To warm ourselves up we cooked ourselves a Thai green vege curry (with delicious coconut milk from Samoa), and sat by the gas fire in the communal area. Just as we were walking back across the grass to the cabin, we noticed that a tree had blown over in the wind, then suddenly we saw Erin and John in the space near the tree. This was good comedy value as we had kept in touch after meeting them in Fiji, but thought that our paths might not cross in New Zealand. This chance meeting was a real treat! We chatted the evening away together and swapped some stories about our fave places. We were really chuffed to see them and had a great night.
The next day we all arranged to go to the Otago Museum together, luckily for us all it was still wet and windy and therefore a perfect day to be indoors!
A skeleton of the extinct flightless Moa. It was hunted to extinction by the Maori's about 400 years ago. Very big drum sticks, and probably great ribs too...
A Waka Taua or war canoe. There was an excellent exhibition of Maori artefacts on display including woven flax bags and cloaks for chiefs, with painstakingly gradiated feathers inserted into the weave. Also a collection of greenstone and Tiki.
A very elaborately carved Maori communal store.
Oh dear! So far away from Easter Island, but still the real deal. A touch too much of the British Museum, perhaps... ' we have your antiquities, and we are keeping them!'
There was an excellent display of Oceanic Art that was beautifully unified by a geographical display of models of out-rigger canoes from across the South Pacific. There were also artefacts from Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and PNG.
A variety of Coconut flesh shredders from Tahiti. The coconut shredding stool with fibre bound coral, reminding us of the ones we saw in the islands of Fiji.
The Cook Islands intricate wood carving.
The Marquesa Islands also had a human hair cloak on display and beautiful hair combs. A place I would dearly love to visit in the future.
Thousands of tiny bird feathers inserted into the woven vegetable fibre cape. The same feathers as a cloak in the Pitt Rivers Museum, England.
New Zealand's Royal Albatross. Sadly we didn't get to see any in real life at the Otago Peninsular, because they are apparently nest bound through Nov to Dec.
The museum also carried a display of Chinese art on loan from the museum of Shanghai, who had set strict controls over the presentation, lighting, layout and even required daily humidity updates from Dunedin! There was an exquisite display of lost wax bronze vessels with an incredible amount of detail, some of which were over 4000 years old. It was fascinating.
We had lunch with Erin and John at a vege cafe where amongst other things we compared our countries respective utensil use and considered the our of two sporks, instead of one (ridiculous)! On our return to the museum I persuaded everyone to take a look at the insect display in the attic room. Little did I realise just how 'Tring Museum' it would be! It was a delight and I really did have an 'all our yesterdays moment'. Quality!
A photograph of the interior of the original Otago Museum building, taken between 1877 and 1884. An articulated skeleton of a southern right whale stands on the ground floor.
Just like in the photo above, we got to wander around the old display cabinets, some of the poor stuffed animals were looking very tired and misshapen as well as discoloured from years of sun exposure. Now, later I am thinking where was the whale skeleton? Lol.
An impressive Japanese Spider crab, the world's largest crab. And an appropriate pose from me in the evolutionary primate section...Mmmm.
The last time we saw you was in Costa Rica! I wonder how the beetle that was found in a box of bananas imported to Britain is now doing...
After much serious concentration, reading, admiring and general focused enquiry, it all became a bit too much...Here's John in the 'you can touch' section, being helped into a turtle shell by Wiji...Erin taking a pic in the foreground.
This is such a brilliant shot, I am laughing sooo much I can't hold the camera still!
This is prime Facebook profile material, fo-sho. Pure Genius and strangely just the right size for John too it seemed...He was meant to wear that shell!
After hysterics we even managed some more focused time looking at the last of the displays in the cabinets.
Golden nuggets of fossilised sap (amber) from the native Kauri tree.
'Say Mmmmm- Moa!' Lol, Thanks John and Erin we totally loved your company and sense of humour...and cheers for the North Island tips too!
A group 'Moa Moment' courtesy of the girl on reception... 'The camping Americans and Brits do Fiji and NZ in tents', then both couples send their camping stuff home to continue their trips, now that is dedication and organisation...or madness even maybe...who knows?
After saying our goodbyes, Wiji and I headed off back to our tiny shed and then later that evening we set off on the hour and a half journey to the very tip of the Otago Peninsular, to Pilots Beach.
Whilst at Curio Bay the British twitchers had given us top tips about their wonderful Blue Penguin sighting, and we hoped to have a similar experience too. Due to my enthusiasm we were about an hour and a half too early, but we did get to watch sea lions leisurely swimming in the bay. Other tourists arrived and ignored the 'keep off the beach' signs, in favour of walking past them while reading them, only to position themselves right on the waters edge...DOH! Fortunately, (just as the twitchers had told us) the volunteer wardens arrived and got them to move back behind the sign and the fence, with what was shaping up to be a crowd for the evening. The wardens did a great job of setting expectations for the viewing and got everyone sorted. Then we all waited gazing out to sea...There was talk of 'rafts' of penguins swimming ashore then marching up the dunes to their mate waiting in the old rabbit burrows with the egg or chicks.
Sure enough as it got dark at about 9:30 ish, rafts of penguins swam to the beach then scrabbled upright to have a secret agent style scope of the area before making their way cautiously up through the dunes. The wardens got people to sit in small open groups in silence, so that there were no large barriers. Wiji and I watched several groups come ashore and then sat in the sand and were treated to a group of five Blue Penguins waddling past us, just inches away, in a 'No you go first, NO YOU go first' styleee. It was amazing. A really brilliant experience!
A dark and blurry shot of a raft of Blue Penguins coming ashore, just before it got too dark to take a piccie without a flash. The Blue Penguin is the smallest Penguin on earth and is sometimes called the Fairy Penguin. They take it in turns to spend a day each fishing before returning to shore to swap over duties.
We then watched and listened as more penguins made their way from the sea, across the dunes and called their mate in the process. I recorded some of the delightful sounds being made...
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