Trip Day 1: We're faster than luggage.
So it turns out that New Zealand is really far away. I think that academically I knew this, but it took 24 hours of travel and 3 connections for it to sink in. The bad thing about having 3 connections is that means you need to be on time for 4 separate flights. The flights I booked were all pretty well timed out with 2 hours in Minneapolis, 3 in LAX, and another 2 in Auckland. Well, NWA merged with Delta, moved our flights around, leaving us only 2 hours at LAX, and they moved NWA into a new terminal across the airport from Air New Zealand. Then our flight from MSP to LAX was delayed, making it an hour late, giving us approximately 20 minutes to get across the airport, get boarding passes and get through security by 30 minutes before the flight leaves. So we got off the plane and raced... Out of the terminal onto the parking ramp, down several flights of stairs, across a busy road, into the other terminal, then all the way to the end where the ANZ counter was. Then we had the world's slowest ticket counter guy. Finally, we got our boarding passes, rushed through security and got on the plane just in time. 13 hours later, we landed in Auckland, tired and in bad need of a shower. One more easy connection to make and we're in Christchurch. Just gotta get the luggage and walk through customs. Standing by the baggage claim carousel, we hear an announcement. “Would passenger Buckingham please come to the baggage services counter.” We get there and the very nice gentleman informs us that Mr. Hunt-and-peck at the LAX counter didn't get our baggage tags entered right, so the luggage never made the flight. Oh well, we made it, and the luggage would be delivered the next day.
Day 2: Yellow Eyes, White Flippers, and Coffee.
Well, day 2 arrived, and we were looking forward to our first full day in New Zealand. We were scheduled to go to Akaroa for a Penguin viewing tour. We decided to wait for our luggage to arrive before making the 1.5 hour drive to Akaroa, so we could wear some clean clothes. We left early afternoon and made a quick stop at Pak 'n Save (no, that's not a typo) for some snacks, breakfast food and a picnic lunch. The drive to Akaroa was beautiful, once I got used to driving on the left. The road was curvy, hugging the edges of some small hills, or what we would call mountains in Wisconsin, probably about 3000 feet. When we told the lady at the info centre that we were driving back to Christchurch after the penguin tour got done (after dark) she gave us a funny look. In truth, it wasn't too bad. Well, Akaroa was a cute little French inspired town, with a few shops and a view to die for. Our tour guide, Shireen, picked us up at 6, and we drove out to her farm on Flea Bay (aka Pohatu). They own thousands of acres, where they raise 2000 sheep, a few hundred head of cattle, and have created a sanctuary for the Canterbury White Flippered Penguin. It's a subspecies or color variant of the Little Blue penguin, which is the smallest penguin species. They have 1063 breeding pairs of penguins that call Flea Bay their home, and they nest on Shireen's farm in nesting boxes or in their own burrows. We had the opportunity to see several young chicks and a few of the adult mothers/fathers protecting their young in the nesting boxes. We also were hoping to see the others come ashore, but they decided to come ashore later than usual, and we had to leave due to darkness.
However, while waiting for the white flippered penguins to come ashore, we had the incredible opportunity to see a Yellow-eyed Penguin. They are the third largest species of penguin, behind the Emperor and King Penguins. They are also probably the most threatened, with only a few thousand known to exist. A few of these penguins live in Flea Bay as well. We saw him come ashore and start his slow climb up the bank where he would find a bush under which to spend the night. It was a treat to see such a rare penguin. We were struck by how much work Shireen and her husband put into preserving these penguins. They do this privately with little to no funding from the government or other groups, and it's a lot of work. What they do is not only a service to the penguins and the visitors who see them, but it's such a great service to the world to preserve a unique bird that is threatened due to the introduction of mammals to New Zealand by settlers.
Speaking of mammals, Emily made a friend on the farm. His name is Coffee. He is an incredibly soft brown sheep who was cut off from his mother after he was born, and she rejected him. So he has been raised by Shireen and Francis. He and Emily became pretty good buddies, I'm not kidding, she really did like him, and he followed us while we went on the penguin tour. Sheep are not a threat to the penguins, and their only interactions are curious sniffing which generally end with a sheep getting pecked on the nose and running away.
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