Oh Sunday!

Today was a pretty great Sunday if you ask me.  And it was a pretty great Sunday even if you don't ask me, because whether or not I am posed the question, I think that today was a great day.  Since Nicole has found some temporary work around town now, it was nice to have a morning where she could sleep in.  The sun was shining bright from the get-go and it seemed like a perfect day for a hike to capture some bird pics and a beach trip for the evening.

Due to the beautiful weather, we decided to take the "Ladybug" (motorcycle) for the day rather than the "Blueberry" (Coles old car).  Motorcycling around a this beautiful town is so amazing that I can't effectively put the feeling into words.  Plus the lack of traffic really makes the bike a rather safe transport too.  So we were off before noon to the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary where we planned to do some light hiking and catch some bird pics.  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the idea of a wildlife sanctuary, it is basically a plot of land that is being intensely preserved to prevent invasive species of plants and animals from taking over.  Since New Zealand is loaded with fancy birds, some of which are flightless, the possums and rats steal the bird eggs and eventually eliminate them.  If anyone can explain why trying to prevent the theory of Darwinism and the whole process of natural selection is such a worthy cause, please do...So what did we see?

The walk was a little bit more of a hike than we imagined, but it was along a small stream that had plenty of waterfalls.  The amazing thing is that the sanctuary is literally a five minute ride from downtown Nelson. It is like a hidden gem of nature right next to the "city".  The hike was beautiful, but the birds were non-existent.  Apparently, the birds are currently nesting, so we were unlikely to spot them for pictures but we were able to hear their calls.  It's quite amazing that an animal so tiny can produce such a loud and unique sound!  So while the pictures were limited, we spotted a couple of good looking ducks with 6 or 7 baby ducklings.  Since I am too traumatized by what occurred on the hike back, I am going to let Nicole write about the incident....

I can understand why Jeff didn't want to write about the incident, but I will preface this short tale with the fact that we googled the incident, and it appears baby birds can fall from great heights with little injury.  So like Jeff said, we spotted a family of Paradise Shelducks on the first stretch of our walk.  We were looping back around when we saw them again, but this time at the top of the largest waterfall.  I started to pictures of the little guys, when all of the sudden they started drifting toward the edge, and one by one went over the waterfall, with no regard from their parents.  Jeff and I looked at each other in sheer sadness.  We contemplated trying to go to the bottom to find them, but figured it would be too dangerous or disappointing.   We left the park hoping the fall was not fatal.  After some research it does not appear that it would hurt the birds, but it was a very upsetting scene to the amateur bird watcher.  Back to Jeff...

So, next we cruised over to Tahunanui Beach, which is our local beach around here, to just soak up the sun for a little while.  I keep being told by the locals that Summer has been getting here later and later every year.  While it used to be in November, now they say it won't be getting real warm here until X-Mas time.  Definitely looking forward to it warming up so that we can swim every day.  We arrived home to just relax on Sunday afternoon and mentally prepare for another week half way across the globe. Cheers!

Ps. I'll post the pictures from today on Flickr