Kiwis & Dinos

I went to New Zealand a couple years ago and found it a wonderful place. I stayed with a friend who once had a pet sheep while growing up. This sheep would ride in the car with the family on the way to the grocery store and sleep in the house - it was that kind of pet.

Anyway, one of the things that struck me about New Zealanders is that they are so ONE with nature. I know that sounds totally hippie, and they aren't hippies, but they haven't destroyed their ecosystem yet and their lifestyles (for the most part) are very integrated with their surroundings. Meaning that people walk through the bush or surf or row or have large productive gardens and it's not like it's a hobby, it just IS.

And, like the Australians I've encountered, they seem to have no fear. My friend's mom thought it would be great to take me to the beach where they filmed Xena, and I just wanted to go to the beach. It was just the start of summer, but still a little nippy. Very rugged surfer types were braving the rips in their full wetsuits while the two of us walked barefoot on a black sand beach. Then she said, "Oh yea, watch your step!" and pointed to a blue used condom on the ground. "Blech - nice!" I said, stepping over it. Then I saw a few more, and soon noticed the beach was littered with them. "Wow, what happened here?" She shrugged and said. "Blue bottles. They wash up all the time." "Blue bottles?" "Oh, dead Portuguese man o' war. Jellies." Ohhhhhhh... so basically, had I stepped on that used condom, I would have paralyzed the lower half of my body or something. No big.

So the latest example of this has happened at the White Crater Island. The island is basically a rumbling, active volcano, smoking and threatening to erupt constantly. Folks visit it by boat, but rarely go onto the land. New Zealand's Geological and Nuclear Sciences have a camera monitoring the island and taking a photo every hour, which is put up on its website. Recently, a little pink dinosaur appeared on the image. Turns out some enterprising young prankster braved the smokey sulfuric atmosphere and stuck the dino sticker onto the camera.

I love New Zealand!