Cousin fun in Australia

I realized that while I though I had put up the cousin pictures, I hadn't.  This is the last vacation post....really.

As an aside, I just finally figured out how to disable the annoying autocorrect feature that appeared after our most recent operating system upgrade.  A very devious feature, as it would just decide after I typed something that it wasn't right, and "correct" it for me -- after I had already watched the letters appear on the screen as I wanted them.  Easy to miss until the next day, and it took me a while to realize what it was doing.   If you have noticed random words that were just plain flat wrong in the last few posts, it was the computer out to get me.  Hopefully better now...

Back to Fun with Cousins in Australia

The Towle cousin pack, doing many and varied things:

One morning, Chad and I took the older kids on the climb up the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  Pretty fun, as we got to climb under, over, and through the bridge, all the while clipped in to their safety system.  Aren't you envious of the oh-so-stylish jumpsuits they made everyone wear?

The day we were there, it was crazy-windy -- when I asked the guide if it was normally like that, he mentioned that he had only ever see two or three days that wild.  The members of the party over the age of twelve thought it added to the fun (eleven-year-olds not so sure).  Notice that the flags on the top (where we were) are standing straight out.

The younger boys, Addison especially, enjoyed Chad's willingness to talk about spacecraft, campervans, and other conveyances.

This was much aided by characteristically excellent Chad-doodles.

Kids were good sports about taking walks.  Sometimes the terrain was benign.

Sometimes less so.

We tried not to lose anyone to this,

so sometimes I had to chase.

Kids find the best spots to sit.

Even the little guys eschewed the paved walkway.

Hard not to, when the rocks are so cool.

Chad was jolly.

Eleven-year-olds can be crazy and fun,

and I'm encouraged that the next stage might also be good.

I never knew poinsettias could manifest themselves as giant bushes. 

But it was winter, even though the harbor resorts to faking displays to show it.

Off to the zoo.

Nim tried her hand at taking pictures of things she thought were cute.

Echidnas are funny animate rolly-polly pincusions.

Is the cassowary looking at the captive Austin, or is it the other way around?

There was much fighting about the statue on the part of the eleven and under set, though the photographs don't show it.

The tasmanian devil runs around and around in circles just like the kids do.

We did find occasional moments of focus.

Spare moments draw eleven-year-olds to computers.

The girls liked the convertible.

Uncles give good hugs

And cousins, piggyback rides.

Random ibis in the park.

Parks are good.

Opera houses

can be used as parks.

At least these were not our kids.

But these were.

Uncle Andrew can be a kid too.

Sunsets are nice.

Kids appreciate the view,

and are still willing to turn around for a picture.

Thanks to all for a great visit!

Last thoughts from New Zealand

Can you tell I'm in a rush to get these all done?  It's a brave effort to get enough pictures up before we head out to visit Linda so we have pictures to talk about :)

Here are a few last thoughts from the NZ portion of our trip, in no particular order.

Welcome to Middle Earth.  We pretty much avoided the touristy Lord of the Rings stuff, except for the unavoidable statue at the airport.  It was pretty clear why the locations were good for that particular set of movies, though.

An honest-to-goodness pay phone that I made a toll-free call from to summon the rental car shuttle. (I could have used my cell, which worked and gave me free data all over the country, but I couldn't resist the now-retro method.)

Nimue is the huggiest kid in the universe!

Nice scenery everywhere.

We spent the whole trip joking about "Concealed Fish Hooks".

Chad coveted every single little camper van.

Nimue likes sheep.  We got a note from the B&B owner that the pregnant one had her lambs shortly after we left.

Sometimes paying for the zipline activity is just worth it.  Kiddo's eyes glowed afterwards.

Family hikes are good.

 Visual interest is also found in the details.

 Always have bread, sausage, and cheese on hand.

 Maori art is cool.

 Mmmmm, silly cider and local satumas.

And the most interesting, most complex, yummiest cider in the known universe.

 Almost-12-year-olds are fun to be with.

 Chad always finds a bike shop.

And did I mention more scenery?

Birds

We had a lot of fun chasing birds around New Zealand, mostly because the cast of characters was so different than what we are accustomed to at home.  Here are some highlights:

Kiwi Birds

The first three nights, we stayed in a cottage at Aroha Island, a kiwi preserve up on the north part of the island.  The benefit of this is that we were allowed to stumble around after dark looking for kiwi.  It turns out that kiwi really don't like light.  The really really don't like light so much that if you want to see them, the only light you can use when walking about is a dim, red, filtered light.   

We also learned that they also find the light of the full moon a bit off-putting, and of course we were there when there was a big bright full moon.

As we wandered about in the dark, we could definitely *hear* the birds poking about in the brush looking for food, and we heard the occasional call, but we couldn't actually see any, as they all stayed in the deepest darkest corners they could find.  Still, it was very interesting to sit silently outside in the bush in the dark, listening to all the night noises.  Bringing the focus down to just one sense when exceedingly jet-lagged was sort of surreal, but it brought about an intense set of awareness of the surroundings that us mostly urban dwellers don't often experience.  Very cool to listen to the kiwi, even if we didn't see any in the wild.

We did see a couple in the Otorohanga Kiwi House later in the trip.  Very funny-looking birds -- sort of like two animate drumsticks with a large beak, running around in circles.  And of course, one ran across representations of kiwi everywhere.

We found oystercatchers all over the beaches.  Given the number of oysters and other shellfish uncovered on the rocks at low tide, this wasn't surprising.  I like their bright orange beaks and eyes.

Tui.  We called this one the R2-D2 bird, as it can make the most amazing series of varied sounds with its two voice boxes.  These were all over the place, and according to one of the staff at Aroha Island, have different calls in different parts of the island due to their habit of mimicking all interesting local sound sources.  We did hear one that sounded just like a car alarm at one point.

The silver tree fern.  Not a bird, but the defining plant of the forested areas where we went, and in my mind they are associated with all the bird noises.

New Zealand Swamp Hen.  These were so surprisingly colorful for birds just wandering about in the warm pools at the city park.

 Baby swamp hen.  Cute!

Also not a bird, but this tree's roots looked just like a big bird foot.  The moa, the island's largest bird, is now extinct, but one might imagine it had a foot like this.  Either that, or the also-extinct giant eagles that used to eat the moa.

Black swans.  We also saw these all over the place.

I think this one is a kawaupaka, a type of cormorant.  He had a scenic spot to hang out.

Probably the most common bird we saw:  the fantail, or piwakawaka in Maori.  These were ubiquitous, and had a goofy random-seeming flight pattern, until you realized they constantly scoop up bugs as they fly.  Very agile little critters.

The spur-winged plover that followed us all the way around

 the Otorohanga Kiwi House.

One of Nim's favorites, the New Zealand Scaup.

Very Fat New Zealand Pigeon.  Birds here had no traditional land predators, which I guess drove the pigeons to be extra big.

North Island Kaka.  This guy was curious and crazed, but it may just be that he knew lunch was coming!

Kea.

Ooops -- also not a bird.  This one is a tree tomato, or tamarillo.  I ate one of these at breakfast one morning without knowing what it was, and then found out that most people cut them in half and scoop out the goopy stuff inside (I chowed the whole thing).  Not bad.

One of the big problems for the birds in New Zealand in this day and age are invasive predators of the mustelid family.  Nimue likes mustelids, so had to pose by the poster describing their evils.

Ooooh -- a gull.

 Nimue knows what to do about these.

Even the geese were different.  I can't help but wonder if these ones are good eating.  Must mean it is time to go make dinner.