Jan 29 (I'm to to date again!!!)

Left Stewart Island for the mainland this morning. It was raining, and once again the water was rough.

We stopped by the Southland museum, which was a natural and historical museum for this area and the sub-antarctic islands. There were tuataras there. The tuatara looks like a lizard but is not. It is a reptile that is of an order that goes back to the time of the dinosaur - this is the only survivor from this order and are unique to New Zealand (NZ). The tuatara lives a long life (one at the museum was over 100 years old and had children for the first time). They don't have teeth but there jawbone has serrations in it. They have a third eye on the top of their skull, which can only be seen when they are born, after which it is covered with opaque scales.

In addition to the tuataras, they had examples of Maori artifacts, information about the seal and penguin trade of the 19th century (it was cross what they did to turn these animals unto oil, and really sad how .any were killed), and the history if exploration in the sub-antarctic islands.

Passed by the southernmost McDonald's (or at least it used to be - we were debating if it still is). I couldn't get Wynston to stop. It would have been cool to have been to both the northernmost (Roveniemi, Finland) and the southernmost. Oh well, if a new more southern one really has been built, I can just go there.

Drove from Invercargill to Te Anau. The land we passed through is considered The best farmland in NZ. This area has 2% of the population and 12% if the GNP for NZ. Besides farming, the area is also known for tourism and aluminum.

We had a short day today. After museum and several hours of car time we arrived in Te Anau. We made a quick stop before the hotel at a park that had several of the birds of the area in cages.

Winston wanted us to see them in case we do not tomorrow. One of my favorite was the kea. It is extremely intelligent, seems to have a lot of energy, and gets easily bored, which means it tends to be mischievous (I know some people like that). One of the keas seemed to be playing hide-and-go-seek with an empty cage and appeared to be dancing past the connecting doorway.

Interesting fact day 9: the takahe bird of NZ was thought to be extinct (4 birds had been found prior to 1940). In the late 1940's a colony of the birds was found in fjordland. Only a few hundred exist today.