Doing Well in Wellington

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Kama

Wellington is a great, green city with just the right amount of urban edge. It also definitely lives up to its nickname of “Windy Wellington.” It reminds me a little of San Francisco, with its hills and light colors and ever-changing sky. I spent two nights here and now I’m about to board the ferry for the South Island (the crossing across the Cook Strait takes three hours), where I’ll be staying the night in a small city called Nelson.

I made reservations at an inn in Nelson called The Shortbread Cottage, which makes me think of a fairy tale or nursery rhyme, and I half expect Goldilocks’ grandmother or some character in the Candy Land board game to open the door and offer me a plate of rich golden shortbread. I also have this vision of teddy bears on the bed. And maybe a lollipop forest outside. But I’m trying to go in without any expectations. That’s the big trick of traveling.

I’ve felt a little aimless these last few days without any wildlife projects to work on or subjects to immerse myself in. More like a plain old American tourist (often people’s first guess is that I’m Canadian, but I think they’re just being kind, and since I’m traveling alone, how loudly American can I possibly be?). But I’m making the most of all this leisure time. Yesterday I visited several organic grocery stores, found a vegan restaurant for lunch, walked and walked, took an 8 pm yoga class near my hostel (almost exactly like a yoga class would be in Brooklyn), and then had a late dinner at a Malaysian restaurant. I have got to stop myself from apologetically saying “just one” or “only me” whenever I enter a restaurant, but I don’t know what else to say. Intrepid solo traveler? One crazy wombat lady? Maybe just “one, please.” Hey yeah, that’s it, keep it simple.

This morning I had an hour-long Skype call with work (how can such a thing be free? I still don’t get it). It was mysteriously easy to shift into work mode, since I’ve been feeling a world away. I imagined my giant face on the screen in a conference room in which I usually see other people’s giant faces on the screen. Oh well. People walking by popped their heads in to chat when they saw me, which was such a great treat. (I Skype with Michael almost every day, but haven’t seen visual reminders of my “regular life” except for a wall in our apartment, and occasionally Michael will hold up Marvin the cat for me to talk to. Marvin always looks kind of startled.)

Crazy that the trip is more than halfway over—just 12 more days left. Here’s to spring having already sprung by the time I land, but mostly, here’s to all of you surviving this last stretch of winter!

Here are some photos from yesterday:

View from top of cable car ride.

My meditation hut in the botanical gardens.

Bench in botanical gardens.

Along the quay.

Bat Chatter

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Kama

New Zealand is truly and deeply great, and I’m also missing the wildlife in Australia a whole lot. So here’s a little more about my visit to the bat clinic (I tore myself away from there two days ago to fly to Wellington), since some of you had questions and you’ve all probably had enough of the wombats (as if that’s even possible)!

Shoalhaven Bat Clinic (check out their Facebook page for lots of great video) rescues and rehabilitates grey-headed flying foxes. These furry, intelligent mammals get caught in barbed wire, hit by cars, shot at, stressed by “extreme heat events,” electrocuted by power lines, and burned by brush fire. They’re native to Australia, and as everywhere, habitat loss is a big problem there. Here are some highlights from my 48 hours:

Walking into a fenced-in aviary and standing gob-smacked as about twenty bats hung upside down above me. They spend their entire lives upside down (except when flying and relieving themselves). They smell kind of musky.

This guy likes to hang with a buddy.

Watching them nibble their fruit salads (apples, pears, and grapes painstakingly diced by volunteers every morning).

Grey-headed flying foxes only eat fruit and nectar.

Touching a bat’s velvety, crepe-papery wing.

Observing a bat autopsy (cause of death was determined to be blunt trauma to chest).

Wendy performs a necropsy on a bat that came in DOA.

Marveling at their wings, which are kind of like built-in blankets because they wrap themselves in them. Their wings “have hands in them” because their fingers support the wing membrane. Lookit:

Staring at little delicate bat fingers.

The young bats like to hold onto their carers.

Day-tripping to an enchanted beach with the clinic manager, Janine:

The softest sand.

Meeting other rescued creatures who were just the teeniest-tiniest, baby-est things: feathertail possums, brushtail possums, and feather gliders.

This little guy’s tree was cut down. He’s a brushtail possum.

Gerry Hawkins, a total powerhouse, runs the clinic on her own property. I stayed in a little in-law type apartment within her home. I had my own little French-press coffee maker and drank a lot of coffee. And just outside my room was a 75-year-old cockatoo, Charlie, who would repeat “hello, darling” after you. He would also spread his wings and dance to the Sesame Street song “Sing a Song” (his favorite since 1969).

Charlie may live until he’s 100. I hope Gerry does, too. She’s amazing.

Saying Yes

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Kama

Waking up in Wellington, New Zealand this morning, I am still humbled by the kindness of strangers. A handful of them made my stay in Australia magical (and of course are no longer strangers). These humane humans also devote their lives to rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing wild animals.

They’re people who “just say yes”: Yes, I’ll give my spare bedroom to a wombat-obsessed American for a week. Sure, I’ll bottle-feed an injured possum with a thumb-sized bottle every two hours for a month. Right then, I’ll drive you around Canberra for a day of sightseeing. Yeah, I’ll pull over on the highway right now and check this dead kangaroo’s pouch, using a flimsy plastic grocery bag as a glove. Yup, let’s drive two hours each way to pick up a scabby wallaby from another wildlife carer who doesn’t have space for her. Absolutely, this blind elderly wombat can live with my family and I for the rest of his natural life. Yes. Yes.

You know how when you’re traveling in a foreign country everything is a thing? The littlest tasks like filling your car with gas, making a phone call, frying an egg. It’s like you’re a little again and the grown-up locals have to show you how to do the most basic things. But my hosts never made me feel dumb, just laughed with me when I laughed at myself. Then they would usually make everything okay by putting an animal in my lap.

I was in Australia for two weeks and only spent one night in a hotel. I am the luckiest. Here are some of my main kind strangers (now friends). I’m sure the animals are grateful for them, too.

Donna of Sleepy Burrows Wombat Sanctuary (with Cruiser)

Phil and the girls of Sleepy Burrows.

Dianna of Rocklily Wombats (with Wiggles)

Warwick (right) of Rocklily Wombats, with George the builder

Janine of Shoalhaven Bat Clinic

Wendy (right) of Shoalhaven Bat Clinic with her partner Jenny

Gerry, founder of Shoalhaven Bat Clinic

Flyout

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Kama

In Bat Land, this is called the “flyout.” At 7:30 pm on the dot the whole colony (of 11,000 grey-headed flying foxes, aka bats) flies out of their trees in search of their nighttime fruit. A wonderful volunteer, Janine, took me to see this phenomenon and we stared above and listened to the frantic bat chatter for about 20 straight minutes. Batman has nothing on these guys.

Gives new meaning to the term “batshit crazy.”

On my way to the bat clinic, I saw this. Google maps couldn’t have pinned my destination better. This rainbow ends at the clinic, truly.