Week 9

Week 9

     Monday was the day of departures.  Kara, Alex, Terry and I all left Queenstown on three different flights.  Kara and Alex flew to Auckland and then on to Chicago, ready to start back to work the next day.  Terry and I flew to Auckland on different flights; his being delayed several times so he didn’t get home until late.  We really enjoyed our time with Kara and Alex and were so glad they made the trip.

Not too many adventures this week.  I met my friend Karena for lunch at University of Auckland one day.  Later in the week Terry and I met up with Dave and Sue Anderson, and Sue’s mom Dee, people we had met on a wine tour, and heard about the rest of their travels.  Sue’s mom celebrated her 91^st birthday in Auckland. 

     My favorite day this week was Sunday when we took the ferry with Terry’s colleague & family to Tiritiri Matangi, a bird sanctuary.  It was a drizzling, grey, dreary day and one that I would not have picked as the day to go.  But we had reservations on the ferry so we packed our lunch, wore our waterproof jackets and hats, and departed at 9am.  The 75 minute ferry ride was very enjoyable and we had time to converse with fellow travelers including a woman on business with a biotech company, a software developer from Germany who quit his job to do some traveling, a professor from University of TX, Austin, who swapped jobs, houses, cars and pets with a New Zealand professor for the semester. 

     On the island we had a small group tour (only 6 in our group) with a wonderful guide who was able to identify every bird by sight, sound and flight and who helped us appreciate all the work that has been done to preserve the bird sanctuary.  At one time it was farmland but in the 1990s volunteers planted 280,000 native trees.  Several people described the island as a Jurassic Park setting.  Boardwalks have been built over the entire island and there is a beautiful visitor center at the top.  We saw many New Zealand birds: tui, oystercatcher, saddleback, kakarikis, pukeko, whitehead, stichbird, bellbird and more.  The volunteers and rangers work hard to protect endangered birds, keep the island pest-free and provide learning opportunities for visitors.  Tiritiri Matangi is considered to be one of the world’s most successful volunteer conservation projects. ­­­

After our return, we went to the home of Cather, Terry’s colleague, for a delicious beef stew dinner.  We were refreshed by our day outside in a beautiful setting.  We surely slept well that night!