Thursday, January 24, 2013

Waitomo: Caves formation and Glowworm


The caves in Waitomo are dotted with the lights of thousands of glowworms looking like starts in the sky.


 The Waitomo Glowworm Caves were first explored in 1887 by local Maori Chief Tane Tinorau accompanied by an English surveyor Fred Mace.
As they entered the caves, their first discovery was the Glowworm with tiny bright lights dotting the cave ceiling. 
Glowworm is the common name for various groups of insect larvae and adult larviform females that glow through bioluminescence.
The purpose of the glow varies. Those adult females that glow do so to attract a male for mating.

A male glow-worm fly mates with a female just as she emerges from her pupa. The female then begins to lay her eggs, and dies immediately afterwards. Male flies live for about four days and probably manage to mate a few times before they die.

It's so unfair even in insect women sacrifice their lives for their babies.

I got a little video for you guys that explains what the Glowworm are about. 
Waitomo has about 300 caves, 100 of them mapped the rest still yet to discover. 
Did you know that cave were not there one day?? 


Here is how caves were formed: 
Water create holes in the rock deep underground. If the hole gets big enough they become caves. 
Over the last 30 million years, the area we know today Waitomo was formed as a result of geological and volcanic activity. A lot of the caves have areas you can walk on them like the one below.







Saturday, January 19, 2013

A day in a farm in New Zealand


Today for the first time in my life and as much as I like the country side and like being in farms, I was put under test today and for sure I can never be a farmer.

The harshness and the violence on animals I saw today in the farm was shocking . I know it might well be part of the process but a painful process I didn’t want to see. I couldn’t believe how they were kicking and beating cows.  All the aggressiveness used just so some people can eat meat.
Have you ever wondered what are those tags in cows’ ears? I did but I always thought they’re numbers they give them to know they had they’re vaccine or not.
No I was wrong and if you believed same thing you are wrong too

Here is what it’s used for; basically those tags are registered in a computer with a list of data on the cow, his weight his age, may be how much he ate… so on so forth which will come on play during the painful process they go through.
Which goes he like this, cows are assembled in a small tiny area, farmers start by passing some of them number through an even smaller passage, and by passing them I mean forcing them to pass with shouting, hitting with a stick and kicking if needed.
One of the farmers holds a sort of a big pistol filled with liquid, he takes it and force the cow’s moth open and dig that long big pistol inside the cow throat to make sure all the liquid goes inside his stomach. This is called drenching, which means give a cow a liquid that kills the germs in his stomach also it becomes gravy for food hence grow faster.


Once that done, cows are forced again into another passage so they get scanned, or rather the tag in their ear get scanned and the computer would give the weight of the cow now, compare it with the last weight and gives the average weight lost or gained since then, pretty sophisticated! But the process I don’t know about that.

May be there isn’t any other way to do it so humans can eat a big steak when they go out. I’m  not vegan but I’m again animal violence and after seeing this, I’m not sure when will be the next time I will eat any meat if never, and for sure I will never ever in my life be a farmer looking to make money out of animal torture.

I can have cute farm with some chicken that give some eggs to eat in a morning if there is; grow some fruits and vegetables with no kicking, no shouting, no violence, no nothing to hurt to animals, I am still in shock really, I was able to take one picture every time I look at I feel sorry for all the cows out in that farm and other farms.
To make up for the day and try to forget what I Saw, I run for 1 hour and had 2h Yoga, just so I get exhausted and get some sleep and tomorrow is another day. It worked out :) I also tried to enjoy the the beauty of the farm and I took some picture oh the scenery, chicken the river ... There is always something beautiful in my day :)








Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Back to the City: Auckland


After a month spent in little islands with not many people, back to the City but not any City: Auckland, New Zealand. 




Even in the city the adventure didn’t stop J I am staying in Henderson, West of Auckland about 18Km to Auckland Center. I borrowed a bike from my host and “hit the road Amira”

The ride is lovely, all the way to the city I get a nice view of the city (as you saw in the picture above), and in both sides of the road is the ocean. Half way through, as the tides getting higher, I found myself biking in the water. The water get to a point that my bike wheals were half covered with water. I was laughing and fighting my way out of the water but the ride in the water kept going for about 15mn, I don’t think I never had any harder and enjoyable exercise.  



The road after that was just perfect: "After the rain the grass will grow"


Auckland is not that big but after a month spent in islands it felt like China. A lot of people all over the place, waiting for the light to turn green to cross, overwhelming :)
FYI, New Zealand is a Nuclear free country. In fact since 1984 nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships are barred from using New Zealand ports or entering New Zealand waters.

VAANA Peace Mural

Wondering the streets of Auckland:



Auckland Harbour Bridge




Women's Suffrage Centenary 1893-1998



Auckland Center