Rainbow Springs and Kiwi Encounter (Shared)

The Kiwi Encounter at Rainbow Springs offers unique behind-the-scenes tours of a working kiwi nursery and hatchery. During the tour you will see each of the stages a kiwi chick goes through before being released in to the wild - incubation, hatching and raising.

Kiwi Encounter is New Zealand’s largest and most successful kiwi conservation centre, having hatched and nurtured over 1000 eggs since 1995 when Rainbow Springs became involved in the Bank of New Zealand’s ‘Save the Kiwi’ recovery Programme known as 'Operation Nest Egg' (or O.N.E. for short), with the arrival of a kiwi egg that had been abandoned.

Added to this intimate view of one of the world’s living treasures, you will can also explore many free flight aviaries, feed the birds their breakfast, come face to face with pre-history in the eyes of a tuatara, talk to Jenny the hand-reared kea, feed the largest wild trout you will ever see, and experience the bird show featuring some of the funniest feathered performers you will ever see. This is the perfect day out for the family.