I always though that living in a foreign city would be one adventure after another. The daily struggle to procure food through the language barrier, constantly getting lost, finding a store that carries deoderant. As it turns out, this isn't really the case, except for maybe the getting lost part, but I think that's just me. I suppose that because everyone here speaks English, although I would beg to differ, it makes things a little easier. We're a little bit short on adventuring right now, mostly because of work and adjusting to an oddball schedule. I have to work from 7 or 8pm to 5am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which shoots the next day down the crapper a bit. Its unfortunate that Maria's schedule is slightly different, she has been starting around 5 ish so there is usually a couple hours gap. She obviously is getting up early, but I'm staying out later. We try to make the most of the days when we don't have to work though, although after working all weekend you get a little burned out. I'm glad that we spent quite a bit of time travelling, and hopefully will spend quite a bit more. We're considering buying a car instead of renting one because it would be cheaper, hopefully, we don't have to pay for insurace, although with Maria driving anything could happen, and there is the potential that we could sell it before we leave. Cars are much cheaper here for some reason, so I'll keep you (all my loyal readers (I have loyal readers, right?)) posted.
While making the most of one of our off days, which included walking to town and shopping for bedding, as well as registering for a tax numbers and strolling through the botanical gardens, we decided to walk by the local pond, which usually has an abundance of wildlife to observe. New Zealand has a large duck population, at least from my own observation, and their species seems to vary considerably when compared to the good ol' Washington Duck. We were observing a small group of baby ducks hunting for food when an explosion of quacking and flapping sounded off to our right. We both ran over to check out what was going on. When we arrived one duck was viciously (I'm assuming this was some kind of fight, I suppose that it could be a mating ritual or something. I'm not an experct on duck romance, but I know from personal experience that courtship can be quite physically painful) attacking another. It larger duck repeatedly bit the smaller duck while attempting to hold its head under the water. This went on for a minute or two when another duck joined the fray. It was hard to tell whose side he was on, as the original attacker had now climbed on top of the first ducks back, still attempting to hold him underwater, and the third duck had clmibed on his back. There was now a duck sandwich going on, and frankly I was a little bit confused. I've never seen ducks behave in this way, but like I said, I'm no expert. There was a small circle of ducks watching the whole ordeal, but they didn't seem to want to participate. After another minute or two the whole thing broke up. The people of New Zealand may be laid back, but they ducks sure are rowdy.
Duck Fight 1
Duck Fight 2
Duck Fight 3
While making the most of one of our off days, which included walking to town and shopping for bedding, as well as registering for a tax numbers and strolling through the botanical gardens, we decided to walk by the local pond, which usually has an abundance of wildlife to observe. New Zealand has a large duck population, at least from my own observation, and their species seems to vary considerably when compared to the good ol' Washington Duck. We were observing a small group of baby ducks hunting for food when an explosion of quacking and flapping sounded off to our right. We both ran over to check out what was going on. When we arrived one duck was viciously (I'm assuming this was some kind of fight, I suppose that it could be a mating ritual or something. I'm not an experct on duck romance, but I know from personal experience that courtship can be quite physically painful) attacking another. It larger duck repeatedly bit the smaller duck while attempting to hold its head under the water. This went on for a minute or two when another duck joined the fray. It was hard to tell whose side he was on, as the original attacker had now climbed on top of the first ducks back, still attempting to hold him underwater, and the third duck had clmibed on his back. There was now a duck sandwich going on, and frankly I was a little bit confused. I've never seen ducks behave in this way, but like I said, I'm no expert. There was a small circle of ducks watching the whole ordeal, but they didn't seem to want to participate. After another minute or two the whole thing broke up. The people of New Zealand may be laid back, but they ducks sure are rowdy.
Duck Fight 1
Duck Fight 2
Duck Fight 3
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