#though this change drives me closer to quitting the site altogether | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

anonsally · 5 years

Text

Day 13 in New Zealand: Otago Peninsula

It was a good day for watching birds on the larger side. Long report below!

Today, Wife had booked herself on a walking tour of the city, while I had booked myself a tour at the Royal Albatross Centre. After averting a near-disaster where she walked off with the car keys and I needed to drive [luckily, I caught up with her before she left on her walking tour], I bought a new pair of hiking shoes. I think they might actually fit better than the ones I lost, and they have the added bonus of being purple. The ones I lost might arrive sometime tomorrow, but I needed hiking shoes before then and I don’t even know whether they will arrive.

I then returned to the car, had my phone navigate for me, and drove alone to the Royal Albatross Centre at the end of the Otago Peninsula. The hard thing about driving on the left isn’t remembering which lane to drive in--it’s staying positioned correctly within the lane when seated on the opposite side of the car from what you’re used to. Both Wife and I are constantly drifting just a little too far to the left when we drive, to the alarm of the passenger. Also, the turn indicators and windshield wipers have switched sides, so the wipers are getting a major workout even though it hasn’t rained much at all.

Anyway, it was a beautiful drive, winding along the coastline with lots of different seabirds (reef heron (I think), white-faced herons, possibly some little shags?, black swans, paradise shelducks, oystercatchers), some boats, and views across the Otago Harbor to Dunedin. There was some road construction going on, but even without it the drive would have mostly been pretty slow, which feels safer to me.

I made it to the Royal Albatross Centre on time. There were only 4 people on my tour--a retired but active Scottish couple, a retired Australian man with a fancy camera, and me. We had a brief lecture and saw an instructional video on the royal albatross, and I learned some fascinating facts:

The chicks stay at the nest for about 9 months before they fledge, and they get really fat--too fat to fly! So their parents have force them to exercise a little and put them on a diet (the chicks eat food their parents regurgitate for them) so that they’ll be able to learn to fly.

Once they fledge, they take off and then don’t touch land for 5 years! When they finally do land, very clumsily on legs they have not stood on in 5 years, it’s always at the site where they hatched.

At this point they are not yet sexually mature, but they start hanging out and showing off with other albatrosses their own age, flirting and gradually building a relationship with one of them. They hang out together on land for a few months, then fly around the pole again and meet up the following year, repeating this a couple times.

The year before they reach sexual maturity, they commit. They build a fake nest together, practice preening each other, etc. Then they fly off for a year and meet up again to try to mate this time.

They only lay one egg every two years. It takes 3 months to incubate the egg (both parents take turns) and then 9 months to raise the chick, and then the parents need a vacation. They fly off separately toward South America and keep going in the same direction until they get back home again a year later. The male usually arrives first and builds the nest, though the females sometimes aren’t happy with the results.

There are currently two F/F couples. The volunteers give them fake eggs to incubate and then, if another egg gets abandoned (or something happens to the parents), they can switch it out and the F/F pairs will raise the chick.

The royal albatrosses have only been nesting on Otago Peninsula for a few decades; previously they nested exclusively on Stewart Island, but maybe it got a bit overcrowded, or some albatrosses got lost? This is the only mainland breeding site for albatrosses in the southern hemisphere.

After this, we walked up the hill to a small building with tinted glass windows that the albatrosses can’t see through. We had a pretty close view of a chick on its nest, with two or three other chicks within sight too. They were large, very fluffy, and pretty fat! There was also a great view of a bunch of Stewart Island shags and their nests, which were all crowded close together (but not within pecking distance). And then we got a brief glimpse of an adult royal albatross soaring around. It was unimaginably huge (wingspans are 2.9-3.3 METERS).

We then went to another hide, this one originally part of a military installment. There was an even closer chick, and we saw the adult flying again. Spectacular.

Afterwards I drove back about 15 minutes or so to pick up Wife, who’d taken a bus as far as she could up the peninsula. We went to do a tour at Penguin Place, a private wildlife reserve and penguin hospital dedicated to conservation of the endangered yellow-eyed penguin (hoiho).

Unlike the little blue penguins, which return home in big rafts of up to several dozen individuals, these penguins are more solitary. The pairs make a nest together but they don’t like their nests to be too close together. We also found out that there are some gay penguin couples in the reserve who have raised orphaned chicks together.

The main problems facing the hoiho are overfishing and climate change; the fish they eat are becoming scarcer due to humans catching most of them, and the fish are living in deeper waters, below where the penguins are evolved to swim. This year the penguin hospital had to care for 300 starving penguins, which is nearly half of New Zealand’s population of them and nearly 20% of the world’s population.

So, first we visited the penguin hospital. There was a fence with a wide slit at eye level to look through; due to the fence, the penguins can’t tell how big we are and don’t feel too threatened. There were still 9 of them there, which is unfortunately a lot for this time of year. Some of them were still moulting and looked pretty hilarious. Others had their new plumage already and looked very sleek and fancy! It was nice to see them so close up, and they won’t be kept any longer than necessary to rehabilitate them, but of course we were still hoping to see one out in the wild, and there was no guarantee.

Next we all boarded a bus which bumped along rough farm roads down to the reserve, where we were taken into covered trenches to the hides where we could look through slits at the penguins when they came ashore and then waddled toward their homes. On our way down to the trenches, the guide pointed out a penguin on the beach already! I had my binoculars with me and was able to get a better look. Then we hurried through the trenches to the hide and had a great view of it waddling along the path. Once it was out of sight, we waited a bit, and then another one came! It basically got followed by another one who wanted to be friends but was rebuffed. We watched the two of them waddling up the path (one a few meters behind the other), stopping periodically to preen, and we also saw two more from a distance, as they didn’t come up the trail from the beach but came up on the rocks a little ways off. It was so great. We saw five of them altogether, and it felt really special. I hope some protections get put in place to help them survive. They are such beautiful birds.

I’m glad I bought the tiny binoculars--they’ve definitely helped me get better views of the birds today. I have now achieved most of my birdwatching goals for the trip: kiwi, royal albatross, blue penguin, yellow-eyed penguin! I am still really hoping to see a tomtit and a pukeko, and I would, of course, be happy to see a kakapo or a South Island kaka, or for that matter any other bird I’ve never seen before. But even if I don’t, I think it’s been quite a successful trip for birdwatching!

#personal #travel #birdwatching #tl;dr

12 notes · View notes

shadowdianne · 5 years

Text

3rd @italymystery-swanqueen

Gioia, darling, querida… We have spent quite the number of years pestering each other on this awful site and you always amazed me with your kindness. I’m beyond proud you decided to take on manipping by the way; you always had a very keen eye on details and you sharing that with your creations will never fail to make me smile. You deserve far much more credit than the one you receive and seeing you walk and keep going forward with every single thing life has thrown on your way makes me not only hopeful but happy to keep watching you from afar. Here is for every time you sent me to bed when it was awfully late and for the amount of times you have always picked *the* perfect gif for a reaction. I skill I don’t and won’t ever possess.

- Italy asked for some sound bed-sharing amidst Swan-Mills family scenes. I don’t know if I got the Psycho thing right but it was certainly humorous.

“Remind me again why they weren’t able to give us a third room.”

Regina’s sentence elicited a guffaw from Henry as the teen left the room his mothers had been stuck with, a cheeky grin the last thing both brunette and blonde saw as they glanced at the quickly closing door. The teen had obviously been given the second room they had been able to secure after the downpour that had started to hit Emma’s yellow car, effectively halting their trip just two hours after they had left Storybrooke and, as the blonde sighed and ran a hand through her hair, she shrugged, pointing at the carpeted patch of floor that wasn’t overcrowded with the many knickknacks that seemed to be the major décor on the small motel they had been able to find.

“They are packed.” The blonde finally said. “I can always sleep on the floor if you want. Or sleep with Henry.”

She knew that third option was out of the question though; Henry had already given them both a look of utter horror when Regina had asked how crazy would it be to try to keep the journey under the rain and Emma didn’t want to make the teen feel as if she wasn’t giving him enough personal space. Changing her body weight from foot to foot she considered the carpet; old but not moldy it wouldn’t be comfortable, but it would do the trick for the night being.

Her musings were interrupted by Regina’s sigh as the brunette pinched the bridge of her nose, placing the suitcase next to the vanity that stood directly in front of the bed.

“I wasn’t implying that.” And even though there wasn’t a ‘Miss Swan’ at the end of the sentence the clipped tone was enough for Emma to growl inwardly at that. The journey had started wonderfully; with Regina laughing and smiling as both Henry and herself made jokes and sung to the horrible playlist they had created for what was going to probably be their last journey together now that the teen was about to start University. The warmth that had radiated from the older woman had been, in fact, strong enough to not rattle Emma when they had finally crossed Storybrooke’s town line, the vertigo feeling she usually got whenever she was stripped from her inherent magic not as strong as other times. Yet, as dark clouds had begun to cover the sky Regina’s mood had gotten somber, darkening alongside with the weather. Now, the lines around her mouth, on her forehead, made her look like a complete different person than the one who had tried -and failed- to follow Emma’s colorful choice of music a couple hours ago.

Sighing, Emma went towards her own bag, ruffling for a moment until she extracted her pajamas out of it, flattening the wrinkles on the fabric before turning back to Regina who had her eyes closed, a brief glimpse of repent glowing on the back of her pupils by the time she blinked them open once more.

“I’m sorry.” The brunette began, and Emma nibbled on her bottom lip at the flustered expression that washed over her face a second before. Shaking her head, she approached Regina, putting the pajamas down at the edge of the bed, the frilly cover a stark difference against the plain colors of her sweatpants and t-shirt.

“No, I’m sorry. We could have had tried to drive for a little longer.”

And it was true, she thought as she reached for Regina’s forearm as the brunette crossed her arms at her chest, her hand hovering and then stopping altogether, fingers twitching before she let it fall once again, limp at her side. She could have done that; drive a little longer. The beetle was old, yes, and the road was mostly covered in dark and rain but if she had known Regina would have been so uncomfortable with the idea of sharing a bed…

Because, she added as they both stood, awfully close to each other and the lack of magic essence that always seemed to crack between them both making everything slightly more awkward than expected, even if she felt trepidation at the idea of spending more time with Regina despite her idea of sleeping in the floor she didn’t feel nervous at the idea of sharing that bed. Thrilled would perhaps be a better word for it. One she didn’t plan on admitting to Regina anytime soon.

A sigh from the brunette made Emma focus back on the woman in front of her, her brows rising as she saw a soft blush coloring Regina’s cheeks for a second. A look that she wasn’t used to see on the older woman. Tilting her head, she waited until Regina let her hands fall at her sides.

“No, Henry was right.” She said with one small glance towards the door the teen had closed behind him. “And so were you. It’s better if we wait until tomorrow. It’s just…”

She halted, teeth gleaming between parted lips and Emma forced herself to chuckle as she turned and sat at the edge of the bed, feigning a self-assuredness that she didn’t quite feel. Not with the impending reality of her sleeping next to Regina for the next few hours.

“I don’t hog the covers.” She began, a slow smile spreading over her lips as she watched how Regina’s stillness was replaced with a playful roll of eyes. “At least that’s what I’ve been told.”

She stopped at that; remembering all too well who the last person had been who had shared his bed with her. A memory brought by the lack of ring on her hand, the nervous tick of covering a jewel that wasn’t even there to begin with being quickly tracked by Regina’s own gaze as the brunette looked down at Emma’s fingers, a slight rise on her chest following the movement.

Neither of them had truly talked about Hook after the divorce. Not like it was something Emma liked to speak about after all and even if Regina had been the first one who had received a visit from her as soon as she had made up her mind the former Queen hadn’t mentioned that either, not after Emma had signed the papers, red rimming her eyes as she had done so. Not even after Emma had asked Regina to go and have a drink with her at Aesop’s, the fuzzy memories that night had brought with it telling enough.

Clearing her throat, Emma patted the bed underneath her, the far too soft sheet under her hand speaking volumes of how many times the cloth had been washed repeatedly.

“I don’t snore either.” She added and that broke the spell Regina seemed to have fallen for, a gentle chuckle escaping her lips as she eyed Emma with something close to mirth dancing on her eyes.

“I guess I will find out tonight.”

It was true, she didn’t hog the covers, but Regina definitely did. They had both settled for the night shortly after their conversation with Regina sitting at the other side of the bed with something close to attentive focus on the cream she proceeded to rub on her hands, forearms and face. Something Emma had been very careful not to stare at as she stood and went to the small adjacent bathroom to change into her pajamas. When she had exited the room, Regina was already changed and after a quick awkward moment in where the brunette had stood and tiptoed towards the bathroom Emma had just vacated, the blonde had slipped beneath the sheets, nervousness curling her toes as she waited, scrolling down her phone and answering to some messages Snow and David had sent to her.

After that, Regina had followed her movements, carefully entering the bed through the other side and glancing at her before muttering a quick goodnight that Emma had felt tong-tied to answer to. Switching the lights off, Regina had quickly closed her eyes and fallen asleep. Which had only led to more nervousness on Emma’s part as she pondered not only on how peaceful the brunette looked when she was resting but also on the very distinct possibility of her rolling towards her side once she fell asleep and do something as crazy as hugging her.

Which had turned to be a problem when, after possibly reaching a REM state, Regina had started to not only hog the covers but also move closer and closer to Emma’s still awake body.

Something Emma was sure would have caused her magic to go high wire if they would still have been at Storybrooke. Outside the barrier that separated the town the crackling energy she had become accustomed to didn’t feel as connected or as strong inside of her so aside from a slight buzz on the tips of her fingers she only felt lightheaded when Regina’s arm finally wrapped around her midsection, the movement causing her shirt to rile up a few inches.

She wasn’t stupid of course, or at least not enough to not know what was either happening or why her body felt as if it was on fire. Yet, Emma didn’t want to move, or turn to her side so she could extricate herself from Regina’s arms. Closing her eyes and forcing her breathing to even out, she willed sleep to come, darkness helping to her tired brain until everything around her turned fuzzy enough for her to be able to not think on how easy would be to simply follow Regina’s antics; pressed her body flush against the older woman and just pretend, for one night, that she hadn’t terminated her marriage because precisely her.

“Moms?”

The sound of Henry’s voice at the other side of the room was what made Emma blink bleary, the darkness from outside already been replaced by the dull, grey-like light of early morning. The kid had obviously inherited that from Regina as she groaned and wished to be able to sleep a few more minutes. Something that was quickly forgotten as she heard a chuckle at her side and something frighteningly close to a pair of lips caressing her earlobe as Regina’s voice reached her; rougher than usual and definetely holding a breathiness there that Emma hadn’t gotten to hear before.

“Someone’s eager to keep with the trip.”

Blinking, feeling her cheeks beginning to redden, Emma twisted so she could watch at Regina, noticing for the first time in the few minutes she had be awoke how Regina’s arm was still hugging her close, her fingers splayed on her midriff, her thumb pressed against her skin where the shirt had bunched up further since they both had fallen asleep. Brown eyes blinking at her, sleep still clinging to them, they lacked the tension they had sported the night before and Emma wondered what had changed, why it had happened.

“Moms!”

“Give us a minute.” Emma didn’t recognize her voice, but she felt her lips move, her eyes unable to look away from Regina’s as she addressed the teen at the other side of the door, the huffed answer of something she didn’t want to unpack the only response she got from the boy. Licking her lips, being painfully aware that Regina’s eyes followed the movement, she managed to croak a “Good morning” that fell flat against her teeth and tongue, a lazy and trembling smile following short after.

One final squeeze on her waist and Regina moved away, her warmth being quickly replaced by the chill that seemed to fill the room the second the covers that hid them both from it were lifted. Blinking and feeling her chest tightening, the blonde almost didn’t hear Regina’s voice as the woman called for her. However, when she did, she found a pair of mischievous eyes glancing at her, the lack of purple on them just as staggering as it had been the night before.

“You certainly not snore, Emma. But you speak on your sleep.”

The blonde couldn’t answer that, unable to find her voice, but she gaped as Regina chuckled and began to fish for her clothes, a third call from Henry breaking the spell.

“If you are kissing tell Zelena she owns me ten dollars!”

“Henry!”

#swan queen #OnTheLastDayOfChristmas #italymysteryswanqueen

26 notes · View notes

bikingb1tches · 5 years

Text

DAY 21

Gualala, CA to Lagunitas, CA

Hours: 11.5 hrs

Miles: 90 mi

Elevation gain: 4,600 ft

Elevation loss: 4,497 ft

Clip-in falls: 2

Flat tires: 0

Today was quite possibly the most physically challenging day I’ve ever had, and because of that, it was also very mentally challenging.

Kate left me this morning to catch a bus/train from Gualala to San Francisco so she could have a few days off her knee to rest up. The repetitive motion is getting to it and it keeps getting worse, plus her bike is a little small for her. So, that left me to push on from Gualala to San Francisco on my own!

I was excited to try it solo for the most part, though I also was a little nervous. If anything happened, even just a flat tire, I was on my own. The actual riding part wasn’t too different from when Kate is there, just because we are often riding apart from each other or not talking anyway, but I did feel the sort of weight of being alone when I would stop or when I didn’t feel like pushing anymore. For the most part, however, I enjoyed the adventure of the solo journey and relying literally only on me to get where I needed to go, even if I didn’t want to bike anymore.

The morning was difficult with some pretty decent elevation gain, but it was also fueled by excitement and nostalgia—the last time I was in the 1 this far north was spring break of my junior year of college in 2013; we just sort of began driving to the PCH north and slept on a cliff one night and then camped at a random state park we came across the other nights.

I don’t remember many specifics of the drive as far as points of scenery or anything, but it was sort of exciting to know I had been on this same road, in these same spaces, six years ago. Never would I ever have thought back then that I would be returning to these places on a bike tour, not to mention just how much has changed and all that has happened in that time span. Whenever I revisit places I’ve been before, especially places that hold some sort of emotional significance or memory, I always reflect om all that has happened since the last time I was there. It is cliche, but it really is true—you just never know where life is going to take you. 21-year-old Whitney couldn’t even fathom all of the things that would happen in the next six years, or that I would be back in these spaces once more anytime soon. It really just puts a perspective on both the good and bad times in life—it feels like everything in life is a certain way, or never going to change, or is so good or so bad, but then time goes by and you find yourself in these old places and you’re not the same as you were then, nor is much about your life. The only thing that has stayed the same is that place.

So I visited some of these spaces on my solo day, thinking about all I’ve done and who I’ve become since the last time I was there, all while biking along huge cliff drop-ofs where there is no shoulder and no guardrail and it is winding up and down. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid at all—one bad driver could mean you sliding off the road and right down the cliff.

I felt pretty optimistic about what I wanted to accomplish in the first part of the day—the guidebook suggested Bodega Bay, but I knew I wanted to push past that because I wanted more time to rest in SF. The only problem is there are no campgrounds or affordable accommodations between Bodega Bay and Lagunitas, which is where the next day’s stop is supposed to take you. The morning was intense but I felt confident I could push past Bodega and then either find a WarmShowers/Couchsurfing host, cheap motel room, random camping site, or I was honestly pretty much expecting to just pull off the road and tuck myself away on some cliff or pasture area.

Gualala to Bodega Bay was a little over 40 miles and was mostly elevation gain and loss amongst the ocean/cliffs. I made it to Bodega Bay and though I was tired, I didn’t want to just do 40 miles. So, I pushed on. The only thing about the space between Bodega Bay and Lagunitas is it is rolling hills in the middle-of-nowhere farmland and inland. However, like I said, I was prepared to bunker down behind a giant boulder in a field if need be. It was about 5:00pm when I was passing through these areas, and though I was definitely slowing down, I just figured I would push on to Point Reyes Station at least—I had messaged a potential Couchsurfing host, so I was hopeful I could stay there and then finish the last 35-40 miles into SF the next day.

After awhile, the farmland was more flat and there was nowhere I could hide to sleep. Additionally, I knew I was getting closer back to the coast, so I hoped I could find a rocky cliff area that I could tuck myself into for the night.

By the end of the farmlands section, however, I was really regretting I had pushed past so far, and now, I had no other option but to keep pushing. I had done about 60 miles at this point but there was no end in sight. My energy and motivation really started taking a dive, and each hill became more and more impossible to climb. It was during this time that I had my first clip-in fall of the trip, in the same manner that Kate did—unclipped one foot, but fell the other way. It was sort of a low for me, but I just had to pick myself back up and start pep-talking myself into continuing on.

Well, the coastal part ended up not being cliffs but just some tiny fishing towns with nowhere to stay and nowhere to even hide and camp. It was flatter in this section, but I was becoming increasingly desperate to be done and it was getting darker.

Right befor Point Reyes Station, I stopped by a state park to use the restroom because I had been holding it for quite some time. Of course, this could not be easy either. A woman approached me from her truck and started talking all sorts of crazy about trying to give out hundreds of dollars and her kids’ two dads and how her grandmother had a miscarriage but moved out here...just really a bunch of nonsense. She had to either be schizophrenic or on something. She was harmless and nice, but I told her my name was Kate. Eventually I was able to cut off the conversation and then I called the police down the road because I didn’t think that woman should be driving; as a cyclist, I especially didn’t want her on the road.

I eventually made it to Point Reyes Station, but the sun has set at this point and it is dusk. I still have eight miles to go to get to the campground and I know part of it is a climb. Every truck that passed me, I looked at longingly, willing it with my eyes to stop and give me a ride. I don’t remember the last time I felt so physically helpless and just didn’t feel like I could make it, even though I knew I could (and essentially had to). It’s weird in those situations, where you literally have no choice but to keep pushing, even if you don’t think you can push anymore. What’s the saying—it’s always impossible until it is finished?

By the time I get to the state park, it’s completely dark and my head light will only stay on for five seconds at a time. Additionally, the camping part of the state park is not immediately when you enter, and so I was going a little crazy at this point—peddling in the dark with a faulty head light on a wind-y road with little shoulder, just desperately searching for the camp ground. About a mile in, I arrived. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see a brown parks road sign.

It was dark and about 9:30pm and all of the other hiker/bikers were in their tents asleep, but I didn’t care—I rewarded myself with Mac n cheese and a mini carton of chocolate milk, washed up, brushed my teeth, and then PTFO.

Altogether, I finished two days of biking from the guidebook into one, biking 90 miles with some pretty decent elevation gain. I am very proud of myself but I also realize I am a bit of an idiot.

I will say that I am mostly proud of myself though, especially as I passed 1,000 miles today! I cannot believe my ass has been on a bike seat for over 1,000 miles now.

0 notes