Zealandia

This wonderful place is 225 hectare (560 acres) where all animals and plants that are not native to New Zealand have been removed. Just through the entrance, pictured above, they have a terrific exhibition. Outside, there are specially designed fences around the perimeter, but no bars between you and the birds and other wild life.

Did you see the movie Up? Well, guess what, I found Kevin!

This is actually a very large, flightless bird called a Moa. In the movie, it appears they gave Kevin the coloring of this bird:

This is a Takahe. Another flightless bird, but much smaller. Beautiful blues, greens and purple. I made friends with this KaKa and talked him into posing for me.

A native parrot that, of course, has a very strong beck.

Then there's this guy.

The Tuatara. Though he looks like a lizard, he is actually of the Rhynchocephalia order (no that is not a religion....lol). They were around with the dinosaurs.

There are special nurseries for their babies because they will eat their young. How have they survived all this time?

And, yes, they have beautiful ferns.

Amazing suspension bridge.

From which, I was able to see the true majesty of this tree.

When I was standing on this bridge I thought, WOW, it's like Jurassic Park without fearing for my life. Just pure splendour.

I took the train into Wellington from Waterloo, the suburb where my friends live, and then Mike took me the rest of the way to Zealandia. A BIG THANKS for all my friends have done for me! The train was rocking from side to side, especially the older one that took me back to Waterloo station. It was helping work out some of the muscle soreness from tramping so much that day. It made me laugh out loud and probably made the others on the train think I was mental. They should only be as easily amused. Life is much more fun that way. Here is a picture of the beautiful shoreline from the train.

Yes, that is the train track at the bottom of the picture. The train is that close to the shore!

I recently purchased a car with a lot of help from my friends.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/toyota/corolla/auction-489864562.htmI take possession of the car tomorrow evening. So far, I have been practicing traffic rules on a simulator online that Mike found for me. I'll do some hands on practicing close to home and then hit the open road. Can't wait to take you guys along with me.