I've never been that close to a real live Kiwi before let alone have the privilege of patting this endangered species, so we were pretty lucky when the environmental team at my work organised for Sparky to come to the building last Thursday.
12 years ago Sparky was caught in a gin trap, and he lost a leg as a result of that. But luckily he was rescued, and he's been living at the Whangerei Native Bird Recovery Centre every since. He does the odd tour now and again up and down the country.
I invited Kien's daycare to bring along a few kids and share in the experience too.
Then we all got to pat Sparky.
They were not due back until the afternoon, so everyone sat in the courtyard and ate their packed lunch.
Kien was so glad to see Jef and I, and he didn't want to go back with the rest of the children. He cried and asked to stay - and this was one of those awful moments when I wished I could just bail from my job and spend the afternoon in the sun with my son. But alas, no, I went back upstairs and attended a project meeting instead. When I went to pick up Kien that evening he recounted the fact that he had to come back to daycare, but that was quickly followed by a story about the day we patted a Kiwi.
