Showing posts with label tuatara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tuatara. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Wellington: South Coast and Zealandia Wildlife Sanctuary

I went up to Wellington for a conference but had a few days before it started to relax and enjoy the outdoors with some people who were visiting. The flight there was smooth and I couldn't help noticing how the traveler/tourist's impression when flying Air New Zealand must be one of that 'clean, green' image they're trying so hard to promote. The hot drink cup was all about conservation, and the CookieTime cookie had a forest with kiwis all over it (never mind that the kiwis are struggling to survive with all of the introduced predators and people not having to keep their pets indoors). But the view of the snow-capped mountains was gorgeous as usual.

It was my second time visiting Zealandia Wildlife Reserve, but it was a good day for it - sunny with a breeze. I saw tuatara and birds and cool plants. Listening to the birdsong never gets old.







The World War I exhibit at Te Papa Museum was put together by Weta Workshop (Peter Jackson's) and featured huge soldiers and a nurse with audio and interactive components. It was cool and the features on the people were very lifelike, with hair and sweat and cuts and dirt. I was a little disappointed that the only woman, the nurse, was portrayed in such a feminine pose, crying and hunched over, rather than doing something related to her work.





A local recommended checking out the south coast of Wellington, and that was a beautiful spot, even though it meant that we were walking around the peninsula in the hot sunshine on one of the few days that it actually gets like that! The view of the South Island with the snow-capped mountain in the distance was beautiful. And the red rocks area was cool. The washed-up seaweed made cool patterns when it dried.











Monday, April 27, 2015

Wellington: Zealandia and Cable Car Museum

The next day we spent hours at Zealandia, a wildlife reserve with an anti-predatory fence around it to enable birds and reptiles to flourish in a managed rainforest just outside of Wellington. We walked some of the trails, surrounded by birdsong and enjoying many sightings of birds, and even a tuatara lizard and some weta bugs. There was also an old mining cave with lots of weta on the walls -- we got out of there pretty fast!




Tui are black with white tufts under their beaks
shags (cormorants) on their nests with babies

Takahe
Takahe
Can you see the tuatara lizard? (hint: right in the center)

Saddlebacks (named for orange feathers on their back)

large eel

ferns are one of the national symbols

There used to be a reservoir until they discovered it was on the fault line.

This robin was hoping to snag some crumbs from our lunch.

weta bug

New Zealand's native pigeon

old mining cave

pine tree that looked really cool

sweet orange mushroom!

Next we went to the Cable Car Museum at the top of a big hill with great views of Wellington. We also rode it down and up, although it is enclosed and not as fun as the cable cars in San Francisco.