Children's Bay Walk in Akaroa (Rhino Walk) - Day 227© NZPocketGuide.com
Children's Bay Walk in Akaroa (Rhino Walk) - Day 227

Children’s Bay Walk in Akaroa (Rhino Walk) – Day 227

© NZPocketGuide.com

Day 227 on the Road

Finding Rhinos and Giraffes in Akaroa

Today we’re checking out on of the free things to do in Akaroa: The Rhino Walk! If you like this video and want to see more 365 Days: 365 Activities, then head on over to our awesome YouTube Channel!

Today we’re having our most surprising New Zealand wildlife encounter.

I know it sounds absolutely crazy but today we are not heading on the water. This is one of the rare days in Akaroa where our activity is going to be land based. We are going on a walk and gonna take you through the native bush of the Banks Peninsula.

What we’ve done on land in Akaroa so far is the Pohatu Penguins, then we went back to Pohatu Penguins to release the penguin, and this is our third one. All the other activities that we’ve done have been on the water.

The Children’s Bay Walkway or Children’s Bay Farm Walk or Rhino Walk, as the locals call it, is a really famous walk right here and almost everybody in Akaroa told us to tackle it so we decided to dedicate one day of our stay here to going on top of it. And as soon as we start reaching the tree area we find a massive group of kereru or wood pigeon. Kereru is the Maori name of this amazing bird and it’s one of the biggest birds in the country. And we haven’t spent much time telling you a lot about this bird despite the fact that we encounter it quite regularly so this is our opportunity to tell you all about the kereru.

The wood pigeon basically looks like your normal street pigeon but on steroids. it’s one of the largest species of pigeon in the world and it’s got beautiful green and and white feathers which have a glisten of purple in the sun.

Aside from looking awesome, the wood pigeon is probably one of the clumsiest birds in New Zealand. They’re often breaking branches and making a ruckus in the and that’s because apparently they eat a lot of fermented berries so they pretty much get drunk on the berries they’re eating.

But the kereru are the only New Zealand birds remaining that can eat these large berries and spread their seeds around the forest. They are the only native birds to eat berries from trees such as the tawa, karaka, tarairi, miro and poriri and spread those seeds across the forest cos they fly long distances as well.

We could spend all day and literally do spend all day watching these beautiful birds behaving in their natural environment we’ve seen so much wildlife in Akaroa so far and although that’s been mostly on the water, being on land is no different.

We are now back on track making our way back to the top of the little hill that is this Rhino Walk we get the time to see a bellbird which is a kind of yellowish green bird and see a ton of native plants as well.

The walk is super easy and super accessible it’s about 10 minutes on a boardwalk to make your way from the city centre of Akaroa to the beginning of the track. You can either choose to do a one hour up one hour down or a three hour loop track making it one of the easiest things to do from the town centre of Akaroa if you don’t feel like spending big bucks on many activities.

The higher we’re going the better the views are getting. It’s definitely an awesome place to get a huge vantage point on the whole Akaroa township and the Banks Peninsula but just that wasn’t enough there is something truly exceptional to be found here.

Shh, we’ve just stumble upon a group of giraffes.

In their natural habitat.

They seem to be feeding and two males are about to compete one of them may have spotted us.

The giraffes are in mating season here in the Savanna.

So we have Laura Attenborough with us. I am making my way very slowly so not to disturb the giraffe.

So this giraffe is what’s called the rusty spotted giraffe. It’s only found in the Banks Peninsula in the heart of Akaroa.

It’s one of the most endangered giraffe in the world.

I’m going to try and move the camera a little closer so you can see it better.

There is one that just walked behind me. It is gigantic.

I genuinely feel like Laura and I had way too much with those rusty giraffes. It was absolutely hilarious and we took it way too seriously as we are making now our way to the final point of the walk which is the Rhino itself.

Finally we get the chance to see why the locals call this the Rhino Walk. At the top of the hill we see an unusual outline among all the cows so we enter the cow field and have closer look at the sculpture of a rhino.

Making sure there’s no bulls around so we don’t get stampeded by all the cows we get a closer look at the rhino which is completely made out of scrap metal. it’s a really awesome sculpture and makes for some very fun photo opportunities.

Also on top of this hill we get some awesome views of the Akaroa town, the Akaroa Harbour and on the other side of the hill is Takamatua Bay full of beautiful turquoise waters and rolling green hills.

Although the walk continues down to Takamatua Bay Robin and I decide to take the same way back through that beautiful forest seeing loads of different insects and birdlife along the way.

On the way down we remember that some of the locals told us that there is also a crocodile made out of metal which is somewhere to be found. We missed it out so if you guys know where it is make sure to comment below and you let us where the hell was it hidden.

On the way down we also take the time to check on our friend the kereru they are still bickering each other they are still chasing each other and they are still as many as there was before right in the tree. I’m telling you guys if you go on that walk you will find those birds.

And as per usual I’m a huge fan of one way tracks because we get to discover things that we missed on the way up and this is the case right now when we actually find those little leaves which all looking like hearts which obviously make for a perfect picture opportunity. Perfect or cheesy it’s one of those.

All in all, the Rhino Walk is definitely our top free stuff to do in Akaroa. There is really heaps to do in the town and we are not done yet there is still plenty that we’re gonna be doing especially on the water cos you know us we are water addicts, But if you’re on a budget in Akaroa and you can only do one or two paid activities definitely take the time to challenge yourself to the Rhino Walk. It’s rather easy but gives you impressive views of the whole area.

What was this fashion stuff you were writing for. It wasn’t. It wasn’t for it was something I shamefully made myself.

So it was then. Come on tell me the name of it.

No.

Please. I’ll whisper it into your ear later.

Go for it.

Later I said.

No whisper it.

She said eff off!

Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter