TiriTiri Matangi, New Zealand

20th - 21st Feb 2009

Tiri Tiri Matangi is an island off the coast of North New Zealand which, like Ulva island near Stewart Island has had all its mammalian predators removed. A regular ferry service takes day trippers there every morning and brings them back every afternoon. The ferry goes from Auckland and does a stop off near Orewa before heading to the island. I decided to stay in a small hostel in Orewa so I did not have to go all the way down to Auckland.

The place was called Marco Polo backpackers and I booked it ahead of my arrival for 2 nights so I could go to the island and return the following evening. I don't think I have been in a more boring hostel in all the time I have been travelling! Not only was the place too far out of town to walk to any bars (I should have read the small print!) but it also had no TV and no Internet for guests. Also, the only other people staying there all spoke German.

I had the foresight to buy some beers from a supermarket in town, so after I made my usual 'can of meat with microwave rice gourmet meal' in the kitchen, I sat around reading and drinking to while away the night. It turned out that most of the 'Germans' were in fact Swiss except one German woman who joined me in the Kitchen so she could practise her English. She was very annoyed with the Swiss and said that she did not come half way round the world to speak German! Having had the 'pleasure' of working with Swiss people in the past I was not too perturbed about them not including me in their conversation - they were probably discussing how to put together a cuckoo clock anyway.

I got up early the next day and drove to the ferry port which took about 20 minutes. There was already a large group of people waiting for the boat to arrive from Auckland - including a large group of youngsters (bugger!).

Once on the ferry I bought a map/guide pamphlet from one of the several volunteers who were accompanying us on the trip. Before we were allowed off the boat onto the island we were given instructions on what to do once we landed - obviously no mammals were allowed on the trip - including dogs.

Once we landed everyone was allowed to go their own way to look at the birds or simply to go bathing in the bay on the far side of the island. It would be over 5 hours before the ferry returned to take us back so I brought plenty of water and a packed lunch to ward off any hunger pains while I walked round the island (there was no where to get food).

For the first 20 minutes everyone was bunched up together as they walked the marked paths that crisscrossed the island. I hung back so I could get to walk around by myself.

For the next 5 hours I did a leisurely walk around the island admiring the scenery and getting really good views of some of the protected birds. Most of the birds such as the Saddleback I had already seen on Ulva island but there was one bird in particular I had come to see on this island - the Takahe.


Featured Animal - The Takahe



If I had to pick one animal I really wanted to see for each country I had been to on my travels I would say the Great White Shark for South Africa; the Tasmanian Devil for Australia and the Takahe for New Zealand. This flightless bird was thought to be extinct until some where found up in the Murchison Mountains on the South island in 1948. Some of those birds have been trans located to some off shore islands including Tiri Titi Matangi where there is now 13 birds.

I thought that finding one would be hard to do but how wrong was I. About 30 minutes in to my walk I was trying (unsuccessfully) to photograph a bellbird when I heard some rustling behind me. I turned to see a takahe walking out onto the path behind me. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was able to follow it as it walked comically within several feet of me. It was a wonderful experience.

As I continued my walk round the island I got an even better view of a pair of them feeding:




Red Crested Parakeet


Bellbird I managed to get a photo off


A branch or rather a Stitchbird which buggered off before I got a photo!


A shag on the shore (oh! err!)

I finished my walk round the island at the coffee shop near the lighthouse with just enough time to take a quick walk round the gift shop. I almost bought a cuddly Takahe to keep DM and Taz company but decided that 3 was a crowd and they would only start fighting amongst themselves (I think a bit of therapy might have been in order at this stage!)

On my way back down to the ferry pier I managed to see one other very rare bird - the North Island KokaKo (sounds like baby talk!) bringing an end to a very satisfactory outing.


A sort of photo of a Kokako!

After the ferry dropped me off I was in no hurray to get back to the hostel so decided to do a bit of a tour round Orewa looking for an Internet point and some food. In the end I did not find any Internet and ended up getting more supermarket food for cooking in the hostel.

That night most of the Swiss and the German girl had gone. In their place were two middle aged American couples who, judging from their complaining, should have been at hotels rather than hostels. I think I would rather have had the Swiss back!

I had an early night and in the morning quickly packed and left to go to Auckland.

Here's a link to the Tiri Tiri Matangi Site.


Animals I have seen
Takahe
Kokako
Whitehead
Stitchbird

I spent about 20 minutes at a pond trying to get a glimpse of another endangered bird - the Brown Teal after meeting a guy who had just seen one but had to give up - bloody duck!

Bay of Islands, New Zealand

17th Feb - 19th Feb

Before I headed from Whangarai I made sure that I booked a place ahead for the bay of islands. The place to go appeared to be Paihai (I wrongly pronounced it as pee-high) which seemed to have the most accommodation available. I booked myself into the Saltwater lodge for 2 days before heading off.

At around 3pm I arrived and signed myself into the hostel. The hostel looked like a good enough place to hang out and it had the bonus of free parking underneath it so I extended my stay to 3 nights. Once I settled in I checked out the excursions on offer and after consulting with the receptionist in the hostel decided on a combination dolphin watch / yachting trip with a company called explore NZ. The trip would be leaving pretty early the next morning - that left me the rest of the day to look around the town and get my bearings so I went for a walk along the water front.

The place had a really good vibe to it (it helped that it wasn't raining!) with a good combination of touristy shops and restaurants. What it seemed to lack was a good bar!


Boats and islands


Parasailing

After searching in vain for a good place to have a pint I settled for the bar attached to the saltwater lodge itself. The reason was quite simply - HAPPY HOUR 5-7pm and they had a cheap pizza and pint deal. The pizza was rather small but did the job for the moment. I then had another happy hour pint. I was given a raffle ticket with my pint and in the middle of enjoying it the quiet barman that had been serving me came from behind the bar and went to the DJ's area. He then proceeded to transform himself from mild manned barman to super loud bingo host as he started to call out raffle numbers for the people in the bar - which consisted of me, several (other?) lushes and a large crowd of 19-20 somethings who were sitting in the far corner and lapping it all up.

As each number was called the lucky winner had to go up and do a 'take your pick' from a list of boxes. These gave them chances of proper prizes, booby prizes and karaoke! The major prize was a free skydive but I decided to sneak off before my number came up and I would be forced up to do a rendition of 'baby, one more time' or some other song.

I did another walk around the town looking to get some more food to supplement my meager pizza. Eventually I settled on a large bag of chips (more healthy food!). Afterwards I went back to the hostel - past the raffle bar which had managed to entice more punters inside and was now a 'take your pick'/Karaoke frenzy. It was still early so I went to the bar in the base hostel near my own hostel. At least in the base bars you were guaranteed to have a decent crowd - especially as their own happy hour had only just kicked off :)

While there I got chatting to a Scottish girl Mhairi, her English friend Sarah and Donald, another friend of Mhairi's. Donald was a character to say the least - a middle aged guy in his late 50's (or is that 60's?) from Mhairi's village on the isle of Skye who was travelling around New Zealand by himself. Before I could say "Three, Tui, One" I was in a round with them and was also ordering shots - a great way to prepare for the sailing trip the next day! I eventually managed to force myself to go back to hostel for some much needed shut-eye.

My days on the shark dive boat prepared me well for being able to get up with a hangover and still manage to go on a boat. As I said the trip I booked onto was a combination trip of a dolphin watch followed by a sailing trip on a very large 'America cup' type catamaran.

First the boat headed across the bay to pick up more passengers from Russell then we made our way past lots of small picturesque islands searching for dolphins. It wasn't too long until we found them - a large pod of bottlenose dolphins merrily swimming round our boat and another smaller boat owned by the same company. The smaller boat seemed to be getting all the best views - including having some of the dolphins ride the bow wave of their boat.

I did get to see some great sights including several with babies:



Dolphin riding bow wave of nearby boat


Mother and calf

Dolphin right beside our boat


Mother and calf


We stayed around the dolphins for a good while watching them jump out of the water in the distance (never did get a good shot of that!).

My best attempt of a photo of jumping dolphin

It was soon time to go and rendezvous with the yacht for the second part of the trip. Myself and about 20 other passengers were taken across from one boat to the other on small inflatables. Once on board the catamaran I found myself a nice sunny perch on one side of the yacht as it started its journey.


Our yacht


The sail.

It was an almost mesmerising experience. We were gently sailing along (slightly too slow for my liking) on a calm blue sea past beautiful islands. There were scantly clad women sunbathing at the front of the boat and best of all you could get nice cool beers. Each person could get a drink from cooler boxes and put a mark on a tally sheet so they could pay up at the end of the trip.


Sea and islands

At lunchtime we anchored beside one of the islands and had a hot buffet of beef, chicken and various salads - at last proper food! The drink tally sheet was looking interesting at this point with myself and some other guy neck and neck in the lead - a challenge if ever i saw one!

After lunch we were allowed to go to the island for walking, swimming, sunbathing and even kayaking. I am sorry to say all I did was sit and try to rid myself of the beer buzz that was filling my head. After we got back on board I decided not to indulge in any more alcohol and just sat wishing I had stuck to cokes.



Kayaking at island


View from island beach

On the way back they were able to put up the spinnaker (that's the big sail they put at the front of yachts when they are going downwind) so we were able to go a lot faster on the return journey. At around 4pm after dropping passengers back off at Russell we arrived back at Paihai. Once I settled my drinks bill (which thankfully was not as bad as it could have been) I returned to the hostel for a kip before going out for the night.

The night was basically a rerun of the previous night as I met up Donald, Mhairi and Sarah plus some other people which included Annette - one of the Kiwi experience people I had met on the south island and who I had already bumped into in Taupo. Not only did she know Mhairi and Donald but she was in fact from their same village! It's a small world - but I don't think you could cover it in a kilt!

As I got more and more drunk the conversation turned to scuba diving and before I knew it I was booked onto a diving trip the following day. Unfortunately (see glossary update) I awoke the next morning to find the sky was overcast and any chance of going diving would be a out of the question. The heavens soon opened up and for most of the rest of the day it poured down. I knew the bad weather would catch up with me eventually - all I could do was sit around the hostel and hope the rain would subside.

I tried to extend my stay in my hostel to the Friday night but it was booked up. The people at the hostel did try to get me booked into other places but they too were fully booked. It was a real pity - even with the rainy weather Paihai was a great place to stay.

I had one last night's boozing with Donald and co (vowing to make sure I go to Skye over the summer) then the next morning I checked out ready to head back down towards Auckland.

BEERS I HAVE DRUNK
Lions red Beer: The happy hour beer I had in the raffle bar. Nice enough for the price!

ANIMALS I HAVE SEEN
Bottlenose dolphin - obviously
Black Petrel - while watching the dolphins

GLOSSARY UPDATE
U:
Unfortunate Adjective
According to online dictionary its meanings are:
1. suffering from bad luck: an unfortunate person. (see www.rays-conservation-travels.blogspot.com for examples)
2. unfavorable or inauspicious: an unfortunate beginning.
3. regrettable or deplorable: an unfortunate remark.
4. marked by or inviting misfortune: an unfortunate development.
5. lamentable; sad: the unfortunate death of her parents.

Kiwis - Rotorua, New Zealand

16th Feb

The one bird I had failed to see on my travels in New Zealand was of course the Kiwi.

Just outside of Rotorua is the Rainbow Springs Nature Park (right beside the Mitai Maori centre infact) where you can book onto their Kiwi Encounter. Admittedly it meant seeing the birds in captivity but it was the best chance I would get of seeing these nocturnal birds.

So on the morning of the 17th as I was leaving Rotorua I called into the park and did the tour. No photography is allowed so I can't show you any photos.

Myself and about 12 other people were given a guided tour through the facility. Eggs taken from kiwis in nature reserves across the north island are hatched in a special incubation room. The chicks are then moved a special brooder room where they are cared for before being placed in a special nocturnal enclosure. Finally the adult birds are released back into the wild. The place has managed to release over 1000 birds into the wild since it started.

It was a very informative and interesting tour, however, I found myself questioning the whole set up. The amount of money required to process each chick was quoted as several thousands of dollars. The eggs have to be flown by helicopter from the wild and the chicks flown back again using the same method. If all the money required for the process comes directly from the tours and nature park then I have no problem with it. But if other money is required (eg government grants) then I think that money could be better spent on saving the birds in the field by controlling predators and saving habitat.

After the Kiwi tour I went round the rest of the park which had other cages and enclosures with other New Zealand species including another tutuara. It also had several large pools full of fish. Unfortunately they were mostly non native rainbow trout but they did have other native species as well. They was also a farm section with sheep, chickens, pigs and goats - not really sure what that has to do with New Zealand nature!


Rainbow Trout pool

Heres the link to the website which has more info on the Kiwi and other animals.

Rainbow Springs Nature Park

Black Water Rafting - Waitomo, New Zealand

13th Feb

It took me just over 2 hours to get to Waitomo from Turangi so I had over an hour to kill before my 'Black Water rafting began'. I took a quick trip to the main visitor centre of the town and ambled round their exhibtion. Interesting enough but a bit too based towards the geological side of things (I suppose it had to be - its caves after all!)

At 1pm I met up with my fellow cohorts and we started getting into our gear which consisted of the obiligatory wetsuit, helmet with headtorch, boots and, rather surprisingly shorts which you put on over the wetsuit - apparently to protect your bum.


Me in my S&M gear - now where would an S&M person stick their mouse i wonder?

After a couple of photos off we went in the bus to the actual caves. First we had to get our inner tube ring which we would be using:


Everybodies bum looks big in an inner tube!

Then we had to all practise one of the things we would be doing in the caves which consisted off a sort of sit-down conga chain:


The reason shall become apparent later on.


Finally but by no means least we had to practise our waterfall jumps. It was at this point I started to realise that this was not going to be your normal 'cave tubing' where you just gently float down a river through a cave. No, in this one you had to jump off, backwards, holding your tube off a couple of small waterfalls and to make sure we knew what to do we had to do a practise jump of a small platform they had erected.

Practise dive - not me as I was wearing a blue helmet


Not me either - I wasn't wearing blue boots!

Naturally I made a pigs ear of it by jumping out too far. Then when I surfaced from my drowning I started floating past the get out point and had to frantically grab for somebodys hand to be pulled back.

Finally it was on to the cave system. We had to climb down steep rocks to get into the caves and then clamber over more rocks in the caves before we got to our first rafting section. As I said this was no ordinary cave tubing which actually made it a lot better. Our first raft was in quite shallow water and only lasted for a bout 20 metres. Then we had to get back to our feet (not an easy thing to do from sitting in a inner tube) and continue on through more rocks.


The gang in the caves

Time for our first waterfall jump which I managed to do slightly better than my first attempt. After that we did some more rafting through water with very little headroom to the top of the cave.

Then we came to a section of cave where there appeared to be tiny LED lights above our heads. Our guides told everybody to turn our headtorches off. Up above us shone the glowworms. It was magical to see - although in this section there wasn't that many off them but we were quite close to them. One of our guides gave a talk about the worms (they are infact insect larva) before getting everyone to turn their torches back on. We were able to make out the long dangly silk threads that the worms hang below themselves in order to catch their prey.

Further on the cave system started to open out in to large caverns with glowworms twinkling at the top. It was an incredible sight. We did our second waterfall jump which was slightly more dangerous than the first one as you had to keep to one side of the cave before jumping. If you didn't you fell down a big hole in the water. You also had to make sure you didn't bang your head while doing the jump.

Finally it was time for our caperpiller conga line. We all had to line up behind one another with our legs under the arms of the person infront off us. There was a rope at the side of the cave which made getting it all organised a lot easier. Once this was done we started floating down the caves and then our guide told everybody to turn their headtorches off again.

It was then I realised what the conga was for. Our guide could drag all of us through a section of cave in the dark while we could stare up at the glowworms above us. This cave section had much more glowworms in it and they were far above us. It was like looking at a starlit night - a really unforgettable experience.

After some more rafting down sections were I was never able to steer myself properly and even ended up backwards in some places we ended our trip. We went back to the centre for showers and some soup. I bought the photo CD as it didn't cost too much - unlike some of the trips I had been on in the South Island.

The blackwater rafter was a really wonderful experience to do and was nothing like what I expected. A slight disclaimer on the sequence of the events which I might have gotten slightly the wrong way around because its so long ago now scince I did it.

No such worries with my next experience where just consisted off two things - up then down - VERY FAST. On to Taupo for the skydive!

Some more images from the CD (not taken on our trip I hasten to add)





Featured animal: New Zealand Glowworm

Firstly IT IS AN ANIMAL. If there's one thing that annoys me its people who think that the animal kingdom stops at beasts with 4 legs or a backbone.

As was said the glowworms are not really glowworms at all but larva of the fungus gnat which set up shop in not just caves but in hollow trees and alongside riverbanks. I think glowworm is a slightly nicer term than fungus gnat! They spin sticky silk threads which they hang down below them in order to trap flying insects which are attracted to their glow. Interestingly the glow is produced by waste products which is another nice way of saying that their shit glows (something I'm pretty sure I have been able to do after a night of drinking Newcastle brown ale and an indian curry).

After they pupate they turn into the adult flying form which can no longer eat and whose sole purpose is to mate, lay eggs and die - must be some shag!

Anyway heres the wikipedia crap (pardon the pun) on them. New Zealand Glowworms

Dolphin Swim - Akaroa, New Zealand

I'M BACK!! I have wifi in my new hostel in downtown Buenos Aires so Its back to the blog. I know now that I will never get fully up to date with it before I go home in 3 weeks but as I have no job to go back to and the world has gone to pot in the time I have been away I am sure I will have plenty of time to finish it off when I get back (of course I can go off and do some more travelling as well!)

First I forgot to add in the glossary update from my last post:

Glossary update:

W
Woofing: Woofing is an acronym which stands for ‘Willing Workers On Organic Farms’. Its an organisation primarily set up initially in Australia as a way of working for room and board on organic farms (obviously). Nowadays its used not only for organic farms in Australia but also in other countries and for other things – in the case of Chillawhile people were just working for their board through Woofing – most hostels have some of their guests doing cleaning and maintenance jobs for their keep anyway.

Here’s the website if your interested - except its now called Worldwide opportunities on Organic Farms (make up your bloody mind!)

Back to Akaroa:

7th - 8th Feb

Akaroa is a small seaside village about 70km south of Christchurch on the Banks peninsula. On the other side of the peninsula is Lyttleton the place I looked down on from the the top of the Christchurch Gondola. The Banks peninsula is actually the remnants of an extinct volcano and if you looked at it from above you could see the conical shape of the area.

I arrived in Akaroa just after 3pm on Saturday to a town full of weekend day trippers. I had not booked any place before arriving so was quite lucky to get a bed in the first hostel I tried called Le Bons Bay.

I was shown to my dorm by a middle aged English woman. It turned out that both her and her husband were themselves woofing in the hostel. In fact they were sleeping in the room next to my dorm. Nothing too weird about that except that in order to get to my dorm I had to go through their room! The whole place had too much of an old feel to it – which was confirmed by my bed linen which not only included sheets and a duvet but also a pair of slippers and a hot water bottle!


My OAP bed linen

I quickly got out of the place and did a roam around the town. First port of call was the dolphin place on the pier to confirm my booking for the following day. I wanted to make damn sure that I was going on this dolphin swim.

After that I walked around the area but quickly exhausted all the sights so I headed for one of the pubs for some grub and a pint. Once I had finished the grub (a healthy sausage egg and chips!) I did a bit more walking and happened upon of all things a sulphur crested cockatoo in one of the trees – not your normal New Zealand bird.


A weird garden - someone has a foot fetish!


Cockatoo

I tried to stay out of the hostel for as long as possible which meant trying to get a compromise between drinking and having a clear head in the morning. The second bar I ended up in was showing the final of the Wellington sevens rugby tournament between New Zealand and England. It was a frantic game which England won in the very last play of the game much to the disgust of everyone in the bar.

Finally I went back to the hostel, through the English couples room (thankfully they were asleep) and into my own dorm which already had 2 or 3 other young people in bed.

Early the next day I got up and out for the dolphin swim. Swimming with dolphins is one of those 101 things to do before you die and this was my second attempt at it. I even paid for a cheap plastic camera with underwater casing – similar to the throw away ones you get but with the advantage that you could actually use it again and again with new films.


Unfortunately DM could not come with me as I might lose him :(

We were soon on our way fully kitted out with wetsuit mask and snorkel. It wasn’t long before we seen our first dolphins – 2 or 3 of them. Boy were they small! Unfortunately these ones were too intent on feeding to bother with us. For the next 2 or 3 sightings it was the same thing – the dolphins came and had a look then swam away.

Finally a group of them decided to hang around and we were in business. We quickly got in the water (there were about 8 of us swimming) and waited for them to come up close. Some people were given stones to knock together in order to make sound waves in the water.

The next 40 minutes (that’s how long you are allowed in the water with them) were probably some of the most comical in my life. These tiny dolphins (about 1,5 metres) were darting in between our group while everyone was trying to get photographs of them. There were only about 10 in total but sometimes it just seemed that every time I looked one way the dolphin would appear just behind me. I actually thought it was like a scene out of a bad pantomime – he’s behind you – no he isn’t – Yes he is.

The experience did not turn out to be the life changing event I had anticipated. For one thing the dolphins were just too quick and the water was too murky to get a good look at them underwater. For another thing my photos when I got them developed turned out to be probably the worst shots anybody could ever take. My only excuse is that with digital cameras these days I am used to having what I see in the view finder on the actual photo. This camera was the old type – view finder at the top, lens in the middle. This resulted in great shots of my fingers!

Worst underwater shots ever

I have to say I still loved the experience and would do it again – with a bloody good underwater camera this time!

Things I have learnt:

Even if you are ‘touching cloth’ as I was after my swim it pays to make sure there are urinals in the public toilets you have just entered. I did not and soon realised I had inadvertently gone into the women’s toilets. (the sanitary towel bucket was another giveaway). Before I could rectify my mistake two Kiwi girls came in to go to the loo. I had images of myself being carted off in a police van to the sex offenders centre so I decided to just sit it out (literally). The two girls both went to separate cubicles – one right beside me – then proceeded to shout a full conversation while ‘doing the business’ – I thought they would never shut up! Eventually they left and I quickly cleaned up (wiped my arse) and ran into the men’s loo so that I could wash up and cooly exit the facilities as if nothing had happened.

Featured Animal:

Hectors Dolphin.

The dolphins I was swimming with are called Hectors Dolphin. It is only found in New Zealand is the smallest dolphin in the world and pretty rare with only about 7,000 in existence. Thankfully New Zealand has set up marine reserves in areas were they are most common – like the Banks peninsula.


Hectors dolphin


There is also a subspecies called the maui dolphin which inhabits just one area in the north island. This species is one of the rarest dolphins in the world with little over 100 specimens. With that number things do not look good for its survival as it only takes 2-5 deaths a year from boating accidents or net entanglements to produce a reduction in the numbers.

More info

Stewart Island, New Zealand

3rd - 4th Feb

Stewart Island was another of my ‘must see’ destinations in New Zealand and one of the reasons why I opted for a car rather than a bus pass.

I drove from Queenstown to Invercargill in time for lunch and after much flapping around eventually managed to find the local Information office where I was able to book the ferry, accommodation and an evening guided tour on the island all for later on that day.

I actually had a whole afternoon to kill in Invercargill which from what was available is a lot of time!

I found the obligatory Irish pub and had my obligatory bangers and mash. In my time of travelling around Australia and New Zealand I was starting to become an expert on Irish pubs and their bangers and mash (I have never found proper champ). This was by far the worst I had ever tasted. The sausages tasted awful – I wasn’t sure if they were actually supposed to taste like that and was pretty sure they were off. Being a true softy I did not complain and tried to stomach as much as I could before leaving half of it (had to finish the pint however!)

I was at a lose for something to do in the afternoon then I remembered that the Information centre was actually part of a museum complex so I went back and asked how much it cost to go in. Nothing was the reply – you can leave a donation at the end of your visit.. Exactly what a backpacker wants to hear.


As well as being a museum and art gallery they also house a rather impressive tuatara exhibit.

Featured Animal: Tuatara

The tuatara is a reptile which has been around for over 150m years. It may look like a lizard but the two species are in fact the only remaining members of a very old line of reptiles and they only exist in New Zealand. The Invercargill museum has been successfully breeding the commoner species Sphenodon punctatus (don’t ask me how to pronounce it!) and have over 50 specimens. It has also been trying to breed the much rarer Sphenodon guntheri which only exists on one off shore island. All remaining wild tuatara from both species are confined to off shore islands due to introduced pests killing off all the mainland animals.

Heres more info from Wikipedia.

As well as the tuataras the museum houses an art exhibitions (mostly modern art and not really my cup of tea) and a rather good exhibition on Maori culture. There were also ones on local history including one about the ‘Worlds Fastest Indian’ which at the time I skipped over but now wish I hadn’t. Two weeks later I happened to watch a movie staring Anthony Hopkins which was called the same name. Its about Burt Munro who successfully set the world speed record for motorcycles (under 1000cc) in the 60’s using a vey old make of motor bike called Indian.

Again more info from wikipedia (hey I’m lazy!)

For the entrance fee of nothing (I did pop $2 into the donation box) it’s a very good museum and deceptively large as I ran out of time walking round it and had to motor down to the Stewart Island Ferry.

The trip over to stewart island took about an hour and was pretty choppy. It also has the distinction of being one of the most expensive foot passenger ferries I have ever been on - $120 return which is scandalous! Once on the island I quickly made my way to the backpackers and booked into a rather small 3 bed cabin – which luckily I had all to myself.

So whats so special about Stewart island? 26,000 Kiwis that’s what (The bird not the people) Stewart island does not have any stoats (it does, however, have rats and possum) this has meant that kiwis do rather well on the island. In fact it is only place in New Zealand where it is possible to see them during the day.

I thought all I had to do was arrive on the island, go on the evening tour and I would see loads of the wee critters. As per usual I had not done my homework. When I went on the evening tour (with an Irish couple from Cork/Kerry and an old American couple) I quickly realised that we were not going to see any kiwis and in fact in order to have a good chance of seeing them you had to go to the other side of the island which takes two days hiking!

Because of that I was slightly disappointed with the evening tour as our guide only managed to show us 1 possum! In fairness the tour does not claim that you will see kiwis or any other wildlife and is more geared towards history and flora – I should have looked more closely before I booked it.

The next morning I had to make the decision to either stay longer on the island or get the ferry back that day. After the disappointment of the previous night I decided to get off the island that afternoon but before going I booked a return boat trip to Ulva island which the Irish couple recommended – and I am so glad I did.

Ulva island is a small island in one of the bays of Stewart island and has been irradicated of all intoduced pests including rats and possums. This means that only birds exist on the island.

The ferry over was actually just a small boat which a local guy charged $20 return for the 5-10 minute trip to the island (again a bit of a rip off but I didn’t care) It went from a bay just over the hill from Oban, the main (only!) settlement . Once on the island you can walk around marked trails searching for the elusive wildlife.

The 3 hours I spent on Ulva made the trip to Stewart Island all worthwhile. It was full of birds which seemed to have no fear of humans at all. I seen loads of Tuis but also some birds I had not encountered before such as the saddleback which does not exist on the mainland and red and yellow crowned parakeets. The Stewart island robins were especially easy to get close to – one hopped right next to my leg at one point.

The only down side to the trip was that as well as the other people who came on the ferry with me there was also another boat with a guided tour and three further lots of middle aged american tourists from a cruise ship anchored in the bay. I kept bumping into at least one of these groups – complete with their state of the art headsets so that everyone could hear their guide. As well as the headsets they all seemed to wear brightly coloured raincoats, walking poles and stupid leggings. I just thought that it would be a nightmare to be on that cruise ship surrounded by such people!

Once back from Ulva I made my way back to the hostel via a marked track around the coast and then headed back on the 3pm ferry to the mainland.

3 hours later I was in my next hostel up the east coast in the heart of the catlins area of New Zealand..

Animals I have seen:
Saddleback
Stewart Island Robin (subspecies of New Zealand Robin)
Yellow crowed Parekeet
Red crowned Parakeet
Kaka (smaller relative of the kea)

Animals I HAVE NOT seen
Kiwi – any species!

facebook photos

Penguin Parade - Philip Island, Australia

2nd Jan

I was trying to think of what to use my last days hire car for and finally decided on going down to Phillip Island to see the proper penguin parade - if only so I could compare it with what I seen in St Kilda.

Katy and Susie decided to come along so at about 4pm we started driving down to Phillip Island.

Our first stop on the island was the town of Cowes (which is surprise surprise twinned with cowes on the Isle of Wight.) A nice little place. I parked the car and then we all walked to the seafront and to the end of the small pier before having some food at the small cafe beside the pier. On the way back to the car we detoured into the residential area so we could look at all the rich peoples houses (bastards)


Katy and Susie at Cowes


Next stop after Cowes was the nobbies! This is near the penguin parade place and is a couple of smallish islands (rocks!) off the main island. There was a large visitor centre and boardwalks down to viewing platforms. I've seen better places - there were a lot of nesting birds beside the walks - all gulls (I hate gulls!) some of which were slightly worse for wear:


Its pining for the Fjords!


Turn round you stupid gull chick!



Susie and Katy at the nobbies


The nobbies - its just a small island!

After we seen the nobbies (oh arr missus!) it was on to the parade. There was a massive visitor centre thronging with people before you even got to the viewing area. It had one of the largest gift shops I have seen, full of all types of penguin gifts from cuddly toys to fridge magnets. There was even the opportunity to superimpose yourself on=to photographs of penguins including one where you are the same size as the penguins. It was all abit tacky but as long I was sure all the profit went to the maintenance of the colony then I suppose it was worth it.

After Susie got a coffee and Katy browsed the gift shop we went to the viewing area. Once you go out of the visitor centre you are no longer allowed to take any photographs in case you disturb the birds. TO get to the grandstands on the beach you walk through dunes on an elevated boardwalk system. On the way there we seen a wallaby and we thought surely taking a photo of it was ok. How wrong we were - as soon as we took our snaps a warden came over and told us off! I felt like I was a kid being scolded for knocking over a lamp.


A shaky pic of the wallaby

Once we got to the grandstands it became clear just how many people were there that night - thousands and all the seats had been taken. Eventually the two girls managed to squeeze into two seats near the bottom of the steps. That left me to end up sitting at the front of the steps on the beach itself along with lots of other people.

I soon found out that in sitting down on the sand I had inadvertently destroyed a small girls sandcastle. So to appease her I helped her build another one. In fact I helped her build a better one - complete with moat and twig for a flag. Then that sandcastle got destroyed by people walking past - so we did it again. In fact we did it about 3 times. The girls parents seemed extremely happy for me to play with her - in fact her even younger brother who was only really a toddler joined in. I did get a reward for my help in making the castles - some popcorn from the little girl.

Anyway all this kept me from seeing the first of the penguins waddling up the beach. To be honest the parade was away off to either side of the viewing area and you could only really see the penguins in the distance (unless you had binoculars like me).

It was quite funny to watch. A group of penguins would come out of the water and group around some rocks before one of the got the courage to run up the beach then all of them would follow up in a huddle. We watched several groups do this before going back into the dune system.

This was where the real spectacle occurs. In the dune system are all the penguin chicks that have been waiting all day for their parents to return with food. It was getting quite dark now but the boardwalks lit up some areas where you could see the penguins walking up through trying to find their chicks.

I spent some time looking at one chick that was waiting in the middle of one track and every time an adult penguin came walking past it went and hassled it. I started saying what I thought it was saying to each passing adult:

'Are you my mummy? Are you my Daddy?'

Each time the adults ignored him and walked on to find their own chicks. I hope its mummy and daddy found him!

It was all so funny and cute and the girls loved it. We left the place at about 10pm and I drove for about 2 hours to get back to the hostel.

A well worth visit - although I don't think I would have done one of the bus tours who charge over $100 for the trip from Melbourne. Just as well I had a car.

Melbourne Bats, Australia

1st Jan

I sat around the hostel most of New Years Day doing nothing much but eventually I decided to use my hire car for another animal trip - this time for a return to Melbourne Bats.

I drove down to Jarra River at about 7pm and then after a walk down the river to waste some time I headed for the bats roost to wait for them to start flying.

When I got there there were already a good number of people standing around but they all seemed to leave soon after I arrived (must be my deodorant - or lack of it!).

They should have stayed around because once it started getting dark the bats started to fly from their trees - a couple at first then more and more until the night sky seemed to be filled with them. I was totally mesmerised by the sight.

Afterwards I went back to the hostel satisfied that I had at least done something over the New Year.

Darter bird at Yarra River

Bats

Flying bat (as if you could not tell!)

Another flying bat

bat and moon

Bats with kookaburra calling in the background

Healesville, Australia

31st Jan

On new years eve I went to another wildlife sanctuary - this time Healesville which is about 60km from the centre of Melbourne.

I arrived just in time to see their parrot bird display which was fun and also managed to see their birds of prey show which was even better.






Info on Corella

Wedge tailed Eagle

And again!

Osprey

As per usual my camera batteries gave out in the middle of the bird of prey display but I am sure you are all fed up with me posting pics of Australian animals.


'Us dingos don't count as Aussi animals - we're just blowins!'

It was a really well set out place with a good enclosures (esp the bird ones) and information. I even got to see a platapus (no pics I am afraid). The only downside to the trip (other than the batteries) was the distance I had to drive to get there and of course the place was full of snivelling little kids.

Melbourne Zoo, Australia

29th Dec
Because Chris' car was on its last legs he decided to hire a car for going to Sydney which meant that people could use his Delorean for running around Melbourne if they wished.

So on the 29th Jamie, Ailish and myself decided to use it to go to the zoo zoo zoo how about you you you (etc etc)

We had a fair idea of where to go to find it. A fair idea however was not good enough and before we knew it we were lost and the car started to smell of smoke which turned out to be from the engine.

On opening the bonnet we discovered that oil was leaking out of the dipstick hole and burning on the engine. We did our best to shore up the leak then filled it up with more oil before continuing on our way. After asking for directions and a couple of wrong turns we finally made it to the entrance (well back entrance).


Jamie at the zoos back entrance.

The first enclosure we came to was the collared peccary - thats a type of pig.


'Who you calling a pig ye big jessie!'

Then it was on to the lemurs who were on a small island in a lake full of turtles and ducks.

'I like to Move it! I like to Move it, Move it!'


'SHUT UP! We're bloody sick of you lemurs since you seen Madagascar!'


Then past the Maned wolf to the big cat enclosures.

None of us thought much of the cat enclosures. They had a persian leopard, some snow leopards and a puma but all the animals were still in large cages rather than proper enclosures. It just did not look right.


'I'm Snow Bored!'

The european brown bear enclosure next to the cats at least could be classed as a proper enclosure but again it just did not look all that great. They did have some useful info about moon bear rescues in china where bears are 'farmed' for their bile.


'What the hell do you mean you buried a tractor underneath there!'

After a quick detour back to all the enclosures we had seen (Ailish lost her camera lens cap which we couldn't find) we went to the lions enclosure.


'Oi! you forgot about me!'

Sorry - After the Porcupine we went to the Lions enclosure.

To be fair the lions enclosure was big but yet again you had to peer through wire to see which did not give a good view of them.


'Now everyone hold still - this is going to confuse the shit out of the crosseyed keeper!'

Beside the lion was a very bad wild dog enclosure where you could only see them from above.


'Hey it's worse for us! I've got a bleeding creak in me neck from looking up at you lot!'

Then it was on to the Meercats where we spent ages looking at the wee critters.


'For my next impression I shall do Tommy Cooper'.


'Hey! hurry up with that fez will ya!'

After the meercats we had a well earned break for snacks:


Jamie and Ailish getting their teeth into great big meaty wraps

Then Ailish and Jamie sat down on the grass to have a smoke - which prompted another couple to sit down beside us, light up and complain about the woos of being a smoker. Apparently the whole zoo was to go smoke free after the new year so this sort of practise would soon be non existant anywhere on the grounds. Being a non smoker I couldn't give a toss but the others seemed to take it very personally as another piece of their liberty goes up in smoke (pardon the pun!)

Back to the animals and the reptile house which was pretty cool with a good number of snakes and lizards. They even had some Fijian crested iguanas and Phillipine crocodiles both of which are very endangered and which the zoo is helping to conserve.


'I'm more endangered than you - rasssp!'


'If I get in there you'll be extinct!'

They also had a small frogs enclosure which unusually AIlish thought was brilliant (she thinks frogs are cute!)


'Loooook into my eyes, not around my eyes but into my eyes. After you awake you will think I am gorgeous!'

There was some flowers beside the reptile house which sent Ailish and Jamie into a macro camera shot frenzy - I joined in for the hell of it.


'Look this is all I do OK! Now bog off! I'm trying to attract a bee!'

Next stop was the elephants but on the way way we passed some pelicans. I distinctly remember Ailish saying she didn't want to look at any pelicans but when we got there she was in awe of them and proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes taking photos from all different angles of the birds. I just stuck my nose up and said 'oh I've already taken shots of pelicans in Perth AND Tasmania'. I do admit that they are a great animal to take pics of (but I didn't!)

On to the elephants - another animal I have problems with being kept in zoos. Once again I was pleasantly surprised by a zoos elephant enclosure. It was not just one enclosure but 3 with walkways in between. The set up looked quite good.


'Bugger I've forgotten where I put the car keys again - are you sure I'm an Elephant?'

On to the tiger.


'98, 99, 100'


'Here I come - see if your hiding in the otter enclosure again - I'll kill ya!'


'Oh yeah thats a good scratch, hey hang on - hey Gupta Bengali! get out of our pond!'


Jamie - always putting his head into predators mouths.

Time was starting to get on by this stage and we still had a lot of animals to see. so it was on to the next section - the apes and monkeys.


Spot the ape!


'I don't like to be called an ape - My name is Reginald'

The Gorilla enclosure was large but some of the monkey enclosures were little more than high cages. I felt really sorry for them.


'You feel sorry! How the hell do you think I feel with this haircut!'


'I used to be friends with David Attenbourgh You know - I even picked some fleas of him!'


'Yeah right! and I was in Braveheart!'

The rest of the zoo trip was a bit of a rush job. We just about got to see the giraffes before we had to leave. We did not even see any of the Oz wildlife (our attempt at seeing the platapus resulted in a dark room with nothing in it)

All joking aside I found Melbourne Zoo to have too many old type cages and had too much area set aside for people rather than animals. That said they do do some good conservation work and the kids seemed to love it so it has a good education value. It could do a lot better though.