A few weeks went by and Chloe and Joey arrived at the airport to board the Qantas jumbo jet. Joey looked so cute holding his plane ticket in his little paws and wearing his tiny dark red canvas backpack! Chloe noticed the white ‘flying’ kangaroo on the red tail of the plane as they waited in the departure lounge.
“How strange,” she thought. “They kill millions of kangaroos because they say they are pests, even though they aren’t, and then they fly big planes all over the world with a picture of the ‘pest’ on their tails!
She had also seen Defence planes and vehicles with kangaroo emblems on them.
Why wasn’t Defence defending kangaroos?”
Chloe and Joey boarded the plane and settled in. In their backpacks they had all their treats to eat. Joey had some fragrant green grass that Chloe had cut with scissors from her yard right before they left, a red apple, some sweet potato, water in a bottle, and carrots. Grass was his favourite so he started munching loudly on that. The other passengers looked at him. They weren’t used to such noisy eating!
Chloe had her colouring books, green apples and her favourite snacks for the trip. Her mother also packed spare clothes, a book to read, a torch and some money for food and bus tickets.
What a funny sight! The other passengers were very surprised. Who had ever seen a kangaroo on board a plane, strapped into the seat? Joey’s way of holding his carrot as he chewed it was so cute. Everyone was laughing, taking pictures and wanting to talk to Chloe. They especially wanted to know what was in his backpack. Of course they didn’t know they could also talk to Joey, so they just asked if they could stroke him.
Chloe was fussing over Joey and giving him little treats, even though he was perfectly capable of getting them himself from his backpack. He enjoyed being fussed over because he knew that Chloe loved him.
When they arrived at Auckland Airport the president of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society was waiting for them at the barrier with a big crowd of TV, magazine and newspaper reporters. The reporters all wanted to talk to Chloe and take pictures of the little kangaroo carefully hopping off the plane with his backpack on. It was so cute!
Why was Chloe here? What would she talk with the president about? How was the flight? Was the kangaroo scared at all? How did the kangaroo get down the steps off the plane? They had so many questions! Bright camera lights were flashing furiously.
Poor little Chloe, they were all asking different questions at the same time, so it was difficult to concentrate.
Finally the interviews with the reporters were finished and the president took Chloe and Joey to his office in the city. They sat down and his secretary brought Chloe a glass of lemonade. She smiled, took the glass, politely thanked her, and shook the glass slightly so the ice cubes made a clinking sound against the side of the glass. Her hands were feeling cold from holding the glass so she put it down on the table.
Joey slowly hopped over to the window where he stood fascinated, looking down on the city of Auckland. He could see people walking down the street and wondered what they were as they seemed so very small.
While she sipped her sweet, cool drink through a straw, the president asked Chloe how he could help her.
“We need you to help us find a kiwi to talk to,” Chloe begged. “Kiwis have the key to help us understand why they are so endangered. In my home town, I see that the kangaroos are disappearing because they have nowhere to go. Cars are running them over every day and it is not safe for them. Everyone thinks there are endless numbers of kangaroos, but the fact is that even though the drought has killed thousands and thousands of them people are still shooting far too many. We don’t want the same thing to happen to kangaroos that has happened to kiwis. Will you please help us find a kiwi?”
The president told her “Of course Chloe. But one thing you need to know is that the reason why everyone in New Zealand is so aware of the kiwi’s plight is because of the work of our society. We convinced the minister and the New Zealand people that the kiwis are in danger and something had to be done. Is there a big organisation in Australia that can do the same thing?”
Chloe replied “I will have to ask my teacher Mrs Little-Higgins.”
“In the meantime here is a map of where you might be able to find a kiwi. I warn you though, they are very hard to find. My secretary will take you to the bus stop. It’s a long trip so I suggest that you stop half way and stay with one of our members for the night. Don’t worry. Frank and his wife Dottie both love kangaroos, so you will both be safe there. You have to get bus number 391 that takes you to Te Kuiti where they will meet you at the bus stop. Then the next day you need to catch bus number 477 and continue on to Mt Taranaki.”
Chloe smiled at the president, took the map, put it in her backpack and thanked him very much for his time.
After the meeting there were more TV and newspaper reporters wanting to know what had happened. Chloe was hand-feeding Joey snacks while she patiently answered them. It helped to keep him distracted so he was not too stressed by all the flashing cameras.
The reporters were asking her where she and Joey were going and why. She was careful not to tell the reporters exactly where she and Joey were going because, after all, she didn’t want them following behind everywhere. Then they’d never find kiwi, who was apparently very shy.
Chloe simply told them “Joey and I need to have a chat with a kiwi to understand how kiwis have become so endangered and try to stop the same thing from happening to kangaroos. Even though there are still lots of kangaroos that might change one day because they are running out of places to live.”
“We are not sure yet of our plan to solve the problems kangaroos have, all we know is that they don’t want to die, do they Joey?” She looked down at Joey.
He shook his head with a very serious look on his face.
Joey replied “We love our life – we love our families. We love to eat grass and hop around, it’s so much fun. We want to live and not be killed by people, cars or dogs or anything. Please just leave us in peace …”
But only Chloe understood. The reporters couldn’t hear what he was thinking because they didn’t know how to listen to his heart like Chloe did.