The babies are then cared for in captivity - first at the Willowbank Wildlife Sanctuary in Christchurch, then on a predator-free island in the Marlborough Sound - before being released back into the Okarito wilderness as adults, a round-trip that costs about $10,000 a kiwi. Of these 600, 355 owe their existence to Operation Nest Egg, their eggs collected from the wild by the Department of Conservation before being incubated and hatched at the West Coast Wildlife Centre. Following millennia of gradual retreat, the glacier is now 19km inland and accessible only by helicopter. After a short, thrilling flight over lush native rainforest, you will land on the Franz Josef Glacier, where your guide with an eye for the. Rowi are the most endangered of the five species of kiwi, with less than 600 remaining in the wild within a small pocket of forest surrounding Okarito Lagoon, 27 kilometres north of Franz Josef. Franz Josefs cloak of ice once flowed from the mountains right to the sea. But for now, Tiu and Toro are the public face of Operation Nest Egg, a nationwide program designed to boost kiwi numbers in the wild and save this vulnerable bird from the brink of extinction. “She’s going to be a great wild bird,” ranger Devon Rutter explains during our backstage tour of the indoor centre, a partnership between New Zealand’s Department of Conservation and the Te Runanga o Makaawhio Maori iwi. Such aggressive behaviour may make Tiu a difficult tenant at this conservation facility in the heart of the rugged West Coast region of New Zealand, but her grumpy personality puts her in good stead for the next stage of her life – being released back into the wild. One of New Zealands most popular adventure destinations is Franz Josef Glacier.
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