This one probably won't make it...
A lone egg sitting out in the open, probably represents a penguin that won't be. This is really amazing, we are walking around, and the penguins and seals are wandering amongst us. Not so many people, perhaps 20. There are a number of colonies of some size, along the coast. They are protected, but available. Simply amazing. This colony happens to be near the Moreki Lighthouse, and is free. You try to get here around dusk when they return to their burrows for the evening. Numbers are highest at egg laying time and shortly thereafter, but dwindle as the young go out to sea.
The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year... ... read more 
