Tigger World MWO Tour

[Sweaty Betty]

Tigger World MWO Tour

Hey Missy B you should work for the NZ tourist board! Am loving the pics.

xx

[tawnyfrog]

Tigger World MWO Tour

Bets - I really hope he gets to spend some time with you also.

[Sweaty Betty]

Tigger World MWO Tour

I am hoping for a visit

[greeneyes]

Tigger World MWO Tour

MARVELOUS!!!

[rubywillow]

Tigger World MWO Tour

Lovely, B, just lovely. Having carried Tigs around with me for a while, I feel like I'm there with him! I've always thought I'd want to visit there; now I'm SURE!

[tiptronic_ct]

Tigger World MWO Tour

I knew zilch about NZ before now - except that they rival the Australians in sheep farming, and have the All Blacks...

[Miss Behaving]

Tigger World MWO Tour

Kia ora te whanau!

We had another really nice day today ........ started off with a swim in Oriental Bay (I stayed in the car!) then off to another great breakfast place. This one is right by a very sheltered beach, and off the beaten track, and a more lovely start to the day you just cant imagine!!



We did a whole lot of things in the morning, but then we went to the best place to visit in Wellington that there is!! This is Zealandia, which is a wildlife sanctuary.

Wildlife in New Zealand is very different from wildlife in South Africa. When NZ separated out from the rest of Gondwanaland about 80 million years ago, there were no land mammals ..... only birds, bats, lizards, reptiles and invertebrates. So as time went on, NZ birds evolved in all sorts of strange ways. Like, they have birds that don?t even fly (like the kiwi), and birds that have their nests on the ground! And others that are so tame that they are quite happy to come and sit on your shoulder (mostly to try to take the lunch in your hands!), and don?t realise that they are supposed to be scared of tigers!

So, natives birds and other critters were very prone to predators (pigs, dogs, cats, rats, stoats, weasels, etc) once they arrived with both Maori and European settlers .... and lots of native wildlife has been threatened with extinction as a result.

Anyway, Zealandia is a pest- and predator- free place that tries to make sure that native flora and fauna can have a space free of introduced predators . It has been going for about 20 years now and is an amazing place. We came and had a picnic lunch here with a couple of Paradise Shelducks and looking out over some wetlands ....





But the most amazing part of this place is how it sounds and which cant be captured by pictures. Basically we spent the afternoon listening to the birds. This is what it sounds like (really!):

Home page for the ZEALANDIA: The Karori Sanctuary Experience in Wellington New Zealand

I wanted to see a kiwi, but they are nocturnal. I did see kereru, kaka and hihi but they were hard to photograph. But here is a tui!!



Also, 2 types of tuatara!! (The green one is quite rare and Miss B has never seen one before so she was very excited. So excited that she knocked me off the fence and I had to be rescued by a ranger!!)

[Miss Behaving]

Tigger World MWO Tour

And wetas. Ugly beasts, and this one was a baby compared to the ones that Betty brings in from the back yard, but at the Sanctuary they are breeding the Cook Strait weta which can grow to 27cm long. Gross!

[greeneyes]

Tigger World MWO Tour

Oh this is grand, Miss B!!!

[tiptronic_ct]

Tigger World MWO Tour

Wow!

We've just spent about 45 minutes looking and listening!

[tiptronic_ct]

Tigger World MWO Tour

Thank feck there doesn't seem to be any animals that resemble headless Barbies in NZ...

***Phew***

[greeneyes]

Tigger World MWO Tour

He ain't left yet, ya know!! Hummm, now where is that headless barbie? I did have one last shot I was scared to post but I'd best let you know......

[tiptronic_ct]

Tigger World MWO Tour

greeneyes;825659 wrote: He ain't left yet, ya know!! Hummm, now where is that headless barbie? I did have one last shot I was scared to post but I'd best let you know......

OMG!!!!!!!

Just as I mentioned on the Army Thread that I've been sleeping well, my insomnia is about to return!

[Sweaty Betty]

Tigger World MWO Tour

I'm loving this, and have to visit! BTW I don't know what Tigger's itinerary is, but I'm not available for a visit until end of April.

xx

[stirly-girly]

Tigger World MWO Tour

Miss Behaving;825550 wrote: And wetas. Ugly beasts, and this one was a baby compared to the ones that Betty brings in from the back yard, but at the Sanctuary they are breeding the Cook Strait weta which can grow to 27cm long. Gross!

Just to give you all a better idea of what this creature is that MissB's been introducing Tigger to.....
Wikipedia says this

Weta is the name applied to about 70 insect species endemic to New Zealand. There are many similar species around the world, though most are in the southern hemisphere. The name comes from the Māori word 'wētā' and is the same in the plural (like 'sheep'). The Māori for the Giant Weta is 'wētā punga' (lumpy or jointed weta), sometimes rendered in English as 'god of ugly things'.

And here is a picture of it.......Creepers....keep that thing away from Tigger!!!