14 April

We just bid our friends Phil and Rosanne goodbye (12 April). They had a week of clouds and rain in Wellington. Finally, this morning, we decided to take a chance and go to Zealandia, a wonderful bird sanctuary. When we got there, it began to rain, but once we started out, we ended up with a great morning, probably more populated by birds because of the early rain. We got to see tuis (love their songs! See video), fantails, whiteheads, bellbirds, kakas (large parrots), takahes (very rare flightless birds), and pied shags, along with green geckos, tree wetas, and tuataras (dinosaur-age reptiles). It was a beautiful walk, and the birdsong was wonderful.

The three muskateers :)

A Kaka

Kaka

Takahe

Takahe pair

Tuatara

Base of Zealandia

Pied shag

Pied shag

I also did a video of tuis, shags, and takahes. It is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1fxsmuEQnE

I also caught up other videos. Here are two from when Brendan did his dolphin swim at Kaikoura and I stayed onboard to photo and video onboard.

Part One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIR8FPACdSo

Part Two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Z7q7Uxr_0

Both are amazing to show the hundreds of dolphins we saw.

After six weeks of company (with only a three-day break), it feels odd not to have others here! We have now been here for 3 ½ months, with 4 ½ to go.  It is flying by. This week and next are short ones at work, as Good Friday and Easter Monday are holidays. Our first anniversary is this Friday, so we will look for a good place for a nice dinner! We decided not to travel over the holiday, as we will be spending holiday money in July to go to Australia. The weather forecast is not especially good, either. We may try for a day trip if we get a sunny day.