Post Two

This the second attempt to post a blog before we leave for Oz onThursday. I am hoping that Roo's computer skills will supersede mine and we'll be able to make something more presentable in the next few weeks. Until then, you'll have to put up with this noddy version from me. Now where were we. Oh yes, whale watching.

The boat was staffed by a combination of adept Maori captain and wildlife watcher and two white student types, one of whom gave an excellent commentary with lots of help from the high tech vidio equipment on board. We learned lots about marine life and whales and I must say it made me think that I must convert to using Ecovert products in the future. To think that these beautiful creatures are rapidly diminishing in numbers due to the muck we put into our waters is a salutory consideration.One of the stydent types was a graduate from Southampton Uni who had specialised in Marine Biology and was now learning how to be a whale watcher. On the way back from the whales we say a school of dusky dolphis playing around the boat and there were many albatross and other wonderful seabirds flying and feeding all around us.

After we had disembarked we wandered around Kaikura which is a lovely town and went to see the seal colony at the end of the peninsular. Stephen found plenty of seals on the beach to photograph and nearly stepped on one while attempting get a good close up of another

We went back to the motel very content with the day and I slept for nearly 12 hours. On monday we began to make our way back down towards Christchurch and the Banks peninsular. This was just as well because the road was full of traffic coming into Kaikura for the horse trotting races.(Kiwis are very fond of horse racing too!) We were glad that we were travelling in the other direction.

The Banks peninsular is an amazing piece of land. It was formed by two massive volcanic explosions which created craters now filled with water. The impression is that you are in a hollow surrounded by mountains. On the way we stopped at Willowbank Wildlife centre and saw three categories of wildlife- wild animals that had been introduced intyo New Zealnd by settlers, domestic breeds introduced by the colonists and finally indigenous wildlife. New Zealand has no native mammales because it separated from the land mass of which Antarctic is part before mammals developed but they have plenty of marvellous birds, reptiles and sea creatures, We caught sight of three shy Kiwis, the native bird in a dark, nocturnal house and were glad to have seen such a rare, endangered bird. Willowbank is carrying out a breeding programme for the different types of kiwis in NZ and realsing them back in the wild when they are old enouight to defend themselves from predators introduced by europeans like ferrets, possums and weasels.

We then headed on to Akaroa at the tip of the Banks peninsular which was has relatives of oringinal French settlers and streets which are named in French. Every year in September they hold a race d'escargots and a french waiter's race! The Banks peninsular was discovered by Captain Cook and is named after his naturalist Sir Joseph Banks. We discovered a wonderful museum at Okains bay which has many many archelogical artefacts related to maori settlents and culture and also of their interaction with the european settlers. it seemed preferable to learn about maori culture in this way rather than from some ersatz Maori cultural show that you can find in many places. the museum had a Maori God stick dating from 1400 and some wonderful examples of handiwork made from flax and feathers as well as an ornately carved meeting house and 62 ft canoes.

On tuesady we headed back to Timaru via Lttle river where there is a wonderful art gallery and cafe. I had the first proper bowl of salad I could find which was chick pea, pumpkin, macadamia nut, parmesan and sundried tomato pesto with salad greens - a little unusual but delicious!