Today marks the beginning of the back half of our New Zealand adventure. We have seen a lot of different and unique animals and sights. But who would have thought we would be dealing with a forecast of mixed precipitation in June? I guess it makes sense when put into context by a question I was recently asked, "What made you visit our country in winter?" Yep, it's winter and the forecast is keeping us close to home base today. I fear even the Supervan would have trouble on the mountain roads if they are covered with ice and snow. Even though our school schedule defined the dates we would be in New Zealand, it would be cool to come back during their summer to see how things are different. Might even convince some of the kids to do a backpack trip through the woods. Did you know there are no snakes in New Zealand, not even in zoos? Speaking of animals, one of the biggies on our list still had not been seen, but Melissa had a line on where we could see one or two. First stop though is lunch.

Queenstown has a ton of food options, most of them bar food, take-away, or asian. Food has actually been one of the biggest challenges of our trip. Similar to Ireland, most of the menus are nearly identical. Fish and chips, some type of burger, a curry variant, some lamb dish, etc... We made it our mission to find something different for lunch. The answer was Flame, a South African grill. I have never been to South Africa, but they must eat a lot of meat. I have a very good friend that is from there, and he raves about the sausages. He has also introduced me to Biltong, which I will say is awesome. Flame did just want we wanted it to do, broke the routine and offered a tasty something different. The next stop is the place we hoped would check the next box on our animal tour.

The Kiwi Birdlife Park did not fail us. We arrived just in time to watch the Kiwi feeding. The Kiwi is a nocturnal, flightless bird native to New Zealand. It is much larger than I thought it would be and a little hard to see. The enclosure is kept in near darkness to mimic the natural habitat the birds would find in the wild. The days and nights are just reversed so we can observe them while they are awake. This is important because these little guys are not just captive animals. They will be released back into the wild once they are large enough to defend themselves against the feral predators (cats, possums, and stoats) that are out there. In addition to the Kiwi, we saw falcon, kea, weka, and morepork owls. Melissa looked for the black stilt (one of the rarest remaining birds in the world) but it must have been hiding or asleep. So, we missed that one. The last big animal we saw here was the tuatara. The tuatara is a lizard like animal. I say 'lizard like' because they are not just another reptile. They are their own group that has remained unchanged since they walked with the dinosaurs 200 million years ago. They really are fascinating. They have three eyes. You should google them.

Since we had to be on a plane the next day, we had a pretty relaxing evening. First was some gourmet ice cream before dinner. Dinner at Britannia, nautical themed, and back early to re-pack for travel the next day.