National Bird National Tree: Kiwi bird, silver sleigh
Leaving Auckland for the south, he traveled for three days with a local New Zealand tour group in the Waikato district of the central North Island. In addition to the scenery and customs, the people who are most impressed are the national birds and trees of New Zealand that I saw for the first time.
Kiwi, Kiwi in English. In Māori-rich Rotorua, there is a government-funded Kiwi Hatching and Rearing Conservation Centre, where we saw this precious and exotic bird. According to the information in the museum, this cute bird is not a bird in the general sense, from its physiological structure analysis, it has a relationship with dinosaurs (if you are interested, you can check the relevant information). Because of this, the nearly extinct Kiwi is revered as New Zealand's national bird. The tour guide said that China had wanted to exchange a panda for two kiwi birds, and in the end the New Zealand side did not agree, I don't know if this is true. New Zealanders like to call themselves Kiwi... Maybe it's the meaning of the shunjiwei bird being rare and cute. Some translators transliterated Kiwi as "bizarre". Kiwi bird shapes can be seen in almost every city in New Zealand.
馆内标本：几维鸟是飞翔能力已经退化了的无翼鸟，一年产卵一次，每次1-2枚，繁衍成长不易
Kiwi birds have a keen sense of smell and poor vision, and their eyes cannot be exposed to sunlight or they will become blind. Therefore, it is absolutely forbidden to take pictures in the live kiwi bird museum. This is a kiwi specimen on display in the museum
Photograph of a living kiwi bird (from the web). Source: Kiwi, belonging to the order Ornithischia wingless, this family has only 1 genus and 5 species, commonly known as kiwi birds, distributed in New Zealand. The size is like a chicken, and the female is small. Body length 48-84 cm, weight 1.25-4.00 kg; The feathers are hairy and resemble strands of hair; The peaks of the mouth are slender and slightly curved, the nostrils are located at the end of the mouth, and the sense of smell is sensitive; The wings are degenerate and cannot fly; Short and strong legs, good at walking; The foot has 4 toes, 3 anterior and one posterior.
Advertising sign for kiwi bird park at the foot of the mountain in Queenstown, New Zealand
A kiwi sculpture on the water's edge in Queenstown, New Zealand
A Kiwi bird in Rotorua, Waikato District
The national tree of New Zealand is the silver fern (pronounced "jue"). Silver fern is a kind of fern tree, and I saw a lot of fern trees along the way, but I really didn't notice what the silver fern looked like. Next to the Kiwi Bird House, there is one. The guide picked up the leaves to introduce us: the back of the silver fern leaf surface is different in color, the front is green, and the back is silvery white. The tour guide emphasizes that Maori people once used the function of reflecting the moonlight on the back of the silver fern as a guiding sign. The silver fern is the national tree of New Zealand, and the national emblem has the pattern of silver fern.
Silver fern leaves on the front, green
银蕨树叶的背面，也是银白色的
Coat of arms of New Zealand. At the bottom of the coat of arms is the silver fern branch. Source: Former Maori hunters and warriors relied on the back of silver ferns' silver glittering leaves to find their way home. Just turn its leaves over, and the silver side will reflect the brilliance of the stars and moons, illuminating the path through the forest. Silver fern is New Zealand's national tree because of its tough vitality. New Zealanders believe that the silver fern can reflect the national spirit of New Zealand, so this plant has become a unique symbol and honorary representative of New Zealand, whether it is on people's chest badges, or products and services, the whole country can find the pattern of silver fern
In addition to kiwi birds, we also saw an interesting firefly. This firefly is found in both the south and north islands of New Zealand. We went to the North Island Waitomo Glowworm Caves. Unlike the flying fireflies we usually see in New Zealand, they don't fly, to be precise, they can't fly at all, they just fluoresce on the high walls of the cave, spit out filaments and sit and wait for the flying insects to "fall into the web", which has some spider characteristics. Taking a boat into the cave and looking up at the "starry sky" at the top of the cave is really a unique realm. Fireflies are afraid of light, and are not allowed to take pictures after entering the cave, so they have to borrow photos of the cave on the Internet.
At the ticket window of the Waitomo Glowworm Cave on New Zealand's North Island, the female conductor is māori
萤火虫溶洞乘船入口处，一位毛利大妈守候在此。 导游说，此溶洞的参观门票收入全部归当地毛利人所有
Photograph hanging outside the door of the Waitomo Glowworm Cave: This unique cave was visited in 1911 and was developed very early
We entered the cave in such a small boat, and the viewing time was about 20 minutes (to borrow the online photo)
Looking up at the boat, you will see such a scene as the vastness of the galaxy (to borrow a photo from the Internet)
On the one hand, the characteristics of the water and soil, the national bird and the national tree, as well as the wall fireflies that create the "Milky Way" in the cave... Features need to be maintained!
2018．2．13