Another good day--took a tour bus day trip on the '90 mile beach'
to the very northern tip of NZ at Cape Reinga. This is where the spirits of deceased Maori visit on their way back the the lands of their ancestors and where the Pacific and Tasmen Seas meet. Pretty cool to see waves running perpendicular to the shore where the seas collide.
The white strip of sand in the distance is the home/breeding place for the godwit bird below. Talk about endurance--these randonneur birds fly 10,000k without Stopping!
Here's a quote from Massey University research:
A female bar-tailed godwit, a wading bird called E7, has set a new record of having flown 6,230 miles for eight days across the Pacific Ocean to reach her winter home in New Zealand. Much to the astonishment of the monitoring research team, the bird flew continuously without stopping for food, water or rest, making it the longest bird flight we’ve been monitoring, beating the previous record of 4,038 miles which had been set by a Far Eastern curlew.The other eight godwits that got tagged with tiny satellite transmitters, were reported to have flown what the research team referred to as “extreme endurance flights” between 4,355 and 7,258miles depending on the chosen route. Just like the E7 godwit, they did not feed on their journey.
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