— “i go out half an hour after dark. then i go out every hour until half past midnight, it takes them half an hour to get down from the mountains,” said painting, who keeps animal boxes in her taxi to hold the chicks, which are fluffy, heavy and grey. “if there’s a lot of birds coming down i can go all night, if i have passengers they’ll help me too.”

read : taxi! endangered new zealand seabirds get a lift to safety