First off, by the time this posts it will either be or close enough to the witching hour to wish everyone a Happy Halloween! This is the day I think about 364 days a year and then bask in all the orange and black the haunter’s day can hold. The day may keep the witches at bay, but it’s the night when the frights come out to play. While I finish carving the pumpkin for our annual burning, Brad is going to squeeze in one more bonus offering for our “Lifer” themed month. Enjoy everyone and I’ll see you again next month…assuming I survive whatever the local demons have in store for us.
Take it away Brad…
Apologies to Lawrence Welk right off the bat.
While on a bathroom break on our trek across New Zealand, we stopped at Huka Falls, the most visited natural attraction in New Zealand, at least according to their website. We had just beaten the “enemy” (other tour buses) to the rest area so we had solo access to the restrooms and scenic overlooks. As we were staring at the torrent of water rocketing through a narrow channel, I asked our guide, Graeme, if anyone has ever tried to run a kayak through there. He told us that a few try it every year, and most of them survive. Roughly 220,000 liters (58,000 gallons) of water per second falls 11 meters (33 feet) over the falls highly aerating the water. That’s enough water to fill an Olympic sized pool in about 10 seconds. The water seemed well past Class 5 for rapids and boiling, in my humble non-kayaking opinion. The rapid water flow is caused when the 100-meter-wide river is forced through a 15-meter-wide channel in the rock on its way south to Lake Taupo. There is so much air in the water under the falls that nothing really floats until a bit further downstream.
The rushing water was the second loudest thing we heard at the falls overlook. The first was the bird in the tree behind us. At first, it sounded like two birds singing two completely different songs.
Now this is taking ‘Down Under” quite literally – hit the jump to learn more about this Kiwi.
Getting this post in just under the wire. I had intentions of publishing this last post of the month out a few days ago (to hit our monthly post quota), but we have been moving northeastward up the gulf coast and time slipped away. Truth is, I am a bit exhausted which is an odd thing to declare when you are technically on vacation – and retired. We’ve been on the road for over a month now and it has consisted of some high points and low points. On the plus side we are not in Illinois, there has been SOME warm days, we’ve been able to meet up with birding friends down here along with friends who came down from our hometown and even Ron was able to joined us for a few days. We’ve also found a few new feathered lifers and taken in some new sites. Unfortunately, the weather has been frustratingly “chilly” down here and the birding has been a disappointment due to a universal lack of real rarities to chase. Add into the mixture my ankle is not progressing at a pace anywhere near what I need/expect it to be, The Beast is acting up (likely sand in the WAV motor again) and did I mention I’m currently wearing a stocking cap and staring wantingly at my gloves. Yes, this born and raised in the Midwest tundra lad has grown soft ha! I just need a brief rest and I’ll be recharged (not to mention it is going to start warming up this week). In spite of the weather gods trying their mightiest to defeat me, I am still sitting at 220 birds for the year (21st on Texas top 100) and tins full of new material to hopefully keep everyone entertained this year. Add in Brad and Jan’s adventures and we are in really good shape. Speaking of Brad and Jan, they threw me a lifeline taking over the controls of the Intrigued enterprise to bring you another adventure from “Down Under”.
Take it away (temporary) Kiwis….
On a recent photo assignment, Jan and I were staying in a very nice hotel in the middle of Christchurch, New Zealand. The view from our spacious and well-appointed hotel room looked out at the Christchurch Cathedral. Well, at least what’s left of it after severe earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. Much of what’s left is being supported by a web of giant steel beams. The spire and upper tower were destroyed during the multitude of 2011 earthquakes (between 6.0 and 6.4-magnitude) and have been partially rebuilt on the ground since then, ready for reinstallation. Restoration is difficult because many of the skills required to rebuild a stone structure have been lost over the decades. The Cathedral is still competing for resources (money and people) with hundreds of other rebuilding projects in Christchurch since the devastating earthquakes. New Zealand is a country of five million people. The cost to rebuild the city of Christchurch alone is estimated to be near $40 billion New Zealand dollars. That is a very large burden, whether in New Zealand or U.S. dollars, for a national population of only five million. You can do the math to see that this might take a while.
This story is a late entry to extend December’s Baby Month at Intrigued. Literally, as soon as I had copied the photos from the Australia and New Zealand assignment onto our home PC, it failed. Thanks to holidays, and weather delays, the replacement PC didn’t arrive until mid-December. Getting the new PC up and running again with all of the Intrigued Corporate applications, plus a few hardware surprises, took another two weeks. And here we are.
During one of our free days on assignment, Jan and I walked about a kilometer (a little over half of a mile) from our hotel in Christchurch to Hagley Park South to see what we could see. Why am I am being very specific on the name of the park? Every city we visited, in Australia and New Zealand, had a park or royal garden near the city center named after Queen Victoria, the reigning monarch when the countries were officially founded. Each park, or garden, had a life-sized (or larger) statue of Queen Victoria; she was not looking amused. Of course, in anticipation of finding something interesting to photograph, we took the big glass along.
Protect yourselves, there’s cuteness overload coming after the jump!
