We've also called into a native-bird house to catch our first glimpses of the famous kiwi. For those of you that don't know, New Zealand has no native land mammals. So due to the lack of predators loads of flightless birds evolved, including of course the kiwi. Some of them were huge (we saw a model of a moa in the museum and it was way bigger than an ostrich). They used to be really common but the bigger species have, over time, been hunted to extinction for their meat and feathers. Also the smaller species have been hunted by the mammals introduced by man. There are several species of flightless birds remaining in the wild in New Zealand, but they are endangered and heavily protected. The possum, which I personally think is a lovely, fluffy little creature is considered slightly less evil than Satan himself by the kiwis! They were introduced from Australia and have decimated the native bird population. Resulting in them being generally hated by all and killed whenever possible. You can buy all kinds of possum fur goodies which come with a little "Congratulations you have helped preserve the New Zealand environment" label and are actively encouraged to go possum shooting!
I have a vague memory of visiting a similar bird-house last time I was here, and standing in the gloom (they keep the enclosures dark during the day in the hope that it will encourage the nocturnal birds to be a bit more active), struggling to spot a little brown thing among lots of other brown stuff! Well, not this time! Bold as brass they were, bouncing about and coming right up the the viewing glass. Some of them were fed while we were watching and they wanted to be stroked and everything. (Easy to see why they wouldn't be too difficult to hunt though ay?! - Ooh look at that... "Ay?", how very Kiwi of me. I must be assimilating already!) So back to the kiwis... they're much bigger than I thought, their bodies are about the size of a football and they have quite long legs and necks, as well as beaks, so they stand quite tall. In any case you'll have to have a look on the net or something because we weren't allowed to take any pictures. But we did get a nice one of a duck that seemed to think it was a puppy and kept following me around, not quite the same though is it?!
So Waitomo is where we were headed to see it's amazing caves. The caves themselves are pretty impressive in their own right, but the main reason to come here is because they are filled with glow worms. But this being adrenaline-fuelled New Zealand, just walking through the caves and looking up is not good enough, oh no! So instead we got wetsuited up and wedged into a big rubber ring each, and more or less pushed bum-first over a couple of waterfalls, in the dark, before we were allowed to look up and see the glow worms!! And very pretty they are too (even with the knowledge that they're not worms at all but maggot-like creatures with glow in the dark poo!)
With such action-packed days our evenings in the campervan have been unsurprisingly sedate. However, I have a confession to make about a new past-time... Ben really likes puzzles. He has received much stick for this particular geeky quirk as I think they're nothing but a frustrating waste of time. Or at least I did... But then I discovered that you can puzzle for prizes!!! I've taken to buying trashy magazines, you know the sort "That's Life" or "Take a Break" or whatever and entering all the competitions, the thinking being that given the fact that there are so few people in New Zealand, we're bound to win. Right?! Now don't ask me why but "puzzling for pleasure" feels wrong but "puzzling for prizes", even when what we stand to win is a Candy-floss maker or My Little Pony game is somehow so right :0)
We've had a call to say I have to go back to the clinic where I had my immigration medical done to discuss some of the results :0( That doesn't sound good does it? I bet it's those poo samples! So it's back to Hamilton - again!
Ben:
More photos are found here and here
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