The Adventures of the Brave Little Tomato Sauce Bottle

What would life be without a bit of adventure?

Sunrise and full moon over the Southern Alps.

With some luck, and the intensive root-washing efforts of K and F, I was able to finish my experimental harvest in time to have a weekend free to explore! Together with my new favorite travel companion -- a genuine tomato-shaped NZ tomato sauce bottle, a gift from Jamie - I took off South and West to explore parts of the South Island both new and familiar.

Brave Little Tomato Sauce Bottle tempts
a giant roadside salmon sculpture!

My first goal was to reach the Northern Royal Albatross Colony and see the birds that I'd dreamed of since reading Louis J. Halle's amazing account of travels in the Southern Ocean.

En route, I stopped at the famed Moeraki Boulders, bizarrely spherical concretions that line the coast south of Oamaru.

Brave Little Tomato Sauce Bottle meets his larger cousins.

The boulders are best viewed at low tide.

After five hours of driving on the left side of the road (and not once turning on my windshield wipers when I meant to switch on my turn signal!), I reached Dunedin, which is spectacularly placed at the base of the Otago Peninsula. Dunedin looks out on a turquoise harbor flanked by mountains. If you drive out along the Southern edge of this bay to the tip of the Otago Peninsula, you can reach Taiaroa Head. Once a Maori stronghold, and later an important New Zealand military emplacement, Taiaroa Head has now been transformed into a nature preserve.

View back towards Otago Harbor from Taiaroa Head.

The preserve is now home to fur seals, sea lions, and many nesting seabirds, including the Chatham Islands Shag, Little Blue Penguins, and, of course, albatross!

An 8-month-old Northern Royal Albatross chick, who will take
his or her first flight in a couple of weeks!

Albatross are amazing birds, perfectly engineered for prolonged flight. Their wings have an additional joint, and the wingspan of an adult Northern Royal extends a full 3 meters (almost ten feet! For reference, the room you're sitting in now probably has a ceiling that is 8 feet high). Once the juveniles take off from their nest sites, they will forage in the Southern Ocean for 5 years before returning to land for breeding.

Brave Little Tomato Sauce Bottle takes in more views on the
Otago Peninsula.

I stuck around until dusk, to watch the Little Blue Penguins return to land from their daily foraging trip. They are beginning the first of two annual rounds of breeding; each pair will attempt to raise four chicks (two per three-month breeding cycle).

Taiaroa Head's lighthouse at sunset.

The following day, I headed West from Christchurch into the Southern Alps.

Castle Hill is a favorite spot for climbers. It's also featured in many movies,
including The Chronicles of Narnia.

Farther West, in Arthur's Pass National Park, I treated myself to some hiking in the Mountain Beech forest. Despite its familiarity (much of my fieldwork has been done in and around these forests), the native New Zealand bush remains one of my favorite forests. There's something about spending an afternoon hiking in a misty, mysterious forest that brings peace to my soul.

Brave Little Tomato Sauce Bottle hangs out in the forest with me.

At Devil's Punchbowl Waterfall.

A bridge over a stream on one of the walking tracks.

And, no visit to Arthur's Pass is complete without a visit with one of New Zealand's native parrot species, the inimitable and incredibly clever Kea!

Although the kea's plumage is greenish-gray to help it
blend in with its rocky habitat, when the birds take flight,
you can see a rainbow of colors decorating their wings!

The winter days are so short that I was able to catch a quick sunset before heading back downhill, across the Canterbury Plains, and home to Christchurch, where a bit of cleaning up and lab processing remained to fill my last two days in Aotearoa.