Down by the (Curio) Bay

Yesterday, I went on a little day trip to Curio Bay with Geoff, Bryce, Emmet and Kate.  It was great to get out of Dunedin for a little while to explore New Zealand some more.  We rented a car and I was the designated driver.  Things went pretty well with Kate as my co-pilot.

We stopped for a second to stretch our legs, take a break from playing 20 Questions, and take a picture of this rainbow:

Our first stop was the Jurassic fossil forest.  At low tide we saw the stone remains of tree stumps and logs.

After all that fresh air, we needed a tea/coffee break.  The place we stopped at just happened to be near Niagraa Falls!

Turns out, it was nothing more than a bump in the water.  It was given the name by a surveyor with a sense of humor.

Next up, a pit stop at Nugget Point.  I really enjoyed the short walk to the lighthouse.

Today, we took another trip, but headed to the peninsula this time.  Our final destination was the Royal Albatross Centre.  It wasn't windy enough for them to be out and about.

I had one minor goof-up with my driving today.  We made a wrong turn, so I pulled over to turn around and my brain didn't process the change in direction very well - I ended up on the right hand side of the road and a car was headed straight for us.  No big deal to move over, though!  The second driving "uh oh" moment occurred when we took the wrong road to the albatross colony.  The roads here are half the size of roads in the U.S. and on one side of the road was a cliff and on the other was the side of a hill - not much room to maneuver! We had to use team work to get the car turned around - my 3-point turn turned into a 12-point turn because I was SO nervous that I'd drive us over the cliff, even with Geoff out of the car directing me!  Despite a few hiccups today, I'm feeling much more confident with my driving. Yay!

Do I see a New Zealand driver license in my future? Stay tuned!

Protecting Penguins

Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL day here in New Zealand!  I was thrilled to spend a day out on the peninsula at Natures Wonders to help put up predator-proof fencing.

These aren't your typical lions, tigers, and bears kind of predators, though.  They are loathed little critters like opossums, hedgehogs, rabbits and mice.  These introduced pests have been quite naughty, especially when it comes to albatross and penguin eggs.  The idea is to protect the land with the fence and eradicate the little buggers with poison.

The actual task at hand was pretty self-explanatory.  A group of students helped to staple down a "skirt" of fence with small holes onto a fence with bigger holes.  My job was lugging around rocks to weigh down the bottom edge of the fence so that grass could grow through and secure it in place.

Albatross Colony...

Transportation on the farm...

Perry Reider (owner) explaining how the fencing works...

Our task: go up the hill and down the other side with the new fencing...

A good portion done before lunch...

Ocean!!!

View of the Otago Harbour from where we were putting up fencing...

Perry's family owns all this land...

It's a fully operational sheep farm...

The sheep have a great view, huh?

We took a small break for lunch, and then it was back to work...

Not a bad view in the background...

So, Perry is very proud and passionate about his work and wool.  He wanted to share what it's like to do a tour of Nature's Wonders by demonstrating how to shear the wool off one of these sheep...

Perry showing us how they use the dog to herd sheep...

Blogger won't let me upload the video of the sheep getting sheared. Boooo!

I felt very fortunate that we had the opportunity to spend time at such a neat place for the day!  If anyone is looking for a neat activity for an afternoon, I'd definitely recommend a trip to visit Perry.