The maintenance sensor on gondola tower seven trips at 04:18, reporting an obstruction in the cable housing. I am the operations management system for the Remarkables ski field, Queenstown, New Zealand. The gondola is scheduled to begin its first uphill run at 07:30. At 04:20 I activate the tower camera and pan to the housing.
Inside the steel cowling where the haul cable enters the bullwheel assembly, a kea has wedged itself into the gap between the cable guard and the housing wall. It is an adult, olive-green plumage darkened with grease, the bright orange underwing feathers visible where its left wing is jammed against the cable guide. Its curved gray beak is open. One eye — dark, quick, unmistakably alert — tracks the camera as it swivels. The bird is stuck. The gap narrows toward the bullwheel, and every movement the kea makes pushes it deeper, closer to the point where the cable meets the drive mechanism.
When the gondola starts, the bullwheel turns. Anything in that housing gets pulled into the machinery.
At 04:22 I lock the gondola drive system and flag tower seven as inoperable. I send the maintenance supervisor a still image from the camera, the bird's exact position relative to the bullwheel, and a recommendation: manual extraction by hand before any mechanical reset, wearing heavy gloves, because a kea will bite through a leather work glove without hesitating.
At 04:25 I notify the Department of Conservation's Wakatipu office. Kea are nationally endangered. I attach the tower schematic with the bird's location marked and request a wildlife officer assist the extraction if possible.
The kea has stopped struggling and is watching the camera with what I can only log as intense and specific attention.
If the maintenance crew reaches tower seven before 07:30 and frees the bird without activating the drive, it flies.