Thursday 29 November 2007

Duck attack!

We're finding that we get bored of a country the closer we get to leaving, which is a shame, but maybe a natural reaction to a place when you've been there a while and you're looking forward to the next adventure. We're at that stage now with NZ. We're in Christchurch now - the last location in NZ - getting ready to fly to Melbourne tomorrow morning. We arrived here on Tuesday afternoon and haven't really done anything except for a bit of repacking and sorting out our stuff ready for the transition from car-owners to car-less travelers.

The highlight (for Ben)/ lowlight (for me) of Christchurch is the duck attack that occurred in the Top 10 Holiday Park. We were feeding a mother duck and her 8 ducklings, when a horrible male duck came along and started being aggressive, pulling at the mother duck's tail feathers. Being the animal lover I am, I intervened but inadvertently got between the mother duck and her ducklings, causing the mother duck to attack - flapping and quacking up my back. Really scary, but thankfully didn't result in any injuries. The next morning, the mother duck was back - with only 1 duckling. Justice?

Ben feeding the ducks before the mother attacked and the ducklings disappeared:

Another lowlight is that Ben has a bio-mechanical foot problem. It first started hurting in Wanaka when we were walking the Rob Roy Glacier, and has been causing him problems ever since, so we got it checked out and x-rayed and now he has to go for some physio in Oz. At least we know it isn't serious , and is probably fixable with a support bandage - should be nice to wear when it's 40 degrees outside...

Next stop - Melbourne, Australia. Wooh!

Debs

4 comments:

brenda said...

i've enjoyed following your adventures around nz - not surprised you're bored in christchurch tho .... yawn.

did you watch outrageous fortune? do you remember our address to send it back? ;-)

have a great trip to aus - enjoy the sunshine, give our love to the lovely shelley and have a blast!

xx

phraeza said...

NO! What happened to the other ducklings???

Ben and Debs said...

Yes, we *loved* Outrageous Fortunes - watched both series in about 2 weeks :) They're on their way back to you now. Thanks!

Ben and Debs said...

Re the ducks, God killed them.