The South Island

 

Today, we got on the inter-islander ferry. It went from the North Island city called Wellington to the South Island city called Picton.

We spent a couple nights in a near by town near Picton.  We didn’t do much there but some schoolwork and just hangout. 

Our next stop, Kaikoura. Kaikoura, is a coastal city on the South Island and home to the New Zealand fur seals. It has a lot of fur seals!!! The word Kaikoura means eat crayfish. Yes, it really means eat crayfish. Lol! 

We decided to go and explore the area. We went on a walk and something happened! A fur seal hopped up on the boardwalk (for people) and flops around until it had to stop because it saw another fur seal. The fur seal decided to get off the boardwalk and flop around to avoid the other seal.   The flop was so funny. 

Then, we went on a longer walk to see the seal colonies  and it stunk so bad. It was a long hike but I enjoyed it.  

We also went sea kayaking.  Dad & I were in one kayak and Sammy & Mom were in the other.   We saw more seals and  2 penguins.  It was fun.

Next, we went to Christchurch. It is famous for a church. The city was named after but we couldn't go to the church because 2 earthquakes happened in the past.   One was strong  and the other was  weaker but was more destructive than the other. First, we went to quake city where we learned about the 2 earthquakes, Next we went Canterbury museum it had exhibits for arctic exportation, the Maori aka the first people of New Zealand ,Dinosaurs and the powa shell house. Then, we went to a huge park with a 25 feet slide, a zip-line, a steep slide, 2 slides that go under the hill, swings, a water maker area and  trampolines. it was so much fun! 

Then, we went to sheer-vue another sheep farm the first one had 3 sheep but this one has 3050 sheep and 5 alpacas. We also had a tour there we saw the pig named Molly, the pet sheep , the dogs herd some sheep and I chopped some sweet beets and fed them to the sheep an alpacas. Also, we had a hot tub so we went in it.

After that, we went to Queenstown it’s a small ski town like Whistler CA. We went on a helicopter. We flew on to a snow caped mountain and I slipped in to the snow. Also we had a birds eye view of Queenstown and an amazing lake.It was cool. Also it was all our first times on a helicopter ride besides dad.  

We went on the hydro shark a under water vehicle shaped like a shark it can jump 18 feet high and can dive 5 feet deep and can go 80 km/hr or if you a American 49.7 mph. It was so much fun we jumped up to 17-18 feet  and we went 80 km/hr and dove 4.9 feet deep or 1.5m deep.

Then, we went to Franz Josef. We went to the national wildlife centre we saw kiwi birds not to confuse you with the fruit also called a kiwi. 

We found out that the kiwi has 4 main predators 1. Cats 2.Dogs 3. Possums 4. Stoats all kill kiwis and  all of them are invasive species. Invasive species are animals or plants that are introduced to the country by people to solve a problem lets say that Britain brings cats into New Zealand to get rid of mice but they kill the mice ,The birds and everything else on New Zealand. We also went on a walk and we also saw some funny signs. 

Next, we drove to Punakaiki. It was a town we decided to stop at because it was pretty. It’s famous for the Pancake rocks. We went and saw the Pancakes rocks and Blowholes. It’s when holes that when the wave crash into it it pushes some steam up and blasts it up and out of the hole and than more steam forms at the bottom rinse & repeat.

Finally, back to Picton and we got back on the ferry and went back up to the north island.

Sea ya later!  Nate.

New Zealand - The North Island

New Zealand, sheep and more 

We went to New Zealand and it’s weather is awesome! When we first got here, the weather was gorgeous and hot.  New Zealand is 268021 km squared the smallest country we have stayed in.

 It’s population is 5 million. That is less than Toronto with 6 million. It’s capital city is Wellington. Did you know that New Zealand is made of two islands: the northern island and the southern island. Like Japan, it has no bordering countries because it’s an island. 

The Flag looks like this 

The flag dark blue background means the blue squadron that is a rank in the Royal Navy and the stars mean the southern cross because the southern cross and be found in southern hemisphere. 

When we arrived in New Zealand,  we had to go to our house for quarantine. Everyone who was entering the country had to do two weeks of quarantine.  Pretty soon after we arrived at that house, we had to move because the government announced that they were going to level 4 lockdown and the people who owned the house kicked us out because they were scaredy cats and wanted to move back in. 

Quarantine was so boring because we had to do absolutely nothing.  Also, it sucked!  We were in lockdown and quarantine for 7 weeks before the country opened back up. We rode bikes, played, did schoolwork and other stuff that you probably did in lockdown.

When we went to level 2, we were able to go to a new place. It was on an Alpaca and sheep farm. They had 4 dogs there names were Rufus, Princess,Emily and Fifi. They also had 3 sheep and 5 Alpacas. We were able to go into the animals paddock and hang out with them if we wanted.   We did have a picnic at  Kawakawa bay. Ohhhh yeah -I forgot to tell you I’m now 11 years old. I celebrated my birthday in lockdown.  

The next place we went to we had to drive for 3 hours drive to get to Rotorua. Aka sulfer city. First, we went to skyline Rotorua where we went on luges down a mountain.  The luges were like a small go carts but it is more healthy for the world because it doesn’t use gas and it’s all down hill. The luges worked by when we went down the hill, the wheels spun faster. To stop, we had to pull back on the handles.  It was amazing!

We also went to the Polynesian Spa. It’s not like a spa where you go to get your nails done. It’s where you sit in geothermal water with air. Geothermal is heat that comes from below the Earths crust.  It has tons of benefits like getting rid of skin problems, relieving pain and more. Can I tell you why it’s called sulfer city. 

It’s called that because sometimes it smells like poop. The Polynesian spa was founded in 1800 or the 19 century.

Next, We went to the red wood tree walk. The redwood trees  are one of the tallest trees in the world are the coastal redwoods.  The red woods that we walked in are smaller because they are younger we walked 20 meters in the air or 65 feet in the air.  I loved it!

We also went on a lot of hikes or tramps like they call them here in New Zealand.

We went to the glow worm caves. 

Glow worms are not adults yet. They are the larva of the fungus gnat. Also, it can be part of it’s own food chain. A cool fact is, just like spiders they can make a sticky thread. They use that sticky thread and their bioluminescence to attract their prey like angular fish.

 The life cycle of the fungus gnat starts with the egg. Then, they hatch into glow worms. Then next, they go in a pupa. Finally, they come out as the Fungus gnat.  After 5 days for the males or 5 hours for the females, they die. Not a very long life!!!

The cave is made out of natural  lime stone. If you saw my South Africa blog in grade 3,  you will know how limes stone is formed. If you didn’t read that blog or you need a refresher here it is: lime stone is made of from water.  The rain goes into the ground and the sand stone start to disappear and forms lime stone. 

Near the end, we got on a boat and rode down a river and saw like a ton of glow worms.

That’s it for now bye 

NATE