More Christchurch

November 2
After breakfast, Mom really wanted to get her hair cut and Leslie had given me her gift certificate to get a massage that she had won at Crary bingo but didn't have time to go to. We wandered over to a salon that one of the ladies at the hotel recommended. We made an appointment for her then wandered over to the massage place and made me an appointment. The appointments were in the afternoon so we decided to head to cathedral square to do some shopping. This is the cathedral and a couple other pictures in the square.
There was this little cart in the square selling fried rice and noodles, I had this sudden craving for chinese food and had to have some noodles. We ate lunch in the square and I scared seagulls away just for fun.

After I had my massage and Mom had her hair did, we wandered through the a little park on the way back to the hotel.
Mom's new super cute hair
For the evening, we had tickets to see a Maori show and a tour of Willowbank Reserve. I was finally going to see some kiwi birds! I was pumped.

First was the show. It was a little cheesy and staged but fun none the less. We learned some history from our guide then took a little walk through the woods. This is our guide.
Then all of a sudden some native Maori jumped out of the bushes and challenged our chief! (poor kid was the only man in our group and thus automatically the chief of our group)
So our chief did the peaceful thing and picked up the greenery offering. Then met and shook hands with their chief.
We learned some more about the people, their houses, games they played and some fighting techniques.
Then it was time to gather and have a show. They danced and sang for us. In respect to the performers there was no picture taking. The women did this dance with these ball thingys and then we got to go up and perform the dance.
I sucked royally at this and could not catch the damn swinging ball. It was a good laugh though.
Then the men did a haka or a kind of war call. Of course our chief had to learn it and he did a fantastic job by himself.
It was a good time, lots of singing and chanting and dancing.

Afterwards, it was time to go on our animal tour to the kiwi house. The first thing the guy did was feed some eels. I'm sorry but these are just nasty and creepy. This picture is for Damian. Yuck!
Then we walked into a little enclosure where there were these little cuties living.
We fed them too. I wanted to take one home with me, they were so cute and friendly.
There were tons of other birds but I wasn't really able to get any good pictures. They were too far away or behind fences. Here are some pigs.
Or rather one pig, the other one never lifted his head out of his dish which was right up against the fence.

And then... we got to the kiwi house. There was a little display before we walked in. Here is a kiwi egg in comparision to other eggs.
A little stuffed adolescent kiwi.
and a kiwi skeleton.
The anticipation was intense, we were about to see a real live kiwi. We walked into the kiwi house... we could hear them moving... and making cute little noises... and then suddenly there was a kiwi!
Pretty cool huh... I forgot to tell you, they are nocturnal animals and live in a little dark hut. We could take pictures but no flash, no disrupting or scaring the kiwis. We watched them for awhile and trust me, they are some of the coolest birds. They were super cute and funny to watch.

Here are some other birds we saw on the tour. This is not a kiwi but a bird that looks similar and they live in the daylight.
Mom and I had some time after the tour to wander around the rest of the reserve. More pictures of animals.
This duck looked messed up but I think this is how they looked normally...
Pre-teen ducks in the bushes
Look at the baby...
This little guy was leading the way
And of course, more birds. They were my favorite.
This little guy talked and whistled with me. I wanted to take him home too. :)
And then lastly a lemur, just because.
So ends the tour of NZ animals. We rode back in the free shuttle with a bunch of the performers. The shuttle driver recommended a buffet... not so good. I made sure I ate about 10 dollars worth of dessert to make up for the lack of good dinner food.

Time for bed. Next day was a big one. I was going to try my hand at driving. Sounds easy until you realize that they drive on the opposite side of the road and the steering wheel is on the other side of the car. But I will leave that tale for the next entry. Cheers!