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Published: November 30th 2008
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hi. my name is brad. i am in new zealand. and we have seen yet even more cool stuff. Yesterday we finished up the adventure city of Queenstown with the famous Gondola. This is the launching spot for several hot activities. Bunjee, parasail etc. It is essentially a modern indoor skilift sort of thing to the top of a very large hill. Of course it cost way too much, and being hte ultra-fit people we are...me and lara hiked our way up. It made us stinky and hot on a cold day...but we felt o-so in-tune with nature. At the top they have arranged some good times to be had on downhill luge karts. They have the scenic and the fast routes. Heaps of fun with just enough danger to make it thrilling. That night me and lara went out for our 1st and only fancy dinner in 3 months. This was in celebration of us existing as ''us'' for 1 whole year. YIPPEEE! This was a traditional Maori dinner and dance show. Maori are the native inhabitants of new zealand. Very Pacific sort of people...wearing very little, dark skin, large clubs, huge muscles...and they stick out their tongue and open
their eyes wide to intimidate opponents. You may associate this look to places like fiji or maybe even hawaii. The food was pretty good and the dancers were excellent. They sang loud and the men were very violent with their steps and pounding of their chest. I even got to join in a bit to learn the grunting and pounding. Today was an event lara has been fondly looking foward to...a wildlife tour. and it was most excellent. We are in the city of Dunedin, which is located on a peninsila. This has the only family of Royal Albatross on mainland (rather than on an island) in the world. An albatross is the worlds largest bird. It spends most of its life on sea...many years at a time and never touch land...and can fly up to 1000km a day. It has a wingspan of 3meters. WOW. it was a very impressive bird to see fly overhead. very majestic. Then we were taken to a coastal area where their were all sorts of great creatures for us to gaze upon in their natural wild environment. First we came to a rocky area just where the waves broke...and saw many many fur
seals lying about. As you can imagine...these are very cute. All fat and jiggly with a lovely fur coat. At this point the sun was starting to set...so he takes us to a special wildlife hide they have set up so we can watch a very special event yellow-eyed penguins come strolling out of the ocean into their little coastal homes! another super cute site to see. But the excitement level rose because of the very large sea lions nearby. They like to intercept the penguins and eat em up for a nice supper. They made a run for a few, but the penguins were too good. We also got to get quite close to the sea lions...and watch them sort of fight and sneeze on each other. All very impressive. Each of these animals are also a threatened species and endemic to new zealand. All in all, a very great experience. Welp. That is all for now. The trip is nearly over! geebs!
-brad
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