Cloudy with periods
of showers, high 50s
A day of travelling south
along the North Island of New Zealand.
Eventually, we’ll fly the second southern half of the island, but first
a couple of stops along the way.
Our first destination is Longland’s Farm, a dairy farm where we’ll learn
about “green” farming of dairy cattle.
The climate is so wet and so
mild here that grass grows 365 days a year. Each farm is divided into a number of paddocks where the cattle
will graze for one day before moving onto the next the following day. In this way, each of the 20 or so
paddocks has a chance to regrow its grass for the next 19 days before the
cattle return to graze on that same plot.
The farmer therefore needs to spend a minimal amount of overhead on
silage. The green fields also are
a benefit to the avian life. I
could see quite a bit of activity out in the fields, albeit distant, and
managed to get one quick shot during out short stay of one of the Goldfinches.
As we continued our journey
south to the geothermal grounds of Rotorua, the rains began to fall…..first
gently, but then more in earnest as we approached the actual site. About half of us decided to walk the
grounds in spite of the downpours and while the birds refused to come out from
under cover of the surrounding forests, we did get some nice wet views of the
geothermal features.
We departed and made our way
to the local airport for a charter fight down to Wellington, capital city of
New Zealand. Tomorrow, we’ll have
a chance to visit this city and look for still more southern hemisphere urban
birds. Til then…..
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