I'm afraid we wasted a fair bit of the morning. First, we were sleeping the sleep of the totally exhausted until about 8.30. Then, after breakfast we switched the iPad on and did email and looked at bank statements and did other things we would have been better to do when it wasn't blazing sunshine outside. So we weren't out of the hotel until 11 am.
We made our way first to the base of the gondola, and bought tickets to go up. Paul kept thinking about buying a luge ticket as well - there are two luge trails up the mountain, accessed by chairlift from above the gondola. In the event, he decided against it, though I must admit it did look fun.
The views going up were amazing,
and the views from the top station were simply stunning.
We seemed to spend ages on the viewing decks, taking more and more photographs. This is the view up the valley leading to the lake.
There was a lovely old steamer on the lake.
There were sky divers being dropped over Lake Wakatipu and people doing parasailing from the hillside above us, ands we oohed and aahed as they circled, first above and then below us. It looked very dangerous to me!
Then we went off and followed a walking trail much higher up the mountain. It climbed very steeply through the forest of Douglas Firs - these are an introduced species that are regarded as being akin to weeds, since they do well at the expense of native species. The track we were walking on was made by hopeful gold prospectors. There were views of Ben Lomond, so named by a homesick Scot.
Eventually, we reached the top of the track we were on, which was just above the parasailing takeoff point. Nobody took off while we were standing there, and I didn't want to stand there for long, it really was very steep. This is taken from the foot of the very steep bit - the 4 wheel drive vehicle takes the parasailers up the very steep climb we had just come down. The chair lift is taking those doing the luge to the start of the track.
Below is the luge track. Paul is still regretting not having a go at it.
We returned to the foot of the gondola, and went to the wildlife park. This was another chance to see kiwis, and lots of other birds as well. The kiwis were asleep when we first went in, so we went to look at other birds.
There were quite a few endangered species in this park, and many of the birds had been rescued after some accident. I couldn't resist more photos of the Kea. He was so interested in what I might be doing, and then he decided to show what he could do by demolishing a hiking boot which somebody had given him to play with.
We also saw the tuatara.
There were a pair of ducks with two ducklings living on a pond in the park. They were quite free, the pond has no net. What was interesting about them was that I wasn't entirely sure they were the same species, they looked so different from one another. They were definitely a pair - they took turns in guarding the babies, and later they took them for a walk together.
We went to see the conservation show. Before it began, we were kept entertained by the local sparrows and blackbirds which obviously thought they could also perform for a reward of food, given the chance. They hopped in under a little hole in the netting, and then skipped enthusiastically around, pecking up the leftovers from the last show and putting their heads on one side to regard the audience and see if there was any other food.
A couple of the keepers demonstrated how much you could train a red or a yellow crowned parakeet; they were prepared to fly from keeper to keeper, very close over the heads of the audience.
The possum refused to perform at all, and went back inside her cage, but the trained rats demonstrated their skill in running along a pole. We were shown a tuatara and a stuffed kiwi. This is the only kiwi you are allowed to photograph, so here it is.
Next, a trained lorikeet did some tricks
the best one being that she came and took a $5 note from Paul and gave it to her keeper. Then she took it and gave it back to Paul. I was so intrigued I forgot to take photographs. She was also trained to pick up rubbish (a ball of screwed up paper) and put it in the bin. She had first to wrestle it away from a local sparrow who obviously thought it was a delightful piece of food!
We saw lots of other birds and indigenous plants, then it was almost time to see the kiwi feeding. As we had 5 minutes to spare, we went into kiwi house number 2, where no feeding was scheduled, and found a kiwi feeding herself. She was only inches away from us, behind glass, and using her long beak like a crochet hook to dig interesting things out of the earth. She did look just like somebody crocheting, using a straight down and then sideways out kind of movement. This was more interesting that the advertised kiwi feeding, which we went to see next in kiwi house 1. The male kiwi was apparently sitting on an egg, and the female kiwi was fast asleep, almost resting her body on the glass, with her head tucked into her body. She doesn't have a wing to tuck it under. She was not the least bit interested in the food, and continued to snooze, after giving a massive yawn. She looked like a rather hairy rugby ball, and was about rugby ball sized. She was 11 years old, and weighed over 2 kilos. She and her mate are soon to be released into the wild, in a kiwi sanctuary. The kiwi in house 2, the one which was doing the crocheting, is apparently a teenager and will stay until she has produced eggs. When we went back to kiwi house 2, she had disappeared but the male was out, digging about with his long beak, but not so close to the window.
As it was nearly 5, we returned to our hotel. We have various things to do, and must try for early bed, as we leave here before 7 am tomorrow.
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