Nikau Palm forest-the only palm species endemic to NZ
Feeding the eels
NZ Fur Seals
The eels sensed we were there- they showed up and started crawling out of the river!
view from holiday house
Endangered Giant Carniverous Land Snail (Powelliphanta)
This past week we took our Christmas vacation early to beat the rush. We went northwest to Golden Bay and rented a holiday home there for 2 nights and spent a day in the area seeing the sights. The highlights were kayaking and feeding the eels. Some of these eels are 100 years old. One of the first owners of this piece of land used to throw her kitchen scraps into the river (in the 1920's). She saw the eels ate it and she started feeding them on purpose and eventually a group of about 10 of them became quite tame. When New Zealand eels decide it is time for them to breed- their noses grow long and eyes get large and they swim out to sea as far as Tonga- then breed and die and their offspring finds their way back to the freshwater rivers of New Zealand. It is a process that is not understood very well- but it seems pretty amazing.
The purpose of the trip was a four day hike- the Heaphy track- New Zealand's longest Great Walk. The track starts in the beech forest and transitions briefly to an alpine environment, and then to a tropical nikau palm forest along the beach. It was beautiful!
On the way home we stopped to see the pancake rocks and a seal colony.
