Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, Cantebury Museum

Willowbank Wildlife Reserve*****

We bought our tickets from bookme.co.nz for $18 (normal price $25), normally they offer half price discount, but since we bought it for the next day, the cheapest available price is that. It was really nice spending our morning in this wildlife reserve, where they guarantee a kiwi bird viewing!

Pukeko Bird

The are quite a list of native animals, like kea (mountain parrot), takahe (rare flightless bird), kaka, kiwi bird, and tuatara. But also have interesting animals like lemur with the baby twins and an monkey island. Of course the list of animals in Willowbank is no way compared to the Orana wildlife park, but the kiwi experience is really cool.

Kiwi bird, the best shot we can get in this dark enclosure, this flightless bird is so shy.. 

The kiwi bird enclosures are set in a dark environment like forest, so we actually saw about four kiwi birds (after adapting our eyes to the darkness) and two of them were using their long beak, poking into the earth to look for food.

Interesting Facts about KIWIbird:
Kiwi belongs to the Rattie family of birds which include the emu (Australia), ostrich, cassowary and the extinct moa. They have lived in NZ for around 30million years and generally are nocturnal. Live in underground burrows and usually has a partner for life. It is the only bird in the world to have nostrils at the end of the bill and have very keen sense of smell. Uses its beak to probe and smell prey underground, has large ear openings with excellent hearing. It is the second to largest egg per body weight of any bird species in which the egg can be up to 25% of female kiwi's body weight (about 6 hens eggs!).

Other cute ones: Asian short clawed Otter. Originated from Southern Asia including Malaysia (never see them in Zoo Negara geh?!)
200million years ago New Zealand is part of a supercontinent that is known as Gondwanaland. 80 million years ago, NZ started to break away. Gondwanaland split into pieces that became Africa, India, South America, Papua New Guinea, Antartica, Australia and NZ. It took 30 million years for NZ to become completely separated.

Mandarin Ducks

Mischievous Lemurs

Beauty and the

Beast

Fatty rabbit, looks like a cat...

Eels... Ewe....

White faced Heron

Christchurch Botanic Garden

Cute Paua House display@ Canterbury Museum (FOC). The real kiwiana house decorated fully with paua (abalone) shells. Apart from this, the museum boast interesting exhibitions about the Antartic expeditions. And special exhibition on Scott's last expedition for a $15 entrance fee.

FACTS: Kiwi Legend, Sir Edmund Hillary climbed everest on 29 May 1953, led Ross Sea Party of Fuchs Trans Antartic Expedition 1957-1958.

We spend about three hours at this museum which is not enough! So much to see but the free parking at Botanic Garden (the only free parking around Canterbury museum & I-site) is only up to three hours. So we just have to miss other displays on Asian arts, dinasours and animals... Aaarghh....

Summit road sunset

A short drive from Christchurch city centre leads to this amazing sunset viewing location..

View of Lyttelton Harbour

Christchurch night view

Yummy Korean dinner, we take away some frozen kimchi dumpling for tomorrow =D

Wellington, capital city of NZ

Wellington, the capital city of natural New Zealand =) aka the windiest city of NZ! Tested and true... ahaha...

A walk around Wellington's waterfront... Really sunny day, but the strong wind makes so much different... Had to wear windproof gear for sure!

It's a nice walk around. We parked our car at Wellington Waterfront Motorhome Park which costs $50 a night.. OMG... We'll tell you more about it later.. So we checked in early, to avoid parking in the city which is expensive and time limited. But Sunday is free of charge.

Saturday Underground Market

A parking lot converted into a saturday market with many local arts and crafts. So nice~~

Delicate Cookie Moulds sold at the market... A shortbread made from this mould would certainly look nice on the tea tray =) According to the owner, some moulds are antique collection...

As we are a little worried about the peak season in NZ, where all the tour prices might increase by a fair deal, we paid a visit to Wellington's I-site to get some information. The staff advised us to book on tours for Fox Glacier and Doubtful Sound Cruise since these two tours are very popular (The Milford Sound tour is more popular than Doubtful Sound but was closed due to avalanche). So after some planning, we booked for both tours. A mistake to book from I-site because the both the tours are entitle for YHA discounts if we book direct with the operator. We only found out when we reach South Island, but after some discussion we manage to get the discount for Glacier tour.

Then we walk from the I-site to the tram station for the ride up Botanical Garden.The tram costs $3.50 one way/ $6 return from the city. The tram looks almost the same as the one we rode up Victoria Peak @ Hong Kong. 

NZ native bird, Tui.. with a unique clacking sound... Just love to hear it's vocal, so cute..

Wellington's botanical garden is not massive but hilly, so it's a good place for some jogging! We are planning to stay a night in Wellington before going to South Island, so we won't have time to visit the national museum, Te Papa (the best museum in NZ) but will do it on the way back =) Instead, we spent some time in the city and nature walks in this garden..

Looks like a sea coral... Just need some imagination... haha..

Beautiful tulips in bloom 

An unexpected lively parade along the waterfront, for a footie event..

Well here's the Wellington Waterfront Motorhome we were talking about... $50 for a motorhome/ van parking. Very pricey, limited space. SO remember to book during peak season! And the facilities is so limited, they have power, toilet and shower. Not even a washing sink. That's it.. But that's the price to pay for its location, just a turn away from the harbour for Bluebridge ferry...

Welcome to the South Island of NZ!