The West Coast Wildlife Centre is a small but excellent kiwi-rearing facility on the main street of Franz Josef. It runs a captive-breeding programme for the rarest and most endangered kiwi species — the rowi, of which only a few hundred remain in the wild — and the visitor part of the operation lets you see live birds in a darkened nocturnal house.
A separate "backstage" tour takes you behind the scenes to see eggs being incubated and chicks being hand-reared. It is one of the best chances in New Zealand to see kiwi at close range, and the conservation work behind the displays is the real thing rather than a tourist add-on. Allow an hour.