NZ and AUS day 4: in which there are birds

Today was all about the birds.  Well, maybe not all about them, but mostly.  We started the morning with a visit to the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve where we were the only adults not accompanied by at least one toddler, unless I count as one.  It’s a lovely little zoo.  The small children liked feeding the ducks, but this duck was feeding herself:

 

There are some fairly typical zoo animals, like a siamang gibbon and some lemurs, but also a large collection of farm animals.  Many of those chickens and pigs and goats are remnants of breeds first introduced by colonists to New Zealand.  Here is a fancy chicken:

 

Additionally, there were native birds, like kiwis and takahes and wekas, many of them rare, endangered, or extinct in the wild. 

 

We had a snack in the café and I realized that it was not like a zoo at home.  Sure, there was junk food like fairy floss and fruit-flavored popcorn, but only a small selection displayed well out of reach of small sugar-fiends.  There was real food available to eat rather than the typical zoo sad burger.  (Full disclosure:  I did not have a healthy snack, but my caramel chocolate slice was not a prepackaged baked good that could outlast the apocalypse.)  The shop had a thoughtful and interesting collection of items that were not all pre-landfill plastic crap.  Yes, I did buy postcards.

 

We went on to the International Antarctic Centre.  First order of business there was lunch.  Again, there was a real café with food made from actual ingredients.  Then we did the backstage penguin tour.  So much cute!  The centre’s little blue penguins are all rescue penguins who can’t live in the wild.  The penguin on the left in this photo is Tahi:

 

Tahi has only one foot.  He was also the naughty penguin of the week because he has refused to choose a burrow.  (There was also a nice penguin of the week, but isn’t penguin crime way more interesting?)  We got to hold a penguin egg (insides blown out because they do not breed penguins in this facility.  Breeding is a challenge because penguins imprint where they are born, so they can’t be released.).  I asked twenty seven million questions and learned, among other things, that there is a bony ring around penguin eyes that is not actually attached to the rest of the skeleton.  The ring provides stability for the eye when the penguins dive deep.

 

After the penguin experience, we visited the rest of the centre, including spending five minutes in a simulated Antarctic storm.  Spoiler alert:  it was cold.  No, I don’t know why I spent five minutes of my life doing something that I would, under normal circumstances, avoid.  There was snow underfoot and the parts of me not covered by the provided parka regretted the experience.  My glasses froze over and I had to take them off once I got out of the storm room until they thawed enough to be clear again.  There was a film with 4D effects.  There were huskies.  Brent was slightly disappointed, having been there years ago; he remembered it being more of a science and technology based place and less touristy.  But PENGUINS.

 

Once we were done there, we headed back to our hotel for a nap.