As far as kiwi births go, being born in a moving car is probably a first for New Zealand's endangered national bird.
Kevin Stokes from the Taranaki Kiwi Trust retrieved an egg from a nest in Uruti near Waitara River after a desertion code was given off by the transmitter on a male kiwi.
A desertion code is given off usually if the kiwi incubating the egg had possibly been disturbed and hadn't returned to the nest for four days, and the chances of the egg surviving and successfully hatching were slim.
"As I lifted the egg from the burrow I could see the chick had already begun to hatch and part of the chick's beak was poking through a 3cm hole in the shell," he says.
He called the Kiwi Encounter team in Rotorua for advice and placed the egg in a chilly bin beside a hot water bottle, and supported it so it wouldn't roll around.
Mr Stokes then began to drive the three-and-a-half hour trip back to Rotorua.
But he had only reached Awakino, less than an hour into the trip, when he heard the egg crack.
"I just kept an eye on the chick, gave him a bit more room in the chilly bin to get out of the egg and by the time I reached Kiwi Encounter the chick was completely hatched, looking well, very alert and nicely fluffed up," he says.
The Kiwi Encounter team say it's the first time they have "received a chilly bin with a freshly hatched kiwi chick inside".
"We were sort of expecting a hatched chick when Kevin arrived, but it was still a surprise. The chick is progressing extremely well and was referred to as 'Rock Star' yesterday due to its progress, which is pretty much text book," says Carole Dean from Kiwi Encounter.
Kiwi Encounter is nearing the end of its kiwi hatching season with eight eggs in incubation, three partially hatched and 89 hatches for the season.
The Department of Conservation and independent kiwi organisations lift the partially incubated eggs from their burrows and take them to Kiwi Encounter to incubate and hatch.
Kiwi Encounter says kiwi eggs take approximately 78 days to incubate, and slightly longer in the wild.
Chicks are then raised to 'stoat-proof' weight of 1kg before being released back into the wild.
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