Moerraki Boulders

The Moeraki Boulders
North of Dunedin are a number of huge spherical stones, found strewn along a stretch of Koekohe Beach near Moeraki, a small settlement just south of Hampden on New Zealand's Otago coast. These boulders are grey-coloured septarian concretions which have been exposed through shoreline erosion from black mudstone coastal cliffs that back the beach. They originally formed in ancient sea floor sediments during the early Paleocene some 60 million years ago.

The boulders weigh several tonnes and are up to three metres in diametre.

Maori legend tells that the boulders are remains of calabashes, kumaras and eel baskets that washed ashore after the legendary canoe, the Araiteuru was wrecked at nearby Shag Point (Matakaea).
- check them out at http://www.moerakiboulders.com/

Spring time in New Zealand.

We watched the Penguins.What a great experience.

Our Penguins

Blue Penguins (Eudyptula minor) or Korora (its Maori name), are the world's smallest penguins. They stand at 30cm tall, weigh around 1000g as an adult, and live about 8 years. In our sanctuary we have birds that are still breeding at 16 years old.

Blue penguins breed on the coastal mainland and islands of New Zealand and southern Australia (shown right). To the Australians they are also known as little penguins or fairy penguins.

There are several things that are unique to the blue penguin:
• Its colour — blue with a white chest
• It walks on land with a forward stoop
• It has no other colour or crest on its head

Vocalisations

Blue penguins are very vocal, they have a range of calls which serve many purposes. To recognise each other or claim or defend territory they have a braying call. As they come ashore they quack, this keeps the group of penguins together and may alert the birds ashore of their return.

Try looking up www.penguin.co.nz

Spring flowers are blooming and so many are also common to B.C.

The farmers are busy with"lambing" and they are so cute.

New Zealand scenery was amazing!

We toured around the middle of the South Island at the foothills of the Alps

New Zealand- We have arrived for a short visit of the South Island.

Flying into Auckland and a short flight to Christchurch.
Could not figure out what the shrieking was as I was trying to stay away from the center line as
the cars approaching us were on the wrong side but eventually Janet adjusted.
Our Longview B & B in Pleasant Point New Zealand 1hr + South of Christchurch.
Our first day it rained all day. Second morning started off nice but then a bit cloudy. Sunny periods 10 degrees +-
Day 3 - The reason they call our B & B Longview .What a beautiful site and a wonderful day.
A 6 hr circle tour from Pleasant Point to Dunedin.

Leaving Bora Bora very sad beautiful but take "lots" of money!

Our resort was at this end of this beautiful island.

Some of the Islands we flew over on the way back to the main Island of Tahiti.
Tahiti was the best dive experience of our lives!!!Hopefully we will have some pictures to post up later of our under water diving.

Four days of this is very pleasant

Sunrise in Bora Bora. Not hard to take!
Our bungalow for 4 nights . Very romantic !
The view from the deck of our bungalow!
We have a hole in the floor with a glass coffee table covering it.This is what is under our bungalow!

Bora Bora Tahiti

Approaching Bora Bora. What a beautiful site even through the window of the plane.
The Airport is on a Island by itself. We took a ferry from the airport to the main land and this is our first site.
Crossing the lagoon great for snorkling or diving.
Maybe we should forget the diving and go fishing!

Dives in Moorea - Jan's Solo

View from the Beach
The ocean awaits.
OK , Ralph! It was fabulous. Too bad you had to miss it due to you sinus cold.
Jan's new best friends. Dominique,Laurent, Jan, Nicholas, and Stephan ...divemasters from TopDive.

Polynesian dancers for Abby.

Saturday nights are always full of entertainment at the hotels. This dancers are for our granddaughter, Abby as she loved the ones we saw at the mall in Vancouver.

Polynesian Flowers of Tahiti everywhere.

Heading under the ocean in Morrea Tahiti

Heading out on our first dive over the reef of the lagoon.
The Lagoon is impressive; a snorkeling experience in it's self.
A little apprehensive about swimming with the sharks but great views from out here.
We swam with Black tip sharks (3 footers), Lemon sharks (6 footers) and their 4-5 foot friendly Barracuda.Very intimidating but wonderful.
Some amazingly colorful fish. So many it makes your head swim. I have never seen such fish life. Need a book to describe it all. Sorry we have no underwater pictures. You will have to settle for the scenery, and it is amazing.