BLUE PENGUINS

It occured to me that these cute, endangered penguins deserved a blog all of their own! They are called blue penguins, or fairy penguins.
The divorce rate among these "little blues" is low and they usually mate for life. Being the smallest of the penguins, they only grow to between 35-40cm (that's small!) and weigh in at only 1kg.
They make a soft crooning sound and are very shy of humans and rarely seen because of their nocturnal nature.
They actually sleep in the ocean.
They look like miniature Charlie Chaplins when they waddle along the beach..it's quite something to see.
The best time to see them ashore is between November and March in New Zealand, but only on selected sites.
On Tiritiri Matangi island, where we went last month, the wardens had built them nesting boxes, to protect them from predators..
Collective noun of the day: so, what's a group on land called - a 'waddle' of penguins of course, but at sea, they are called a 'raft' of penguins!

INCREDIBLE SCIENCE !

We went to the Incredible Science Exhibition at Auckland University today!
The WOW Physics Show was a parody of Hogwarts and some amazing chemicals and unexpected bangs and fizzes...
The "hair-raising" machine was fun,(Van de Graaf generator for non-science folk) and blowing cuboid bubbles and exploding bananas!
Jessica paid particular attention to the tornado machine, as you can see..
The girls opted for lectures on 'Are You Paying Attention' and 'Incredible Vision' - the optical illusions disturbed us...
There was a 'smart car', forensic science and a protein building programme. The three of them made green cheese and coloured slime and to end the day we went to a Paper Folding class and made frogs from paper - they even jumped!
Sophia made a cube of course, and Emma made a trapezoid (I gave up, and we headed home for a glass of wine and all my creased bits of paper).
Highly recommended.

BLUE JELLYFISH !

Often, after a big storm, we'll go down to the beach and there will be washed up, little blue jellyfish on the shore.
This, of course, goes with my BLUE THINGS blog!
Of course, all jellyfish sting, and they are one of the few creatures to have left no fossils, since they are mainly 'jelly'.
In New Zealand, this jellyfish is known affectionately as the "blue bottle", due to its colour and shape when strewn on the beach.
Elsewhere in the world it is known as the "Portuguese Man o War". Gladly, I've noted, there have never been any fatalities in NZ from the sting of this particular one, and, if they do get you the best thing is to wee on the sting - next up, is to pour alcohol on..
In Australia it's a different story and they are getting infestations of large blue jellyfish - but what do you expect in Australia, right? They get the blue-ringed octopus as well!

BLUE THINGS !

I've noticed a tendency to 'blue' creatures here.. blue starfish, blue crabs and blue penguins.. and I began to wonder, why was this? And why are blue creatures so bizarre ?
The blue, or little penguin (known in Maori as korora), is the world's smallest penguin. They only come ashore under the cover of darkness and live underground in burrows so they are rarely seen.
Blue swimmer crabs apparently taste delicious and are one of the world's most active crabs..
And blue starfish...with their two stomachs and an eye on the end of each arm and between five to twelve arms..are actually sea-stars.
How many blue animals can you think of? And, is it just me, or are they all strange?

YASAWAS !

The Yasawa islands, where we are going, are made up of of about 20 volcanic islands, West of Fiji.
The British navigator William Bligh was the first European to sight them in 1789, following the mutiny on the HMS Bounty.
The Yasawa islands are a bit like that itch in the centre of your back - more difficult to get to than other parts, but sooooo rewarding when you do.
They were the setting for the famous Blue Lagoon movie and you get the white, sandy beaches, tropical rainforests and the blue-green crystal clear waters there.
In the resorts you stay in a bure (like a small thatched cottage) and all supplies arrive by boat.
I would highly recommend a holiday there - which might explain why we're returning for the third time - although it's a different island each time.

YouTube - Manta ray dance

YouTube - Manta ray dance

MANTA RAYS!

Yes, swimming with manta rays (not sting rays!) for those of you who felt we needed to be careful. As you probably know, the manta ray is the largest of the rays, (for the largest recorded, look at the old photo attached; the ray is about 5,000 lb in weight!) I am hoping they're not that big!
Facts for you:
They live in all tropical waters of the world, usually around coral reefs, which is where we are going to find them.
They are extremely curious around humans, and are fond of swimming with scuba divers, often surfacing to investigate boats.
They eat plankton, not humans, and have no sting in their tail. I'm hoping we may even see them 'flying', it will be an awesome experience!
And just to end... the word manta is Spanish for cloak or blanket because when swimming, the manta looks like a spread-out cape.