Despite our desire to do so, we can’t just bike or hike every day. So, on a recent housesit in Kerikeri, New Zealand, we went to The Parrot Place. In a subtropical garden setting, The Parrot Place displays and breeds parrots from New Zealand and other countries.

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Observing the parrots in their cages was fun but going into the two cages with free-flying parrots was super fun! Multiple parrots would land on us clamoring for the nuts and seeds we had purchased at the ticket office. I even got my teeth pecked at by one colorful rainbow lorrie. Or maybe it was a rosella?

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Larger parrots, like macaws, who can live up to 50 years, are incredibly agile. We watched one macaw hold a walnut in one claw, open it with its beak and other claw, and then eat the pieces bit by bit, all while holding onto the cage wires with its beak and claws.

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I never really associated parrots with New Zealand but we’ve learned about the many types here – native and introduced. Even in our current area, a mix of forest and farmland, I have seen the orange, yellow, red and green underbellies of the lorrie (or maybe it’s the rosella). So whether we have been hiking, biking or paying to see the parrots up close, it’s all good.