A day or two for Tui

We spent two days in Masterton. One of the main reasons for staying here was so we could catch up on Stephen’s cousin Debbie. She was very pleased that we had taken the time to visit so that was great.

Debbie and Stephen

Next stop was to see some of New Zealand’s iconic and forest birds at Mount Bruce Wildlife Centre. Pukaha was established in the late 1950s, to help save some of NZ’s endangered birds.  Now in partnership with DOC there is a fantastic programme in place that both works with our endangered birds as well as providing an Education programme for  visitors and school groups alike. 

This link is to their website: Pukaha Mount Bruce Wildlife Centre

A selection of the birds that can be found out and
about at Mount Bruce.

Look carefully and you can see the two resident takahe.

Even though the day was a little damp at times we managed to see most of the exhibits, and do a two hour bush walk. Although we were lucky enough to both hear and see tui, and to hear a kereru in flight, we were surprised that we didn’t see or hear more birdsong.  A highlight of the visit would have to be the Kiwi House. Here day/night are reversed so that you are able to see their two ‘domestic’ kiwi moving around in their indoor bush environment. Manukura is a white kiwi and rather special and her mate is Turua, a  North Island brown kiwi.

View from the top of the look-out track that we walked. 

Later in the day we moved on to the outskirts of Pahiatua. It is here that we found our next tui, The Tui Brewery. As a NZMCA members we were able to camp in one of their car parks for the night.  As they close at 4:01pm we were too late to be able to visit that day but at 9:59am the next day we were all set to book our tour of the site and visit their museum.  It is a place well worth a visit and our tour guide Bronnie was very enthusiastic. After the tour, we got to sample some of the beers as well as take away a couple of handles and a large bottle of beer.  We finished our visit by adding our own message to their ‘tui’ board.

A visit to their website gives plenty more detail: Tui Brewery

The caption we added to their board.
Evidently there are some 'real' tui living in the area.

Display in the museum.

The marketing team have made very good
use of the word 'tui' in their promotional work.

Stephen looking glamorous  with his safety glasses, beside
one of the original 'Tui' vehicles.