Since Erica just graduated with a degree in Environmental Science, she was interested in doing some conservation work in New Zealand while they were here.
So they signed up to go to Motuora Island to help the ranger. They camped all week but had access to kitchen and shower facilities. Motuora Island is a kiwi bird sanctuary where they allow kiwi babies to live in a controlled environment - an island without predators - before they are big enough to be released on the mainland. Kiwis, a flightless bird, are endangered and revered in this country. Most Kiwis (people) have never seen a live kiwi (bird), especially in the wild. But Nolan did. One night he went out with his flashlight (I mean 'torch') and saw one. According to Nolan and Erica, kiwis are also really noisy at night (they're nocturnal). At first, this seemed pretty exotic to be listening to genuine kiwis squawk at night.
Then it became a little annoying. Eventually they just wished the stupid birds would shut the heck up.On Motuora Island, the Dept. of Conservation (shortened to DoC, pronounced "dock") is also trying to restore native trees and there is a conservation society that supports this effort and organises a planting day for its members. One of Nolan and Erica's jobs was to prepare for the members/helpers and to oversee their planting. On other days, Nolan and Erica cleared bamboo and built a solar panel for the ranger's building.
Overall, it was a pretty cool experience for them, and not the sort of thing a tourist usually does. They went swimming in the ocean a few times and Erica collected LOTS of shells. They also got to see heaps of pukekos, a bird with long stick legs and big feet that walks like it's wearing clown shoes. They're blue and colourful, and cute.
As I said, after all that excitement last week, they were ready to stay home and relax a bit.
So we decided to go see a few things around Auckland. On our first day, we went to meet Curt for lunch at the Winter Garden (see photo at left), walked to the Art Gallery, and then the Sky Tower. I'm afraid they didn't get to relax much after all.The Sky Tower looks quite a bit like Seattle's Space needle except not as elegant. We took the express elevator to the viewing level and admired the view. We could see Rangitoto, the volcanic island we'd hiked up last month. We could see the ridge where our house supposedly was, somewhere in Meadowbank. We could see One Tree Hill (which doesn't have a tree ) and Devonport across the bridge. We could even see all the way to Coromandel Peninsula, where Nolan and Erica had gone for one of their getaways.
As you may know, New Zealand is the birthplace of bungy jumping and this country is overflowing with similar extreme experiences.
On the Sky Tower, a person can "freefall" from the top while attached to a cable that essentially lowers him as fast as he would fall. But it stops him part-way down, so he can hover in front of the viewing level and wave to his friends. While we were admiring the views, a guy suddenly dropped into sight outside our window, dangled there for a few seconds (see the guy wearing blue & yellow jumpsuit in the photo), then continued "falling" to the ground as the cable eventually slowed him down and landed him gently on the target. I've got to tell you, it's rather disconcerting to see someone flying by. The other opportunity for a thrill at the Sky Tower is their glass floors.
While you're up on the viewing level, you can obviously look out - but you can also look directly down to the footpath through the glass floors. (notice our "frightened faces" in the photo, and notice the glass below our feet) In addition, you can see down while riding in the glass-floored elevator, which is bad enough. It's a long way down. I don't like looking down. Well, that was more than enough thrill for us for one day. And not enough relaxing. So we headed back home to take a nap.
No comments:
Post a Comment