Flat Lily meets the real Lily!

Flat Lily is happy to be home!

Statistics on today's journey from Christchurch to Nashville:
28 hours door-to-door
4 different airplanes
4 pilots announcing, "Flight attendants, please prepare for departure and cross-check."
5 major cities: Christchurch, Auckland, Los Angeles, Dallas, Nashville
2 Wednesday-morning sunrises (one in Christchurch, one off the coast of Los Angeles)
1 major itinerary gaffe, leading to . . .
1 brand new international ticket on Qantas Airlines
3 climates (winter cold in Christchurch, L.A. neutral, and heavy summer heat in both Dallas and Nashville)
1 extraordinary friend picking me up at the airport by surprise
2 heavy bags, now unpacked
23 varieties of penguin souvenirs (finger puppets, wooden carvings, books, stuffed animals, necklaces, snowglobes, etc.)
2 T-Mobile hot spots (only had to pay once!)
1 extremely happy cat at Colorado Avenue, looking as penguin-esque as ever and purring up a storm

All good wishes go out to everyone who kept up with my trip, and all the Kiwis and Aussies who kept me company and helped me along the way. Special thanks to Theresa who took gentle care of the very temperamental Steve, and also sent me e-mail updates. Many thanks to sweet Lily G. for introducing me to Flat Stanley and helping me create Flat Lily, my faithful traveling companion. Thanks to A.-J. and the Sisters of Sion for the amazing Australian adventure. I am most grateful to Gail, Kelly, and little Nikita for making 10 Ballance Street feel less like a bed and breakfast and more like a second home. Thank you for folding me into your life there and making my days so comfortable and fun. I am glad to be home, but I will miss my little life in Christchurch, a paradise even in the midst of winter, a place I hope to see again very soon.

mmr

Flat Lily meets a Dallas cowboy!

It's hot in Dallas

One last layover, and everything's going well. I'll be home very soon!

It's warm in Los Angeles

By the grace of the nice folks at Qantas Airlines, I have made it a few steps closer to home today. Auckland to Los Angeles took eleven hours, and I slept for six of those hours and ate a great meal. My last-minute ticket purchase somehow landed me in a bulk-head seat, so I could have my feet up the whole time. I'm waiting around LAX (sort of a weird place) for my flight to Dallas, and then I'll wait around there for my flight to Nashville, arriving at 10:30 p.m., just like the original itinerary.

This might be one of the last posts on this blog, so many thanks to everyone who read along and shared my trip with me. Flat Lily will find herself a permanent home with the Real Lily back in Sylvan Park, and maybe one day she'll take some more trips as Lily herself starts to travel around. Thanks to you, and be in touch! With love - Maria

Flat Lily reads her itinerary wrong!

When I bought my plane ticket for this trip, I transferred all the information onto a master itinerary with all my travel details in New Zealand and Australia. I carefully recorded all the flight numbers and connecting times for Wednesday, June 20. When I arrived at the airport today, I found out that I had recorded everything correctly - except the date! I was supposed to leave yesterday, June 19. I have never made an organizational error this big in my life! After about forty-five minutes with the helpful agents at Qantas Airlines, I emerged with a new ticket that will get me home on time (and a bit more expensive trip than I had planned! ). It's all good, though. As the Kiwis would say: no worries! I'm in Auckland now, on my way home.

Last morning in Christchurch

With Stevi B. on the front porch at the bed and breakfast, ready to leave for the airport.


Last toast, and breakfast all around with Roxy, Kelly, Nikita, and Gail (pointing out how much butter I slathered on my toast!).

Flat Lily goes out to dinner!

Last week's penguin guide, Stevi, drove up to Christchurch from Dunedin just to take me out to dinner for my last night in New Zealand. Gail fixed him up with a room here at the bed and breakfast, and he's going to drop me at the airport tomorrow on his way home. We had a fantastic meal at Ferment, a restaurant alongside the River Avon in the Christchurch city center.

Christchurch Mornings

Mornings at home in Christchurch usually find Kelly and me in our pajamas well past noon, catching up on the New Zealand soap, "Shortland Street," or buttering up our daily toast. Gail often drops by to dote on baby Nikita, dancing her all around the house and singing songs from "The Sound of Music" in her beautiful voice. Roxy, the toast-loving Jack Russell terrier, is always close by. This little house at the beach has been such a warm and restful vacation spot for me, and I am so thankful to Gail and Kelly (and Nikita and Roxy) for welcoming me into their family life. Below are some shots from my last Tuesday morning on Ballance Street.

Moeraki Boulders

Thanks again to Shera, who suggested I stop at Moeraki (pronounced moah-ROCK-y) on the drive between Dunedin to Christchurch. Moeraki Beach is located about 40 km (25 mi) south of Oamaru, about an hour out of Dunedin for me on Saturday morning. Scattered along the beach are these large, curiously round boulders that have been the source of much fascination for many years.

Here is the Maori explanation for the Moeraki boulders (happily plagiarized from my $6 gift-shop brochure):
The Ngai Tahu people of the area relate the boulders to the wreck of the great canoe Arai Te Uru. As it was traveling south, the canoe foundered in a storm near Matakaea (Shag Point, which is nearby). Its cargo was washed up on the nearby beaches - the round food baskets and water gourds are Te Kai Hinaki (the Moeraki Boulders), while the seed kumara (sweet potatoes) are the irregularly shaped boulders further south.

Now, the scientists' explanation:
The boulders look as though they were washed up onto the shore, but a geologist would direct your attention in the opposite direction. The Moreaki Boulders were once buried in mudstone cliffs at the back of the beach. For millions of years the sea has been eroding these cliffs, washing away the soft mudstone which surrounds the resistant boulders. In the process, the cliffs have constantly slumped seaward and the boulders have been left lying on the shoreline. There are countless more still embedded in the mudstone waiting to be uncovered.

Personally, I think the Maori explanation is a bit more interesting.


On the beach at Moeraki, I spotted this confident little bird strutting along the water. Best I can figure, it's a black-winged stilt, also known as a pied stilt. Has anyone seen this bird before?

As interesting as the boulders were, I was more captivated by the tiny, colorful, spiral shells that covered the beach at Moeraki. They were everywhere, but I don't know what kind of fish they held (maybe snails?). All of the ones I picked up were empty. The whole beach was scattered with these, and I thought they were just exquisite.

Lamb and Parrots

After my early-morning penguin encounter, I rested up and then walked across town to the Dunedin Botanic Gardens. I have to give credit for the second half of my day in Dunedin to my friend Shera, who suggested a visit to the Gardens and also provided me with a fabulous dinner recommendation. Shera had told me about the Gardens' aviary, where parrots are likely to engage in some New Zealand-accented conversation. The aviary was just incredible, with so many beautifully colored, rare species. New Zealand is home to a variety of birds not found in any other part of the world, including the kakapo, a flightless parrot, and the kea, the world's only mountain-dwelling parrot, both on display at the Botanic Gardens aviary. Below are a few contemplative parrots and one parakeet.

I worked my way through all the birds, eagerly anticipating the talking parrots. Finally I reached a section of the aviary with signs explaining that these parrots could talk and listing the things they could say. A particularly talkative parrot, Sid (I could identify him from the description and picture), flew up to me and stayed close by, but didn't say much at first. Then, a deep, gravelly voice asked, "What's up?" It was Sid! In the video below, you can hear Sid's deep voice, and if you miss what he's saying, just wait for me to repeat it back to him. He was probably not impressed with my intelligent conversation.

A few minutes before, I was trying to coax Sid (or any parrot) to say something. The crimson-chested parrot is trying to communicate with me (or so I like to think) by dragging his beak back and forth against the grill of the aviary enclosure. Then a helicopter flew over. I didn't notice it, but the birds went wild. You can see Sid's yellow crest, usually flat against the back of his head, rise up in great alarm. He is also doing this in the photograph below, trying to get attention from me and another visitor. The sound of the parrots going berserk is really something.


While I was talking to Sid (or trying to), I met Sandra, who lives on a farm about an hour and a half away from Dunedin and visits the Botanic Gardens whenever she's in town. She is an active volunteer with the Department of Conservation, and she taught me a lot about the birds, who were more than willing to talk to her. She and her husband offered to give me a ride back into town (about a mile), which was much appreciated because by that time it was freezing. They helped me find the restaurant Shera had recommended for me which is on the Octagon at the center of town, and dropped me off there.

The restaurant, Café Nova, is attached to the city's public art gallery. It's a small and unassuming place, but the food was incredible. I had the soup of the day, which was wild mushroom, and then I decided to try New Zealand's specialty, which is lamb. I ordered "Horopito Rubbed Lamb Rump with mash potato, wilted spinach and vinaigrette." I'm not usually a fan of lamb, but I ate every bite of this dish. For dessert I had "Tiramisu in a glass." This was hands-down my best meal in New Zealand. Many thanks to Shera for such a lovely day in Dunedin!

Six Little Penguins

Watch the little black dots (sometimes more like a little blur) move left to right, towards and over the second rock from the right of the screen, then up into the water. Those are the penguins!

Sandfly Bay

At 6:35 a.m., my guides arrived in a van outside the bed and breakfast to pick me up for the morning hike. Our goal was to hike up to the penguin hide by sunrise and see a few yellow-eyed penguins make their way down the cliff and out to sea. My guides were Stephen Broni (who goes by Stevi B.), and Sharon, a guide-in-training who was mainly there to observe, from Nature Guides Otago. I noticed immediately that Stevi's accent was different, and then I realized he sounded just like Desmond on "Lost." "Are you Scottish?" I asked him. Indeed he is Scottish (and so is the city Dunedin, by the way, where the Scottish were the first to settle and most of the churches are, as a result, Presbyterian).

We drove in the pitch dark out to the Otago Peninsula, winding around sharp curves along cliffs with no guardrails, and up steep hills on gravel roads. Finally we reached Sandfly Bay, and we hiked a few miles over soft sand dunes and some rocks to get to the penguin hide. Stevi had no problem with me taking pictures or video, so I did what I could in the dark morning. We were expecting the penguins at sunrise (between 7:30 and 8 a.m.), but they surprised us and appeared a little earlier than that. Six little yellow-eyed penguins hopped down the cliff and over the rocks, crossed the beach, and disappeared into the sea. It was brilliant! While I loved the little blue penguins at Phillip Island and Oamaru, those set-ups are very commercial and tourist-driven. Sandfly Bay was completely different. We were the only people for miles around, and certainly the only three people to see those six penguins that day.

We saw these penguin tracks on our way up the beach, so we knew at least on yellow-eyed penguin had already headed into the water. The tracks are especially distinctive because of the long middle toe - see how the toenail drags far out beyond the print?

Stevi and Sharon on the beach before sunrise.

Sandfly Bay as seen from the penguin hide. The penguins came down the cliff on the left, walked across the beach almost to the right border of the photograph, and dove into the waves.

Yellow-eyed penguins are the rarest penguins in the world, and they live only in New Zealand. There are only around 4,000 yellow-eyed penguins in existence. They get their name from the yellow band around the eyes and head, and the adult's yellow eyes. Yellow-eyed penguins are also called "hoiho," a Maori name meaning "noise shouter." And indeed, we heard them well before we saw them from the penguin hide. While we waited, Stevi regaled us with stories of penguin antics from his past. He has a master's degree in marine biology specializing in penguins, has traveled to Antarctica, and has an endless fund of ridiculous stories about the penguins he's encountered. In the video below, Stevi recounts the story of Lionel, a penguin he once knew in Africa. It was dark in the hide, so the image doesn't come in very clearly, but it's the story that matters.

Here are some close-up pictures of yellow-eyed penguins (not taken by me):



Six little yellow-eyed penguins heading out to sea on Friday morning (I took this one):



1. Stevi B. explains the Maori creation myth. 2. Climbing back up the rocks after sunrise.

1. A seal peeks over her shoulder to see what I'm doing. To her left is a clump of bull kelp, which is strewn along the beach. 2. A seagull poses motionlessly on the rocks.

These tracks indicate that sea lions have been on the beach. Stevi is very involved with the sea-lion conservation effort, and from his bag he produced the family tree of Otago's first sea lion to give birth on the shore, "Mum." We followed the tracks of several sea lions, but unfortunately they had all headed back into the water. Which may be a good thing for any yellow-eyed penguins remaining on shore, according to this article.

Many thanks to Stevi B. for the excellent adventure!

Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony

At the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony, like at Phillip Island in Australia, there is a strict prohibition against any form of photography, including video. I was able to take lots of pictures of the colony's conservation efforts, but any pictures of little blue penguins in this post are taken from their website.

First, I enjoyed a behind-the-scenes tour of the colony with my guide, Lynne, pictured below. She gave an overview of the life cycle and physical characteristics of the little blue penguin (the smallest penguin in the world at 30 cm tall), as well as a description of the colony's work tracking the statistical information of the penguins that nest there (who mates with whom, how many eggs are laid, etc.). There are several nest boxes set up in an indoor area with special lighting and viewing boxes for people. On Thursday, a penguin couple had decided to stay in for the day in nest number nine, so I was able to look in the viewing box and see the penguins up-close through the glass. They looked fat and happy, and Lynne said that sometimes couples stay behind in their nests all day for some "romantic bonding."

At Phillip Island, the little blue penguins (often called "fairy penguins" in Australia), came out of the water by way of a sandy beach and path. At Oamaru, however, the penguins came out of the water on a rocky shore and climbed up a difficult cliff before crossing a footpath and marching through the fence to their nest boxes. On Thursday evening just after sundown, forty-nine penguins clambered up to shore. They were unbelievably cute and clumsy, some of them tipping over as they walked, heaving themselves up the rocks on their stomachs, or losing their balance and falling back a few feet. In any case, the group of five or six penguins would wait for the other penguin to get his bearings and catch up; then they would move on. Seeing these little blue penguins come home for the night has to be one of the sweetest sights on earth.

1. Lynne explains the physical characteristics of the little blue penguin. The penguin's skeleton is much more dense and heavy than that of other birds, because its bones function as a sort of weight-belt to help with diving. Since it doesn't need to fly, light bones would only inhibit a penguin's ability to fish. 2. Young little blue penguins take a short break on the rocks.

1. A pair of little blue penguins hanging out at home. 2. Nesting boxes set into a small hill.

1. One of the nesting boxes (notice the trail of feathers leading out the door). Biologist observers check the penguins' armbands daily by lifting the stone and the roof of the box. This allows for minimum penguin disturbance. 2. A little blue penguin heads for the nest.

1. A little blue penguin navigates the rocky shore. 2. The beach where the little blue penguins struggle up the rocks and onto shore.

1. At the entrance and exit of Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony. The signs are not meant for humor; these are actual government traffic signs, put there because sometimes penguins wander past the nests and out into the road. 2. Me and the huge photo-op penguin in the gift shop.

Bushy Beach

I arrived in Oamaru with several hours to spare before my scheduled tour with the little blue penguins. A shopkeeper in town told me about the Bushy Beach Scenic Reserve, where she had seen yellow-eyed penguins on the beach as a child. She drew me a map, and I drove out there to see if I might catch any early penguins heading in for the night. At the penguin hide, there were a few other quiet penguin hopefuls, but it was a sunny day, early in the afternoon, and no penguins appeared. The scenery was beautiful, though, and it was neat to see all the sheep pastures perched above the ocean.

Take note of the sign at the entrance to Bushy Beach. These are allowed: people, people with disabilities, penguins, and information. Dogs are definitely not allowed. If penguins had arrived, they would have washed up on the beach pictured below just before sunset (around 5:30 here). Yellow-eyed penguins, unlike the more oblivious little blue penguins, are easily scared by the presence of people, so they have to be viewed from "hides," little wooden huts built into the cliffs with windows cut out.