It's all about the ducks...

Okay, so all the tramping and diving and stuff has been really cool, but lets face it, I only really came here for the ducks, and their mates the birds, and the penguins and the seals, and the sealions and, and.....

The first photo is of a Kea, they are alpine parrots with vivid green plumage, and red bits under their wings that you only see when they fly. We'd heard them quite a few times, and I'd been on the look out for them. This was our first sighting in Milford Sound, when two of them came along and tried to steal from our BBQ! Supposedly they can be quite naughty, and have been known to rip off windscreen wipers to try and get into cars for food. This is because humans fed them too much, and they are forgetting how to act naturally and forage for their own food. So I was good and didn't feed them...

The close up is a Grey Duck, kinda like Mallards, but not as common (classy ducks only please). While we were in Queenstown Tom went up a mountain, I went part of the way with him, then snuck back down to fed the ducks (and the fish actually, in a really cool underwater observatory).

No photos, but yesterday was one of my most geek-alicious. We're still in Dunedin (van is being welded today), so went to the Otago Penisular, where all the wildlife hangs out. We'd had a late one the night before, so while Tom recuperated I went on a tour to see the Royal Albatros colony. Its the only mainland colony in the world, and we timed it well as there are chicks at the momet - only 5 weeks old, but about the size of a small turkey already. When Mum / Dad swoops in with the food its amazing, the parents are huge, 1m body, and 3m from wing tip - wing tip. When the chicks fly off they don't touch land again for at last 5 years (when they come back to mate), and can travel up to 500km a day. Also at the colony were hundreds of other breeding sea birds, including Stewart Island Shags (v. rare I'm told), spotted shags, fur seals and a slightly embarassed moulting yellow eyed penguin.

Speaking of penguins...... that evening at sunset we went down to the beach to watch the blue penguins waddle in. After a hard days fishing they surf in on the waves, waddle across the beach, then up into their nests. We saw five come in, I think more came in later, but it was pretty dark by this time and weeing with rain so we headed back.

It's geat here. Jos