Jurrasic park?? no a Kiwi Sanctuary mountain.

The sailing season had a bit of a delayed start, so we had another free weekend. Shona had been invited up to the Auckland Literary Festival but what with sorting dentists and expensive options for tooth repair she never got it organised to go!

So we had two lovely walking days. The first was to Sanctuary Mountain in the Waikato where there is the Maungatautari Restoration Project, it they have put a Jurassic Park style fence around a whole mountain to eradicate pests and allow native birds including the Kiwi, Kaka and Korako to thrive.
Sancturary Mountain  . We did see a Kaka but otherwise it was very dense bush and quite cold and damp! I'd like to go back sometime though as this is the only place in NZ where you can actually help in the monitoring of the Kiwis and may even get to hold one of these amazing birds.

On the way to the mountain we visited a pretty spectacular rope bridge to a 1924 Hydro Dam which is still operating - 80 years on! The bridge was built for workers to get to the station from Arapuni village. Arapuni_Power_Station