope you were not taking any offence about that. But you must agree my teasing started another sexy adventure, and exciting too. Well, it turned out to be exciting for me anyway. (See Letter 56)

            In our last letters, (See Letter 79)  we told you about our first camping story and about playing nude games (See Letter 81). Well as Peter would say, life is not all just nooky. There are other things as well. So this story is not a nooky story it is about other things story. 

            Joseph, my husband, set up this very unusual adventure for us. He told us that the park wanted to do a survey, a try to estimate how dense the kiwi population was within the park. This will give them an idea if the kiwi releases, made a number of years ago, had been successful. A survey was to be done by going into the bush late at night, and listening for kiwi calls and then carefully plotting them on a map.

            He told us that it could get cold in the bush at night so in spite of it being summer, we should take something warm to wear. Of course, we should also wear good strong shoes to protect our feet as well.

            We arrived at the park centre at about 8:30 pm. The head ranger gave us a short talk on what we would be doing and then we were divided into teams of two, a park ranger and one of us untrained assistants. We then all got into a couple of park vans to travel to where our bush walk would start.

            Once we arrived at the car park, we were each given a small torch, a clipboard and a compass. Each ranger, who we were paired with, carried a larger torch. We then got into the order in which we would be dropped off ready to begin our trip into the bush. 
             I walked behind the ranger who was selected for me. He wore tight shorts and had a sexy bum.  Oops! I'm getting distracted here, aren't I? 

            After walking for about an hour along this bush track we came to the first of the listening sites they had marked out for us. As we reached each site, we dropped a pair off. Those who were dropped off first had less to walk but of course, they had a longer wait.

            When we came to our site, we stopped, setting up small chairs to sit on. Jeff the park ranger I was helping told me we had to wait until everyone had reached their listening station and then allow time for the kiwis to settle down because they may have heard us moving along the track. During that time, we had a hot drink while we listened for kiwi calls so I could get used to what they sounded like. We did hear a few and tried to measure where they came from. Jeff got me to note them on the back of my sheet.

            At 10:30 we began our one hour survey. When we heard the first call, we had to record the exact time, the compass direction from us and guess at how far away it might be. So as not to disturb any kiwi nearby we only used our very low small torch and kept our talking very low as well. During the next hour, we heard what we thought might be eight or nine different birds. Some appeared to make a lot of calls and others hardly any. One seems very close to us. Jeff suggested he might have been, only meters away within the thick bush. I would have liked to have seen him. 

            Once 11:30 was reached, the survey was over and we then had to wait until the others who went further came back to us. During that time I made some more notes on the back about calls we heard. We then picked up the other teams as we went we made our way back to the vans. Once we were all in the vans, the Rangers began comparing their results. It appeared that the further they were into the bush the better results they got which is sort of what might be expected.

            When we arrived back at the park centre, they invited us in for another hot drink. Someone produced a map and they began to plot the results on the map. This became interesting and we stayed much later than we intended. It seems often a call was heard by two or even three teams and in this way, they were able to create a map of where each different bird was located along the track. Of course, this was only a rough result because they would have to go over it carefully later but it gave us an estimated 22 separate birds were in the area that night.  

            On the way home, Joseph told us that there could be more or less than this because even during the space of an hour the birds could move around quite a lot and not all birds make calls either. But he seemed to think that the result was very positive. I was thinking that we should have heard a lot more but then I suppose kiwis are not that common in the wild since they are New Zealand’s protected bird. Anyway, it was fun to do instead of sitting around the camp.            

            Peter said, “Well if we had stayed behind, what would we have been doing anyway?”

            “Only something boring like nooky,” answered Steve.

            “Don’t you two think of anything else?” asked Jenny.

            “What is there something else?” asked Peter acting surprised.

            “Oh, you two are impossible.”

            Which brought a laugh from all of us.

            By the time we drove back to the camp it was very late before we finally got to bed and of course, no body wanted to get up early, that is except for the kids. They all seemed to want to have us up extra early that morning.

            Never mind it was fun and I personally learnt more about some of the things my husband does in his job with the Forest Park. I have heard him talk about it but now I understand a bit better what it is like.

            I told him, “I think you have a very interesting job you are doing.”

            “Yes, it is. When I came to New Zealand where there are no big animals I thought there would not be so much to do but this is not what it is like.”

            “Are you happy we came to New Zealand, Joseph?” I asked him.

            “Yes Lizamoa, I am very happy. New Zealand is a good place. I miss some things in India but I think we made the right choice.”

            “I am glad you are happy,” I told him. “It was better we came here.”

            “Especially for our children.”

            “Yes, I think so too.”

            Then he told me that there is a possible job coming up at the Park Centre. It was partly office and partly dealing with the public in the Centre.

            So that is all for this letter. I believe we may be able to fit in one more letter before it is time for our trip to Australia to begin.

            So Bye for now

                        Form us all in the New Zealand Team.

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