Travel Blog

Grey day today. It wasn't bad for a while this morning, so we took advantage and walked the loop around to what I refer to as 'Tui Row'.

The Tui is a great, slightly-larger-than-a-Robin-sized bird, mostly black with dark blue on its shoulders and two prominent white tufts on its throat. It looks like it has a fluffy white bowtie! As fun as it is to see, it's even more fun to hear. This little guy chatters away at a mile a minute, and no two of its sounds are alike. They range from clicks and clucks to bell-like ringing. Tui Row is alive with their calls, and the dawn chorus down there is truly amazing.

We made it home just as the first few drops of rain started to blow in. It never did get really wet, but the wind picked up to 20-25 knots, about par for the course. Not terribly springlike.

Looking up the Valley 1

(Note that there's still a bit of blue sky.)

Looking up the Valley 2

(Going downhill.)