Are kiwis boring?
Posted 30 October 2009 // Basil Keane
Great spotted kiwi
The kiwi has been named the Forest & Bird Bird of the Year. This was a great comeback after failing to make the top 10 last year, which I suspect was partly due to cultural cringe. Even this year the kiwi was lampooned as a ‘flightless national bore’ during voting. However, enough New Zealanders showed loyalty to our iconic national symbol to see it fly to the top of the list in 2009.
Though there may be a love-hate relationship with the kiwi it’s an important icon for New Zealanders who have named themselves, their currency, a Melbourne Cup-winning horse, a lottery and national league team after it. Well-known kiwi characters include Goodnight Kiwi, Fighting Kiwi (kiwi with taiaha on flag), Kapai Kiwi and Tahi the one-legged kiwi.
Just recently someone’s managed to find a kiwi in space, though it may be a bit like seeing ET in a nutrigrain – you see what you want to see.
 Goodnight Kiwi |
 Golden Kiwi |
 Kiwi in space? |
The kiwi has at times suffered a bit of an identity crisis. After seeing a kiwi skin in the 1800s a traveller claimed, ‘The emu is found in New Zealand, though we were never fortunate to meet with one.’
Americans (for whom kiwi means kiwifruit) must be confused by New Zealanders claiming to be a ‘fuzzy edible fruit with green meat’. Though not as confused as the child who not so long ago approached a passerby outside Wellington zoo with a shoebox in tow. The child asked what he should do with the kiwi he had caught in his shoebox. The passerby asked to look at it. The lid was then removed to reveal a not-so-cuddly hedgehog.
 Not kiwis |
 A kiwi? |
 Not a kiwi |
How could a kiwi be boring! We nationals have taken the name of that flightless bird and so it is first on tourist’s agendas when they visit here. They want to know all about our native bird. If people mistake a hedgehog or kiwifruit for a kiwi, then we have not done enough public relations on it. Indeed as I think of it our sports people (our major ambassadors) all wear ferns - maybe it is time to put a kiwi on their jerseys somewhere!
I’ve met some very boring kiwis…
My closest encounter with a kiwi (aside from the kiwi house at Otorohanga) was near the shores of Lake Waikaremoana one December as I tried and failed to sleep through their raucous noctural ramblings near our tent. I found myself sacrilegiously cursing their very existance at the time, though I got over that once we’d moved on. Reminds me of accounts of early Wellington settlers moaning about noisy whales in the harbour.
Kia ora Lynne. I agree that kiwi’s aren’t boring. As noted by Forest & Bird Manager Kevin Hackwell, ‘it has whiskers like a cat’s, it burrows like a badger, it kicks like a kangaroo and it smells like a forest mushroom,” That’s an oddly interesting bird. It’s also been described as an ‘honorary mammal’ because of its mammal like features.
Thanks Coln. I’ll take that to mean you’ve also met some very interesting kiwis.
Interesting comment about the raucous kiwi Kerryn. It reminds of an earlier blog on Tūī . The Karori Sanctuary (now Zealandia ) received a number of complaints about how there were now too many Tūī which were too noisy, too early in the morning.