October 2010 Newsletter
The end of last month Robyn Sparky our Kiwi and Myself were invited to the World Flower Council Summit in Auckland, I was asked to be their guest speaker.   Each year it is held in a different country, this year it was New Zealand’s turn, our Hosts were Marlene and Garry Watts who used to live in Whangarei.  The Summit was held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel there were 13 different Countries represented. The highlight of the night was when I showed them Sparky the Kiwi, many of the visitors thought it was going to be a person dressed in a Kiwi suit and where shocked to see a real New Zealand Icon.

The next morning when we were booking out we were asked could we show Sparky again at the front desk, it sure made people stop in their tracks when they saw a real live Kiwi, one of the Hotel Staff thought Robyn and I were from the American Air force when he saw our patches on the shirts, I told him we have our F1 11’s parked at the Airport.  The night was very enjoyable and it was a good break for Robyn and me.
 
The North Island Kaka that we have had for the past 5 months is now free again thanks to the Department of Conservation who delivered him to the Hen and Chicks, I bet he will miss his feed of Pine Nuts that he just loved, I bet he didn’t know how much they cost, when I found out he liked them I filled a small plastic bag and when I got to the checkout the Girl said do you know how dear these are, just on $90.00 worth, I nearly had a fit so I brought them in small amounts each time which made it seem cheaper.  

We have also released our Giant Petrel, it was white with a few brown splotches over it, this was the first white phase one we have had at the Centre, and because it was rare to have one of these we put a band on it before it was released. 

The Female Kiwi that was sent to us has recovered and released back into the Wild, it was good to see her go as it’s the breeding season for Kiwi and we need all the female Kiwi we can get, its interesting how we get far more Males than Females, out of 50 Kiwi only two will be females.  Keep an eye on our web site as we have a Kiwi egg that’s getting close to hatching, we now have a new web site have a look at it, you can Email us on info@nbr.org.nz the site was built by E-Builders NZ Ltd, they have done a great job setting it up and suggested idea’s that we would never have thought about. 

Work on our new Surgery is underway and we should have it ready for use within the next few weeks, this will enable us to carry out work on the many Birds we receive each year with far better results.  Those people that have sent Donations to us for the new Surgery will see their name by the viewing window that looks into the room; we still need support for this project so let us know if you can help with funds.  

I would like to remind people that when the Museum has a live day it can be very hard for us to open all day, weekends are the only time Robyn and I get to work around our home, when most people have gone home for the day had tea and settle down to watch TV Robyn and I are still at the Centre doing the final clean on all the Birds which means we don’t get home until late. 

Robert and Robyn Webb