I originally named this post "Lake Rotoroa (and Baby Birds)", but then I uploaded the pictures and realized that seven out of nine of them are of birds, one is of bugs, and only one is actually of Lake Rotoroa, so... I renamed it more appropriately.
When J and I were in Hamilton, we made the mistake of checking out of the hotel early, thinking to have a nice breakfast somewhere before heading to the zoo. I am totally obsessed with the way Kiwis make French toast, but they pretty much don't have all day breakfasts, so I was excited for the opportunity. The mistake part came in when we realized that not a single restaurant was open at 7:30am Sunday morning. Oops. We ended up (to my chagrin and J's excitement) at McDonald's. Fortunately, they had chai and pancakes, which made me less upset about breaking my no-McDonald's rule, and we actually had a nice time chatting over breakfast.
When we finished eating, we still had time before the zoo opened, so we went and walked around Lake Rotoroa (not to be confused with Rotorua, where we went several months ago, with all the geothermal activity), which is a pretty little lake in the middle of Hamilton.
It was a cloudy day, but not cold or windy, and we had a really nice walk, mostly thanks to it being spring and there being so many happy little fowl families waddling about.
Just look at this lovely mother with her brood! They were cuddled up so tightly underneath her that every once in a while, a baby would get crowded out, and it would have to scuttle around and nuzzle back in.
This is a coot, which is my second favourite bird after pūkeko. Apprently, the feeling is mutual, because this one swam right over to us and followed us along the shore for a minute. I think it expected food, but we didn't have any, so it left disappointed.
This is a mum pūkeko with her baby. We were walking on a raised boardwalk, and this mother pūkeko charged us when she saw us, just to make sure we weren't coming to threaten her baby.
Later, we found some even younger pūkeko chicks. By this time, we were off the raised boardwalk and on a part of the path that was considerably closer to the lake. Just after I took this picture, as I was assuring this mum that I meant no harm to her chicks, she charged me so rapidly and unexpectedly that I screamed and ran away, much to J's amusement (although I didn't see him getting any closer to her).
I feel that I should mention the one downside to our charming little walk - the bugs. Notice how the sky is FULL of them? You'd think that that picture would be an exaggeration, but it is not. J says that they are attracted to carbon dioxide, so they hover in clouds above the walking trail. I don't understand how the carbon dioxide would stay concentrated enough to make that happen, but they were in this long funnel about six inches over our head along the whole entire trail, so it must be true. You can see in the picture how there are the most in a strip right across the middle, with less at the top and bottom - that's how clearly concentrated they were.
Fortunately, they had no interest in biting us or landing on us, so as long as we managed not to breathe them in, we were okay. But it was a bit unfortunate.
On the bright side, we learned that coot chicks have these crazy red and yellow heads, and are amazingly adorable! I think that grown-up pūkeko are my favourite, but baby coots beat baby pūkeko any day!
And, bonus, none of the coot mums or dads scared us. They just took very good care of their colourful babies.
Here is the only picture I managed to take of the actual lake, which is a bit of a pity, because it really was beautiful.
In conclusion, and giving the coots yet another bonus, we learned that they stand on one leg like flamingos. Or at least, I learned that. J maintains that we've seen them like that before, but apparently I wasn't paying attention.
I am currently home sick from work, as I have finally caught the nasty sore throat that has been going around for weeks. Oh well. I am doing better, and think I will be back to work tomorrow.
I'll post the last installment of our Hamilton trip (the zoo) sometime soon.
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