Roos, Koalas, Dolphins and Seals
The past several days have been amazing from a wildlife perspective … what is amazing are the different forms of life one can experience quite easily … what is extremely sad is how we (humans) have made such a disastrous dent on the non-human population…
On to our adventures … our last two days spent with Richard and Carol were traveling along the Great Ocean Road (GOR). The beginning of the GOR can be reached within an hour from Melbourne. It stretches to just before the eastern border of South Australia. Initially the beaches are quite sandy and the waves in the ocean encourages tons of surfers. But then the surf becomes quite rough, the beaches inaccessible (except for rockclimbers) and the outcroppings (most known are the “twelve apostles”) amazing. The windy (rather narrow) road fluctuates between the coastline and the bordering rainforest. We were quite successful in finding kangaroos on a golf course (they were quite used to golfers, choosing not to pay any attention to the flight path of the golf balls nor the golfers that were trying to avoid a “kangaroo hazard.”). In two different rainforests we (Carol had the eagle eye) were quite fortunate to spot several Koalas – who were more than happy to just hang out and let us take their pictures. We spent two days along the GOR, spending a night at the Cape Otway lighthouse. At the beginning of the second day, we made our way to the “Otway Fly” – a private venture that has managed to build a steel bridge and tower through a rainforest, allowing one to view the rainforest from treetop level – a phenomenal sight. Instead of continuing on about our GOR adventures, we will let the pictures show you what we saw …
Upon our return from GOR, we un- and re-packed for our adventure to New Zealand. First stop, Christchurch (in the South Island). Fortunately, we had 2 days of absolutely gorgeous weather!! Christchurch takes a bit of time to warm up to – as you are immediately greeted with tons of high-priced, low-quality tourist shops near the cathedral (and most hotels). But if you walk around, you will find an arts center (housed in what started as the University of Canterbury) and a wonderful botanical gardens (with huge amazing trees) … we also found an interesting natural history museum near the gardens. Most of our time, however, was spent traveling east of Christchurch to the Banks Peninsula and Akaroa. Akaroa has a French history (although it is less than obvious today). The peninsula was created from a series of volcanic explosions 20,000 years ago. Again, the pictures speak for themselves. The highlights – first, Abigail and Kevin without a proper map deciding to explore many of the bays – mid-way through discovering that the only road from one bay to the next was a one lane gravel road designed for two-way traffic – this road of course traveled high and low with lots of curves and no guard barriers – the picture of the sheep just looking at us (probably thinking “are you crazy?” tells all). Second, the boat cruise of the harbour where we got to see two hector dolphins swimming and playing (they are the smallest and one of the more endangered dolphins in the world). Third, a “seal safari” … we got a personal tour by Paul and his friend Murray through Paul’s farmland (with lots of sheeps) and a bay full of fur seals (with babies and adults) … we are off to Wellington and Kevin’s final birthday gift tomorrow … more on that in the next blog …
posted by A & K @ 12:52 AM
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