8/10/2014

part 1 of our road trip to Napier

I think I prefer short trips of a couple of days better than a week-long vacation holiday most of the time. Hubby is awesome at planning the basics of our trips. He makes sure we get there on time and have a place to sleep. And he always has some places to visit up his sleeve along with some alternatives in case of bad weather. He's a good planner :)

Since it's winter here in our hemisphere, things are a bit slower than usual and that's fine with us, since we don't like to deal with crowds or lots of traffic. But that doesn't mean there's nothing to see!

We stopped at Owlcatraz Bird and Wildlife Park in Shannon on our way to Napier. There wasn't much going on but we were greeted by Joey who is 17 years old. He took quite a shine to Hubby!




We also got to see 6 of our only native owls--called Ruru in Maori and generally called Moreporks because somebody said that's what their call sounded like they were saying.  These are their names. They are 3 pairs of owls that mate for life.



After seeing the captive birds in their enclosure, the owner told us that a wild ruru had been hanging around and she found it sleeping in a tree! Hubby took some great photos of him/her and I will post them on my photoblog sometime soon.

More to come....


Click here if you want to find out more about rurus. 

8 comments:

Cynthia said...

I love their names! I love owls -- as is evidenced by several carved ones in my house.
Hubby looks great with a bird on his shoulder. Much nicer than a hat. :-)

Marja said...

What a gorgeous bird who has become friends with your husband. I am looking forwards too your napier posts. When my brother comes next time, next year or the year after e are going to explore the bottom half of the North Island

EG CameraGirl said...

Yep, Joey seems to really like your husband! What fun there was a wild owl in a tree too!

Hootin Anni said...

Love the photo of your husband with the new friend on his shoulder....we'll have to nickname him Capt. Jack Sparrow?!!!
[kidding of course]

Enjoyed this post.

Leila said...

We live in an old villa in the Waikato and have a resident Ruru, it's my favourite bird and there's nothing like being tucked up in bed and hearing ours move from tree to tree round the house at night.It makes me feel safe! Love your blog and look forward to the next installment!

Anonymous said...

Great place -- thanks for putting the link on your photo blog; I had lost this one somehow. Cute how the bird loves your husband.

Mine is the travel planner in our family as well -- and I love it that way.

Hetty said...

Dear Betty , in Holland our owles say Oehoe!
Groetjes, Hetty

Phil Slade said...

You do have some famous owls Betty. I looked on your photoblog as I wanted to see your Moreporks and just saw the lovely harrier, so I'll look again.