British comedian, writer and conservationist Bill Oddie has written more than 20 books, most of them about bird-watching, so it is no surprise kiwi and kakapo have been the highlights of his two-week visit to New Zealand.
Mr Oddie (74) met kiwi in the North Island a few days ago and yesterday viewed his first live kakapo at Doc's chick-rearing facility in central Invercargill.
He then flew to Stewart Island for two days to visit the Ulva Island bird sanctuary, hoping to see kiwi in the wild.
Mr Oddie was invited to New Zealand to appear at the Auckland Writers' Festival, an invitation he said he wondered about.
‘‘To be perfectly honest ... I felt a bit spare really. It's a literary festival with heavy-hitter novelists and quite a lot of poetry. I try to avoid poetry. So I was delighted to move on to the second phase this week [hosted by the Royal Society and the Department of Conservation].
‘‘When I agreed to come over here, I said ‘let my reward be the kiwis please; this is what I need to see'. And now I have had two close encounters and they did not disappoint.''
He said he was also taken with the kakapo chicks - the latest additions to the critically-endangered native parrot population, which stands at 123 adults.
‘‘I've been aware of kakapos since forever, really - since there were virtually none.
‘‘To actually be in their presence was quite something. They are such a characterful creature - delightful.
‘‘The aspect which struck me most strongly was the speed of growth ... It was almost comic to see the biggest ones, which are huge now and yet they are still only a few weeks old.''
Doc staff are caring for the birds until they can be released back to their island sanctuary homes. Kakapo recovery team leader Deirdre Vercoe told Mr Oddie 12 chicks were being cared for this season and the first four were returned to their mothers on Thursday.
Mr Oddie also visited a bird sanctuary near Invercargill where kaka are being bred for release into ecosanctuaries, saying he was ‘‘not so keen on that'' because he does not support birds being kept in small cages.
He also viewed tuatara at the Southland Museum & Art Gallery.
Mr Oddie is probably best known to New Zealanders as one of The Goodies in the television comedy series he co-wrote and starred in from 1970 to 1980. But he is also a vocal supporter of many environmental organisations, including Greenpeace, the League Against Cruel Sports, the International Primate Protection League and the RSPCA.
This is his third visit to New Zealand. His first, in 1963, was touring with a Cambridge University comedy show starring, among others, John Cleese.
‘‘The hotel we stayed in in Christchurch might well have been the inspiration for Fawlty Towers, I suspect. There was a very bossy lady running it. The very first morning a group of about eight of us came down and sat at a table. And she said ‘no, no, you can't sit there. Rooms 7 and 12 sit over there'. And we all had to split up.''
‘‘Then we came to the comedy menu where it said Creamota or porridge. And someone said ‘so what's Creamota?' And she said ‘porridge'.''
In 1981 he returned for a Telethon, and he remembered ‘‘prancing around the studio with children'', something which probably wouldn't be encouraged today.
