{"id":1524,"date":"2011-05-22T11:13:29","date_gmt":"2011-05-22T19:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/?p=1524"},"modified":"2011-05-22T11:13:29","modified_gmt":"2011-05-22T19:13:29","slug":"new-zealand-round-boulders-and-penguins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/?p=1524","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand – Round Boulders and Penguins!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi there.\u00a0 Yes, I know I’ve been gone for QUITE SOME TIME.\u00a0 Things in my life have been in a bit of an upheaval, to say the least, so posting has been non-existent.\u00a0 Things have happened.\u00a0 We’ve been living life, and even went to CHINA (!) which I will be blogging about soon.\u00a0 I promise.\u00a0 However, for now, you get some more New Zealand coverage.\u00a0 As if you’re not sick of that already.\u00a0 Oh well, it’s my blog, I do what I want.<\/p>\n

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After a grueling few days in the relentless rain, we rounded the bottom of the south island, and arrived on the east coast in the town of Omaru.\u00a0Just before arriving, we stopped to see the Moraki Boulders.\u00a0 These are sperical boulders that have parted ways with the sandy cliffs behind them, facing the sea.\u00a0 These monster boulders have landed on the sand, and have become quite the tourist attraction, probably because they are so weird and out of place.\u00a0 These boulders are massive, may of them bigger than me, and we had a fun time photographing and playing on them.\u00a0 Unfortunately, we\u00a0had a lot of unruly company at the boulders that day, but oh well.\u00a0 You can’t pick who comes to your tourist attractions.<\/p>\n

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After leaving the boulders behind, we headed to the town of Omaru, home of the Blue Penguin Colony<\/a>.\u00a0 New Zealand had three species of native penguins, and we saw two of them on this trip.\u00a0 We started off going to the Blue Penguin Colony, which is an organization designed to create a protected habitat for the tiny blue penguins, and a place for scientists to study these funny little birds.\u00a0\u00a0 During the day, we took a tour to visit the grounds and view the penguins in their little habitats, which reminded me strongly of hobbit houses.<\/p>\n

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After leaving the Blue Penguin Colony, we headed to a beach where supposedly we would be able to see the rare yellow-eyed penguin, as they nest on these beaches.\u00a0 We were high on a bluff overlooking the beach, but we did see some penguins!\u00a0 We also saw a very lazy seal basking in the late evening light.\u00a0 It was a beautiful spot, and we felt a bit like the seal, soaking up the long awaited sun’s rays.<\/p>\n

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That evening, after wandering around the somewhat creepy town of Omaru, we went back to the Blue Penguin Colony for the nightly penguin viewing.\u00a0 This complex has a set of grandstands where spectators can sit and watch the penguins arrive at dusk from their days spent in the water.\u00a0 The little penguins come in “rafts” or large groups, crash into the shore on waves,\u00a0 waddle up the ramp the group has constructed, and rush across the path to their homes.\u00a0 It was hilarious to watch.\u00a0 Sadly, there is no photography allowed during this time, as it distracts the penguins.\u00a0 Luckily, as we\u00a0were leaving the complex for the night, we spotted some groups of penguins coming up in different areas, and crossing the road!\u00a0 They were super cute, and funny to watch.<\/p>\n

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That night\u00a0stayed at a super fun and funky backpackers on the cliffs overlooking the ocean.\u00a0 It is one of the most beautiful views from lodging I have ever had.\u00a0 Lovely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi there.\u00a0 Yes, I know I’ve been gone for QUITE SOME TIME.\u00a0 Things in my life have been in a bit of an upheaval, to…<\/p>\n

Continue readingNew Zealand – Round Boulders and Penguins!<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1524"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1560,"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524\/revisions\/1560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}