Friday, February 11, 2005
"What are those round things on the ground?" Erm. They're sheep shit. Don't play with them.
Yesterday afternoon and evening were spend wandering over farmland and along and above a beach, on a truly fantastic ecotour.
The ecotour has a limit of ten people per party (though there are three tours going at once), and takes you through a variety of wildlife habitats and viewing.
We started off with birdwatching (which, given that I appear to be turning into a bird geek) was awfully fun. We saw a Royal Spoonbill and Pied Oystercatchers and a Kingfisher and...well, lots of native and introduced birds. Very cool.
Then we went to see juvenile Royal Albatrosses doing their gliding and circling and flying for days and days and not landing thing. The area where they nest is unusual, as it is on the mainland - usually albatrosses nest on islands. However, it is a small spit of land jutting out into the sea, so it does have the feel of an island. Watching an albatross while it's showing off is truly amazing, they are catching the wind currents and gliding through the air with absolute stillness.
The major part of the ecotour is the penguin reserve, which is on a beach adjacent to farmland. So we had to walk down a couple of 'hills' (which, as anyone who has been to New Zealand knows, are not what normal human beings would call hills. They are...well, not mountains, but they're too intensely craggy and steep to warrant the fluffy epithet of hills), that are often the home to many sheep. Sheep shit dodging time. I'm fairly good at that, but some of my tour companions were not (after we got back to the hostel, a couple of girls spent the better part of an hour trying to clean the soles of their shoes).
Down on the beach, the first thing we saw was a tiny hole in a rock at the base of the hill, and inside, peeking shyly out, were a pair of Blue Penguins. Above the, on the hill, were a couple of cool as a cucumber Yellow Eyed Penguins. These were displaying unusual behaviour for penguins, what with the not running away in the face of a group of big non penguin things (especially as Yellow Eyed Penguins are incredibly antisocial, and hide from one another, let alone not-penguins).
I had never realised that penguins nested in grasses or scrub. I guess I've always just had the image of the Antarctic penguin habitat, and completely forgotten that they're, well, birds.
We made our way down the beach, to where there were several little groups of snoozing juvenile sea lions. And then we stood next to them. And the guide told us all about them, whilst they lazily flapped their flippers and occasionally opened their eyes and looked at us in a disinterested manner. It was really intense. And then we walked between two groups of them (given what the guide had said about sea lions - they moved faster on sand than we could,; if they got aggressive, he'd stand between us and them to take on their aggression; that, generally, they were not worried about us, but we shouldn't get cocky - I was surprised that we wandering so close to them. But amazing to do). We were only ever around 5 or 6 metres away from them.
In the distance, we'd been able to see some penguins making their way out of the surf at the other end of the beach, and preparing to go up to their nests up on the sheer hill next to the beach. We went to a hide at that end of the beach, and watched more and more penguins pop out of the ocean and cool themselves down from their intensive swims, by standing with their wings stuck straight out and their heads back (what I call the "Darling I'm home and I'm faaaabulous" stance).
Then we went up to the upper hide, which is above and opposite the nesting area. Those poor little short legged penguins, making their way up this cruel hill to their nests, only to be followed around by penguin chicks (often not their own!!) demanding food. It's a hard life to be a penguin.
I had a moment walking to the hide, where I was behind a big green cloth which should help hide us from the penguins, but was wearing a bright red parka (it was fecking cold and windy) that really couldn't be hidden, and on the other side of the cloth was a cooling down penguin, staring straight at me. It was very very cool.
We made our way back down to the beach, where the sea lions were getting warmed up to go out fishing. They do this by barking at each other and mock fighting. Mock it might be, but something about the barking went straight to the "Danger, danger!!" section of my brain. We stood, 6 metres away, chatting and looking at this big fucking sea lions having fights and getting their blood ready for killing. Really quite intense and scary, but tremendously exhilirating.
And then we walked between the now very noisy groups again!!! There was so much adrenalin pumping around my body that I was shaking. It was amazing.
We went back to the blue penguins, who were preparing to venture out (there was almost a full beak peeking out of the nest!!) and said goodbye, and then went across to the fur seal colony.
Which was up about three more 'hills', and then down another one. Stupid walking.
We were in a hide above the fur seal colony, watching the reunions between mothers and cubs. The cubs make the most heart rending calls, it was really hard to listen to them. You're aware that all they're doing is going "Hungry!! Feed me!! Feed me now!!", but the call is so pathetic, it brought tears to my eyes.
Because I'm a complete sop.
On the way home (note how I gloss over the walk back up all of the 'hills' to the tour bus?) we saw a Morepork.
The beach is part of a massive conservation effort, the ecotour is small and incredibly informative, the experience is something I am unlikely ever to repeat, and, if nothing else, I have heard the call of the Yellow Eyed penguin. Which is bloody loud.
The ecotour has a limit of ten people per party (though there are three tours going at once), and takes you through a variety of wildlife habitats and viewing.
We started off with birdwatching (which, given that I appear to be turning into a bird geek) was awfully fun. We saw a Royal Spoonbill and Pied Oystercatchers and a Kingfisher and...well, lots of native and introduced birds. Very cool.
Then we went to see juvenile Royal Albatrosses doing their gliding and circling and flying for days and days and not landing thing. The area where they nest is unusual, as it is on the mainland - usually albatrosses nest on islands. However, it is a small spit of land jutting out into the sea, so it does have the feel of an island. Watching an albatross while it's showing off is truly amazing, they are catching the wind currents and gliding through the air with absolute stillness.
The major part of the ecotour is the penguin reserve, which is on a beach adjacent to farmland. So we had to walk down a couple of 'hills' (which, as anyone who has been to New Zealand knows, are not what normal human beings would call hills. They are...well, not mountains, but they're too intensely craggy and steep to warrant the fluffy epithet of hills), that are often the home to many sheep. Sheep shit dodging time. I'm fairly good at that, but some of my tour companions were not (after we got back to the hostel, a couple of girls spent the better part of an hour trying to clean the soles of their shoes).
Down on the beach, the first thing we saw was a tiny hole in a rock at the base of the hill, and inside, peeking shyly out, were a pair of Blue Penguins. Above the, on the hill, were a couple of cool as a cucumber Yellow Eyed Penguins. These were displaying unusual behaviour for penguins, what with the not running away in the face of a group of big non penguin things (especially as Yellow Eyed Penguins are incredibly antisocial, and hide from one another, let alone not-penguins).
I had never realised that penguins nested in grasses or scrub. I guess I've always just had the image of the Antarctic penguin habitat, and completely forgotten that they're, well, birds.
We made our way down the beach, to where there were several little groups of snoozing juvenile sea lions. And then we stood next to them. And the guide told us all about them, whilst they lazily flapped their flippers and occasionally opened their eyes and looked at us in a disinterested manner. It was really intense. And then we walked between two groups of them (given what the guide had said about sea lions - they moved faster on sand than we could,; if they got aggressive, he'd stand between us and them to take on their aggression; that, generally, they were not worried about us, but we shouldn't get cocky - I was surprised that we wandering so close to them. But amazing to do). We were only ever around 5 or 6 metres away from them.
In the distance, we'd been able to see some penguins making their way out of the surf at the other end of the beach, and preparing to go up to their nests up on the sheer hill next to the beach. We went to a hide at that end of the beach, and watched more and more penguins pop out of the ocean and cool themselves down from their intensive swims, by standing with their wings stuck straight out and their heads back (what I call the "Darling I'm home and I'm faaaabulous" stance).
Then we went up to the upper hide, which is above and opposite the nesting area. Those poor little short legged penguins, making their way up this cruel hill to their nests, only to be followed around by penguin chicks (often not their own!!) demanding food. It's a hard life to be a penguin.
I had a moment walking to the hide, where I was behind a big green cloth which should help hide us from the penguins, but was wearing a bright red parka (it was fecking cold and windy) that really couldn't be hidden, and on the other side of the cloth was a cooling down penguin, staring straight at me. It was very very cool.
We made our way back down to the beach, where the sea lions were getting warmed up to go out fishing. They do this by barking at each other and mock fighting. Mock it might be, but something about the barking went straight to the "Danger, danger!!" section of my brain. We stood, 6 metres away, chatting and looking at this big fucking sea lions having fights and getting their blood ready for killing. Really quite intense and scary, but tremendously exhilirating.
And then we walked between the now very noisy groups again!!! There was so much adrenalin pumping around my body that I was shaking. It was amazing.
We went back to the blue penguins, who were preparing to venture out (there was almost a full beak peeking out of the nest!!) and said goodbye, and then went across to the fur seal colony.
Which was up about three more 'hills', and then down another one. Stupid walking.
We were in a hide above the fur seal colony, watching the reunions between mothers and cubs. The cubs make the most heart rending calls, it was really hard to listen to them. You're aware that all they're doing is going "Hungry!! Feed me!! Feed me now!!", but the call is so pathetic, it brought tears to my eyes.
Because I'm a complete sop.
On the way home (note how I gloss over the walk back up all of the 'hills' to the tour bus?) we saw a Morepork.
The beach is part of a massive conservation effort, the ecotour is small and incredibly informative, the experience is something I am unlikely ever to repeat, and, if nothing else, I have heard the call of the Yellow Eyed penguin. Which is bloody loud.
