That's No Ordinary Parrot (Arthur's Pass)

We like to quote movies.  From Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail, our most quoted and favorite scene is the one with the wizard, Tim.  Cowering outside the cave of Caerbannog, which is guarded by the man-eating rabbit, Tim tells the Knights of the Round Table "that's no ordinary rabbit".  The title of this post (altered from the original) came to mind after our experience on Arthur's Pass with these cute little NZ kea parrots.   Here again is a picture (actually from a carpark in Milford Sound) of the adorable little fellow.

Arriving in Arthur's Pass Village after our day in "Narnia" and the cave stream, it was pouring rain and near dusk.  Our camp site had a small shelter for cooking, cleaning and eating indoors, and it was with much thankfulness that we started heating up noodles and sausages in a dry environment and with 20 or so fellow German, French and Israeli campers.

While Jen and Peter began cooking, the girls began setting up our tents outdoors in the rain and dark, just a short distance from the shelter.  There were numerous posted signs warning of the menace of kea.  "Kea are inquisitive and potentially damaging to unattended tents and cars." (Cars? That's no ordinary parrot!) At any rate, we took those posters into account, and endeavored to keep a close watch on our tents out the windows of the shelter.

A half hour later, around 9:30 PM, fully dark, we were well fed and ready to retire to our tents. Finding them unharmed we felt pretty good about climbing in.  A steady but not terrible rain fell and we figured this would be a restful night sleeping to the gentle sound of the falling rain.

Nope.

About an hour later, just after drifting off to sleep, there was commotion outside and a German guy who had camped feet from us started cursing and then shortly after, rapped on our tents and suggested strongly that we take down our tents and go inside.  "I haff bin attacked by the Birds, they poke holes all through my tent and ruin my sleep sack....(us: were you in the tent?)...Yah, vile I voss inside."

Anyway, we were a little groggy and unsure what to make of this advice, but after considering what we had to lose, we decided as well to take down our tents in the middle of the night and go inside the shelter.  There were signs everywhere prohibiting indoors camping, but...hey...if there are killer parrots on the loose...

So after spreading our wet tents out inside, we put our sleeping mats down on the ground and drifted off to sleep.  Waking in the morning, the German guys showed us the damage.  8 orange-size holes in his tent, and also, the parrot had reached his/her (?) head into his tent and ripped a huge, unrepairable hole in his down sleeping bag.

Another couple had been attacked in the middle of the night and had holes in their tent as well.  We decided that we were happy we went inside.

After breakfast and re-packing the car, we went to the ranger station and reported the bird attacks. They didn't seem all that surprised and mentioned that if we parked outside and had food showing, we might want to cover it up - the birds apparently remove the rubber sealing from your windows and try to get in your cars, or just destroy the windshield wipers trying to get inside.

Anyway, the rangers also gave us some good info on a couple hikes to various waterfalls in the area, and we did those in a pretty steady rain.  Here is a picture of Lindsay on our bush walk.

Arthur's Pass consisted of steep hills, rivers and waterfalls in a high alpine environment, but despite the altitude and knowing that much of this is covered in snow for much of the year, the native flora appears semi-tropical.  It was very pretty.

Unfortunately, we were somewhat soured by the rain and by the bird menace and by mid-day had  decided to make our way off the pass and toward the West coast for our next day of camping. Along the way, the clouds began to lift, the sun started to shine and we got this pretty picture of yet another blue river in the valley leading out of the pass toward the West.

Next up was three days on the West coast, where we saw beautiful beaches, glaciers and more caves and waterfalls!  And, thankfully, no kea birds!  But...we would come to have an equally dim view of the South Island's other fearsome predator, the sand fly...