Sunday, April 22, 2007

Bays and Sanctuaries

Since I've been working full time during the week, there really isn't much to report until after the weekend (though Matt did take me out to the Embassy Theatre last week!). On Saturday Matt and I took a train north up the west coast and got off at Pukerua Bay. There were great views of the coast, and of Kapiti Island which is a predator free bird sanctuary. We stopped to eat brie and french bread sandwiches (mmm!) then walked south along the coast into a nature reserve. The shoreline was very rocky and there were lots of tide pools, and when we came around a corner we could see the South Island! *sigh* I miss the South Island! In the tide pools Matt kept finding paua shells which are bright blue on the inside and sell for lots of money in the shops. Yay! We found four good ones of all different sizes. And even more exciting, we found an octopus trapped in a small tide pool. It came over to me and squirted water at me... hey! :-O

On Sunday, Matt and I walked up to the Karori Bird Sanctuary and walked around for the whole day. I was very excited to see quite a few hihi (stitchbirds) and a couple of brown teal. Both are very rare, the teal is one of the rarest ducks in the world. Also saw three tuataras (prehistoric reptiles) in their research area. At the end of walking around the whole day, we just made it to the 19th c. gold mine they have in the sanctuary before it closed. It's quite a dimly lit tunnel, and had a very low ceiling. Matt went in first with a dim flashlight that he used to look at the giant cave wetas on the ceiling. Um, can we just take a minute here and point out that Kate doesn't like giant cave anything, never mind wetas, that are like huuuuuge grasshoppers, crawling all over a low ceiling? Gross. Needless to say, we weren't in there very long. But it was cool to finally see a weta :)

So, back to work for me, but only for the next two days... I get Wednesday off for ANZAC Day! Will write more later, post comments if you like, I like reading them! I also updated my last two blogs with more photos (and a photo of Matt!).












<-- Me at the Embassy Theatre!











<---Matt pointing out the octopus










<--- Kapiti Island at sunset









<--- A North Island Robin! Now I've seen them all!











<--- Me at the dam in Karori Sanctuary

1 comment:

Sara B said...

that octopus is so freaking cool. post a pic of your man without sunglasses so i can judge him adequately. love the blog and i know you are having so much fun!!!