Botanical GardensSaturday morning Lillianna helped Amy garden a bit and helped water some flowers and plants. Then it was off to a look out point to see over the city of Dunedien. Then we headed the city's botanical gardens. They are impressive! We hardly had time to see any of them. They have a great averiy there as well. It has several buildings and just tons of birds to see from all over. There were a lot of really unusual ones that I had never seen before.
After naptime, Paul, Amy, Mike, Lillianna and I all headed back up the coast. We went to a little fishing village that holds a two for one attraction. On one beach we got to see the famous boulders. The look like giant dinasour eggs scattered across the beach.
From a NZ info website:
"The Moeraki Boulders are huge spherical stones that are scattered over the sandy beaches, but they are not like ordinary round boulders that have been shaped by rivers and pounding seas. These boulders are classed as septarian concretions, and were formed in ancient sea floor sediments. They were created by a process similar to the formation of oyster pearls, where layers of material cover a central nucleus or core. For the oyster, this core is an irritating grain of sand. For the boulders, it was a fossil shell, bone fragment, or piece of wood. Lime minerals in the sea accumulated on the core over time, and the concretion grew into perfectly spherical shapes up to three metres in diameter.The original mudstone seabed has since been uplifted to form coastal cliffs. Erosion of the cliffs has released the three tonne captive boulders, which now lie in a haphazard jumble across the beach. Further erosion in the atmosphere has exposed a network of veins, which gives the boulders the appearance of turtle shells. Similar boulders occur at Shag Point, and the nearby swimming beach of Katiki. In Hawke’s Bay in the North Island, scientists have found that the central core of similar boulders contained perfectly preserved skeletons of turtles, sea snails and extinct reptiles, such as plesiosaurs."
Then we went back south to another beach. This time we got to see penguins and seals playing in the wild. We had to cross another sheep pasture to get down towards the beach and right up top next to an outhouse was our first penguin sighting! So cool! It wasn't real happy though, its mate was on the other side of the fence and it couldn't figure out how to get there. It must have eventually because by the time we came up, it was gone.
The penguins come in from the sea at night to nest in the bush and as we walked do towards the beach you could hear them. It was a really windy evening, so we were thankful that there is a building, called a hide, where you can see the penguins through windows, but can be out of the wind. On the beach there were 20 seals! Some of them were just sleeping and looked like big rocks, but there was a group of them that were playing with one another. It was delight to watch them.
Not too long after being there out from the sea popped a penguin! What great fun to watch it hop and waddle its way out of the water, across the rocks, and onto the beach. At one point it tried to hop from one rock to another and totally face planted. I guess that's why they have so much padding, it just got right back up! After it made its way across the beach and into the beaches it came back and went for a swim in the water. Very fun to watch it swim and play. Then some seals decided they wanted to swim and the penguin very quickly went the other direction. The seals went from clumsy and ackward on land to graceful and quick in the water. Good thing Mike didn't have to outswim that monster one- he would have totally lost!
All the nature worked up an appetite. We headed to town for a pub dinner. The place we went had good food and good service. If you ever end up there- order the ribs- I think you get the whole pig. Another customer did and seriously- I have never seen anything like it in my life! I think they may have been Rhino ribs, because I have never seen pork ribs like that. We commented to the waitress and she said, "Yeah, I wish we had a camera ready to take a picture of people's faces when they get them. They are surprised at their size."
After naptime, Paul, Amy, Mike, Lillianna and I all headed back up the coast. We went to a little fishing village that holds a two for one attraction. On one beach we got to see the famous boulders. The look like giant dinasour eggs scattered across the beach.
From a NZ info website:
"The Moeraki Boulders are huge spherical stones that are scattered over the sandy beaches, but they are not like ordinary round boulders that have been shaped by rivers and pounding seas. These boulders are classed as septarian concretions, and were formed in ancient sea floor sediments. They were created by a process similar to the formation of oyster pearls, where layers of material cover a central nucleus or core. For the oyster, this core is an irritating grain of sand. For the boulders, it was a fossil shell, bone fragment, or piece of wood. Lime minerals in the sea accumulated on the core over time, and the concretion grew into perfectly spherical shapes up to three metres in diameter.The original mudstone seabed has since been uplifted to form coastal cliffs. Erosion of the cliffs has released the three tonne captive boulders, which now lie in a haphazard jumble across the beach. Further erosion in the atmosphere has exposed a network of veins, which gives the boulders the appearance of turtle shells. Similar boulders occur at Shag Point, and the nearby swimming beach of Katiki. In Hawke’s Bay in the North Island, scientists have found that the central core of similar boulders contained perfectly preserved skeletons of turtles, sea snails and extinct reptiles, such as plesiosaurs."
Then we went back south to another beach. This time we got to see penguins and seals playing in the wild. We had to cross another sheep pasture to get down towards the beach and right up top next to an outhouse was our first penguin sighting! So cool! It wasn't real happy though, its mate was on the other side of the fence and it couldn't figure out how to get there. It must have eventually because by the time we came up, it was gone.
The penguins come in from the sea at night to nest in the bush and as we walked do towards the beach you could hear them. It was a really windy evening, so we were thankful that there is a building, called a hide, where you can see the penguins through windows, but can be out of the wind. On the beach there were 20 seals! Some of them were just sleeping and looked like big rocks, but there was a group of them that were playing with one another. It was delight to watch them.
Not too long after being there out from the sea popped a penguin! What great fun to watch it hop and waddle its way out of the water, across the rocks, and onto the beach. At one point it tried to hop from one rock to another and totally face planted. I guess that's why they have so much padding, it just got right back up! After it made its way across the beach and into the beaches it came back and went for a swim in the water. Very fun to watch it swim and play. Then some seals decided they wanted to swim and the penguin very quickly went the other direction. The seals went from clumsy and ackward on land to graceful and quick in the water. Good thing Mike didn't have to outswim that monster one- he would have totally lost!
All the nature worked up an appetite. We headed to town for a pub dinner. The place we went had good food and good service. If you ever end up there- order the ribs- I think you get the whole pig. Another customer did and seriously- I have never seen anything like it in my life! I think they may have been Rhino ribs, because I have never seen pork ribs like that. We commented to the waitress and she said, "Yeah, I wish we had a camera ready to take a picture of people's faces when they get them. They are surprised at their size."
No comments:
Post a Comment