back on the ground

We left Taupo Thursday and headed to Waitomo, known for its large
number of caves, glowworms and companies offering all sorts of ways
to explore the caves and see the glowworms, from a basic tour-group
boat ride through the caves to lowering yourself into the caves on a
rope and spending the day underground.
On the way to Waitomo, however, we took a side trip and stopped in
Rotorua at Kiwi Encounter. It's a conservation and breeding program
for the endangered Kiwi birds - rangers and others find the eggs in
the wild, grab them and send them to the lab, where they are hatched
and raised for about a year - until they're big enough to fight off
the possums and weasels which eat the eggs and young Kiwis.
The program offers a tour, including a chance to see some Kiwis.
Kiwis are some odd birds. They are the national icon of New Zealand;
New Zealanders refer to themselves as Kiwis, the dollar coin features
a Kiwi, and just about every logo seems to incorporate the Kiwi.
They are flightless, with feathers that look more like hair and a
long skinny beak, and they forage for insects and grubs at night
making it nearly impossible to see one in the wild.
I knew all that. I've seen the birds' silhouette nearly ever day
since I've been here. I wasn't prepared for actually seeing a Kiwi.
First off, they're much bigger than I expected. They said the older
Kiwi we saw was about 10 pounds, but it appeared much bigger - the
size of a full-grown turkey, but more muscle. As they shuffle along
the ground, they snort - they smell for their food and have nostrils
right at the end of their beak. The informational material at the
center explained it thusly: the Kiwi evolved to fill a niche that
anywhere else in the world would have been filled by a mammal, and
the Kiwi also evolved to look more like a mammal than any other bird.
They don't move like a bird, either - since they smell the ground
with their nose, they walk bent over. Since they appear to be covered
in fur, they give off the appearance of a anteater-like animal that
happens to be missing it's front two legs.
I kept waiting for one to lose its balance and topple over forward.