Playing Possum

This cuddly little creature is unfortunately a big threat to NZ wildlife. Like most introduced species it thrives where the native species dwindle . So Possums eat the food native species want , outbreed native species , have no predators and in the NZ species have become carnivorous eating young chicks. Introduced by two New Zealanders to start (unsuccessfully) fur farming there are now an estimated 80 million . The conservationist said as a conservationist I don't like to see any species killed but sadly every time you buy something made of possum fur you are helping the indigenous species

Tuatara , Morepork and Kiwis

Pretty much any native New Zealand species is endangered , critically endangered or extinct . Tuatara are the last of a line that go back 200 million years and which live 150 years or more , nobody know because nobody has outlived then to find out, The one in Invercargill is at least 150 years old and still breeding (hope springs eternal) his girlfriends are mere striplings at 90 years. The kiwi is threatened by all the predators that have been introduced to NZ , possums , cats , dogs , rats etc. Its the chicks that are most at risk . In the wild only 4% survive so conservationist collect the eggs , rear the chicks until the bird is big enough to fight off predators and this way the survival rate increase to 65%. 

 Kiwi I am told are nocturnal. I have read that this is possibly because they have started to forage at night as a way of avoiding predators and that where there are no predators they are seen in the day. Given that some of those predators are active at night I have no conclusion . It is red because I used a special camera setting so as not to disturb the birds , as the exposure was low light with no flash or any external light source except what was already there.

Mind you if the sun shone you would not get a view like this

Summer in New Zealand

There is more snow on the ski slopes now than in the ski season . By the by the crime rate increases in the ski season , strangely , backpackers tend to be harmless looking for the odd freebie but the ski bums cuase problems with fights in bars , theft from cars and breaking into holiday homes which the use and trash

Puzzling World Wanaka

Like most photos this doesn't really show the slope in this room . It is disorientating and can make you nauseous . The slope is such that billiard balls and sliding chairs appear to defy gravity

 no pictures because I cant get the video to load for the chair .

 Hall of famous faces the heads follow you as you move

 Lord of the rings stuff , it plays with perspective

giant sculpture of the vase and faces image

 all seen these in Novelty shops just not this big

 The logo on the bag cleverly mixes the silver fern with soldiers going to the front in the 1st World War

 Did you know there is a hidden symbol in the FedEx logo ? An arrow to denote forward motion and when I put this on Facebook my friends told me of others the bear in the Toblerone logo, the smile from A to Z in the Amazon logo.

 The worlds largesr Maze or the worlds largest maze outside of somewhere either way it seemed simple (you just keep your left hand on the wall as you walk . Average time an hour . I always urge people to read 3 men in a Boat written by Jerome K Jerome published in 1889 and extremely humorous and entertaining , but also with little anecdote's of every day life that are still relevant today one is when Harris takes people around Hampton court maze on the assurance its all rather simple we will just pop in for a moment and then go for lunch...

there are 4 towers , all you have to do is find all 4 and then the way out , how easy is that .

we contemplate the fact thatmes from the walk ways  we have been this way several times. We kept seeing the same people , sometimes from the walk ways you see them on the other side of the maze both of us wondering how they got there.

This is part of the Maze