An adventure in Auckland

After a few days with Jacob it was Dominic's turn to go on an adventure. Last weekend we met in Auckland, Dominic was flying in from New Plymouth - all by himself :) and I from Wellington.
The plan for the weekend was worked out earlier by Dominic, he wanted to visit the zoo, Kelly Tarlton's and the sky tower and he wanted to stay in a hotel.

We arrived in the morning in Auckland which gave us the whole day to explore the zoo.

After double checking the map we where off to enjoy an awesome day, the weather was good (which is unusual for Auckland as there are generally 3 weather patterns 1,)it is raining 2,) it is just about to start to rain 3,) it is quite wet between rain showers)

For most of the day Dominic was the camera man, he loves taking photos and within no time we run out of memory space.

One of the highlights was the meerkat enclosure. Under the actual space where the animals are there are concrete corridors with little windows into the enclosure to enable visitors to have an experience like a meerkat with crawling through tunnels and popping up the head. It was good fun, the tunnels where a little tight for me though and it was hard keeping up with Dominic, but I managed .

Lunchtime approached fast and after a snack and a relaxing break the next highlight was on the program ...



... a ride through the zoo an the zoo tram.



After watching a lecture about New Zealand birds, there was a little time left to play



The first day ended with a nice dinner in the restaurant of the hotel. Exhausted from a day of walking we had an early night - sort of and after a good night sleep an early start with breakfast again in the restaurant. Dominic just loved it!

The program for the second day was Kelly Tarlton's. This is a display about Antarctica which was the part Dominic was not very interested in, so we rushed through it. The second part of Kelly Tarlton's is a very nice display of all sorts of sea creatures, including penguins.

To see the penguins we had a few rides on a snow cat, which are vehicles actually used in Antarctic. It was interesting seeing the funny critters quite close. Dominic was the camera man again and again has done a great job.



We where lucky enough to see the sting rays being hand fed, a big spectacle with the creatures being only centimeters away.



No fear! Dominic petting a monster eel



We where lucky enough and long enough there to see most of the fish getting fed



The main attraction is a huge aquarium with all sorts of fish in it, including sharks, sting rays, turtles and much more. to view all those animals you ride on a conveyor belt through tunnels of plexi glass, absolutely stunning and I lost count of how many times we went around.





After we finished with this place we went to another attraction, the sky tower.
No, we did not take the stairs, although Dominic's original plan was, he is riding up in the lift and me taking the stairs, 60 levels up to the top viewing platform, lucky me I could convince him that taking separate paths is not a good idea and it is either both walking or both taking the lift, I was very happy with his decision of taking the lift!



Another long day ended with a dinner in the hotel and a rather late night so we had a sleep in the next morning before we where heading back to the airport.

An awesome adventure, lots of fun lots seen - have to do it again soon!

Duck Shooting

FINALLY!
The first weekend in May is very special!
It means it is opening weekend for duck shooting. This weekend is big here in New Zealand, there are a lot of hunters here and thousand of people travel to their secret locations for a fantastic weekend.

Every year on the first weekend in May I meet dear friends and we travel to the Ahuriri valley in the middle of the south island. It is an amazing valley, the scenery breath taking

and home to a lot of ducks and other flying things. I am going there since 8 years and had a lot of fun time there. But this year is very special, it is the first time I am taking one of the boys with me. Jacob is really excited to come.
We met in Wellington, an other first for Jacob, he was flying all by himself from New Plymouth to Wellington, and we got on a plane to Christchurch. After a night with friends, we stayed with Tom and Janelle, we tackled the 5 hour drive to the valley. After meeting the gang, Franz, Dion, Willy and the rest, we where 11 all together we went to our spots and prepared for the next day, erecting our mai mais - this are hide outs so the ducks can not see us, and put the decoys out. decoys are plastic ducks which are put into the water so any passing ducks think it is save to land :). After getting all the other gear ready and a good catch up with the others it is an early night. At 5 in the morning an excited crew gets up and after a good breakfast we make our way to the mai mai. Jacob and I are with Dion on a medium sized pond which over the years gave us fantastic results. Arriving at the pond it is still dark and we settle in for a long wait for daylight. We could hear the ducks, passing ands landing and this promised a great begin to the weekend. Legally the first shot can be fired at 6:45 in the morning but the light conditions where still quite poor at the time and at our pond the spectacle stated at 7:05. There where ducks everywhere and it was a busy first hour. Jacob did good spotting and he also called with a duck caller, he was quite successful in getting a few in.
After the first hour it is getting a little quiet so we settle in with a hot chocolate and a coffee to wait for further arrivals.


The mai mai is made out of tussock grass and blend in well with the surroundings, from a few meters away it is hard to spot. On top of that all of us are wearing camouflage to minimise the risk of getting spotted by the birds.




Here is Jacob and me waiting for more birds to come




A few out the front of the mai mai, it was perfect hunting weather. The pond is in front and a wonderful rainbow is visible.



The proof of success Jacob with one of the ducks!



To get to the mai mai we had to cross a Creek. The water was a little high, to high for Jacob to walk through without getting water in his gum boots, so I carried him as I was wearing chest waders, which are more or less gumboots all the way to the chest.. This was easy during daylight, a little trickier while it was dark, but we managed a dry crossing.
Here you can see us on the way back for lunch, on one side I am carrying Jacob on the other some ducks.


The afternoon saw Jacob sleeping, he was exhausted.
the next morning we went rabbit shooting, Jacob had a little shot gun and he almost got one! He placed the shot a few centimeters in front of the rabbit, I was the back up shooter and made sure we had this one in the bag.

After breaking everything down and repacking all the gear we went to pluck the ducks. Jacob helped and we all told us stories of how the last two days went.
It took a while to prepare all the birds, altogether we got 60 ducks and 3 swans. Yes swans are game birds and we are allowed to shoot them, they also taste nice in a curry!

After a night in Mount cook and another night in Christchurch we made our way back to Wellington, and after a night with me Jacob flew back to New Plymouth on Wednesday morning just in time for school.

It was an awesome weekend, a fantastic adventure and both of us, Jacob and I, are looking forward to the next hunting expedition.

Dominic was a little sad that he could not come, but a trip to Auckland will make up for it. This Friday we will meet in Auckland and I am sure we also will have a fantastic time, more about it with some pictures when we get back!