Kiwi - undaunted by the impossible task
This week a charming young tourist woman rushed into the shop, found a white dress for about a four-year old, asked for the price and handed over three coins, and ran out.
The coins turned out to be two 50c pieces and a British pound. Well, that is only 14c short of the asking price, today the pound is worth $1.86, but we need to find someone who wants the coin. Theoretically, we could make a small profit from the Australian coins we get in, and exotic currencies would probably have sentimental value to some people. Maybe we should set up a donation box for foreign currency, like they have at airports.
We do, of course, have a donation box. It features a photo of a kiwi under a bush. One of our volunteers looked after her for six months while she healed up after losing her leg in a possum trap. We all know kiwis are special, but most people never get to experience just how special. Their plumage feels much more like fur than feathers and it even smells different from other birds.
She was a very discerning eater. She loved digging for worms in a tray of soil put into her box. But there was no point in trying to add fresh worms to old soil. She knew she had already been through that dirt and didn’t even look at it. Fresh soil it had to be!
She also slept on her side, curled up like a cat. It can give you quite a fright to find a bird on its side. It looks dead! But she was just sleeping comfortably. Despite having only one foot she jumped out of a box60cm deep and had to be hauled out from under the spare bed.
Like many other birds the kiwi tucks its head under its wing to sleep.
Or tries to. Its wing is only 4cm long and its head can’t reach that far, so all it can do is tuck its great long beak under its tiny wing. That’s the kiwi! Undaunted by the impossible.