Captivating Kapiti
24 October 1957
Thursday 24 October 1957
Awoke to a day of blue sky and sunshine, full of the joys of spring after the previous day’s melancholy and leapt out of bed soon after 7am to prepare for a week’s sojourn on Kapiti. Mr George Fox, warden on the island, came over the air at 8am to tell me that the weather was excellent and he would await me at Stringers Store, Paraparaumu Beach at 1pm …
Mr Fox was awaiting me and in a few minutes I was doffing shoes and socks and rolling up slacks to wade across the sand to the dinghy which he held for me, the ‘Fram’. Out to the waiting launch, the ‘Ngatea’ and off we chugged on the 3½ miles to the island’s east shore. The island had looked surprisingly close beyond the glistening strip of ultramarine sea but we had been going for quite a while before the amorphous green of the bush-clad slope began to sort itself into the varied greens of individual members of the forest second growth. Previously the island had been farmed in its entirety and it had been possible to gallop a horse along the back of the densely bushed foreshore where we landed.
The whare where I was to spend the next seven nights was the old farm house, dating back more than 90 years. The warden’s house was only 60 years old. Now only the further end of the island was farmed, the fields invisible from our way of approach where the only break in the bush was the Muehlenbeckia grass flat below the house where Fox grazed his few cows and heifers and small flock of sheep and kept his fowl.
… I was indeed fortunate to be fetched and accommodated by the Foxes as I was, not even having to cook my own food in the whare, and the Dept of Lands and Survey had warned me to keep arrangement s and particularly radio telephone number confidential as they did not treat ordinary mortals as I was being treated …
As at Little Barrier, the thing that was so different about this establishment was the birds. As I approached the house my passage was watched by fat colourful pigeons, who sat till I was within a few feet of them eyeing me cautiously, then plumped noisily off through the branches. Talking later [to Fox] … “The pigeons, particularly he said “make heavy weather of getting their great bulk 100 yards”
As I neared the house western wekas scurried to and fro at my feet, and my arrival was greeted with raucous squawks from fifteen or so kakas, while a tame tui lolloped awkwardly across the verandah floor ...
After lunch we went out to feed them – on dates and sugar water – and what a clamour. Anything did as a perch for the kakas and as our heads were the handiest to the dates, they ‘did’ more often than anything. I had no dates, only a camera, but it was most disconcerting to be firing the trigger at a couple of wekas and a tui with a kaka landing plomp on the head, scrabbling round in search of dates, or else helping himself with the other. Mrs Fox said they were almost human and one could bring oneself to believe this as they eyed one wisely, head cocked on one side, and answered when spoken to ...
The smaller tui, although a very aggressive customer, didn’t get on too well with the kakas and was always on the defensive. Usually the bigger bird won but I was amused by the tactics adopted by a sparring pair at dusk after the bats had started flitting round. The tui would fly low over the kaka sipping water, alighting behind him and flying back – just out of reach – but close enough to make him draw back along the perch. The tui would them take a few sups with her fearsome curved bill uptilted between, her spotless white ruff remaining much more spotless than the slobbery kakas kept their rufous waistcoats. Then the kaka would lunge at her with his beak and be master of the situation for a few moments till the whole performance was repeated. All this went on for a long long time, only a few feet from my nose, which the thirsty combatants completely ignored ...
Friday 25 October 1957
A squally day of wind and rain … After a lingering breakfast I retired to the whare, lighted a wood fire and I settled down for the morning to write. As the smoke started pouring from the chimney the trees outside became alive with kakas. They had perceived that someone was in residence – a fire implied food and served to attract them as my presence had failed to … I was enjoined to place the fire guard up when I left the fire as the wekas had a habit of going inside and pulling pieces of wood from the fire, which, if alight, burned holes in the wooden floor!
Saturday 26 October 1957
… On along the beach where it abutted direct on to the wooded cliff listing plants and then back for lunch. Afterwards I sat on the front step of the whare writing, surrounded by birds and camera at the ready … I thought of the marmite sandwich which was left from the bus journey, waved it aloft and plomp, Bubs the cheekiest of the kakas landed on my head and the rest clamoured in the offing. Bubs stuck her claws in as she stood on one foot, eating from the other, and nothing would persuade her to go elsewhere for her meal. The wekas gathered the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, then we all went in to afternoon tea. I said “Come on, grub” and the kakas swooped low over my head with a series of flashes of crimson bellies and swooped along the arched in bush track to the house. Here there were dates, a distinct improvement on the stale crusts I had rescued from the fireplace.
Hector, an old timer, always sang for his supper – Mrs Fox said “Hector, sing for it then” and he trilled his little piece hopefully, repeating obediently 3 times … When she [Mrs Fox] went to the sink to wash up a row of enormous beaks appeared at the window. They perched on the hot water pipe, lifting up their feet in turn as the uncomfortably hot water flowed along when the tap was turned on. They dangled upside down on the pipe, beaks directed inwards and reaching for scraps. They popped in through the open window and pinched pieces of cheese and other scraps. They were hungry at present and were not fussy but at other seasons would refuse even raisins. They preferred sweet things. Their natural food included pollen, honey, grubs and caterpillars. I never tired of watching their antics …
After high tea Mrs Fox and I went off gull nesting along the beach outside the paddock, only seven nests, some of them abandoned due to logs of driftwood come to lie over them, seldom more than three or four occupied simultaneously, but showing very nicely the stages of plant colonisation after the birds’ departure …
Monday 28 October 1957
… Day of blustery wind and sun again, typical westerly weather and I set off for the 1725 ft ascent to the summit. A long pull but not a very strong pull and, what with rests and short spells for botanising, it took me 2½ hrs to get up and 1¾ hrs down …
I spotted a massive but non-fruiting specimen of the King fern, Maratia. The native fuchsia was in flower, also the white wax-like blossoms of the kohekohe (Dysoxylum), the white clusters of Bush lawyer (Clematis), black berry clusters of 5 finger and the ground covered with hard, acorn-like centres of the fleshy karaka fruits.
