Sheep Brains and Skinks

As you all know, Eoin and I have to eat in order to survive out here in New Zealand. We go to the grocery store in Kilbirnie (about 3 minutes away) and get the majority of our food. We get our fruit from the farmers market on Sunday, and occasionally browse other grocery stores too see what they have that good ol' Pak-N-Save doesn't have. We have discovered a variety of...things..that one would not normally find in a Shaws, Wegmans, Hannafords or Publix (to name a few).

HEARTS: Sheep, chicken, and lamb. Deeelish! Sheep and lamb hearts look like normal hearts. Chicken hearts look like really big kidney beans.

BRAINS: Sheep and Pig. Looks exactly how you think it would.

STOMACHS: Sheep and Pig. It looks like regurgitated vanilla pudding with noddles mixed in. My favorite!

KIDNEYS: Lamb. Look like giant kidney beans. Duh.

INTESTINES: Pig. Looks kind of like a brain, actually.

PARTS: Chicken and Goat. I don't even WANT to know what "parts" are.

If you want to know, Eoin and I have been sticking with chicken (sausages mostly), fish fillets and the occasional lamb.

Anyway, on to less disgusting things.

Yesterday (Sunday) Eoin and I were supposed to go Sea Kayaking, but waking up at 8AM on a Sunday was just not what we were ready for, so we opted to go back to sleep and wake up a bit later to go to Sommes Island. We took a ferry to Sommes Island, but first it stopped at Seatoun, Days Bay and Petone. It was beautiful outside, with just a bit of breeze and the boat ride was really nice. We got to Sommes Island just around 11:30.

Sommes Island is another wildlife reserve that is home to birds, reptiles and bugs. We got to see tons of Skinks, which are a type of lizard, similar to a gecko. We also saw North Island Robins, Variable Oystercatchers (look like crows kind of) and Red-Crowned parakeets. The island is also home to the illusive Tuatara, which we didn't get to see, and the worlds smallest penguin, Little Blue Penguins. Unfortunately, it is nesting season for the penguins and they were all holed up in the nesting boxes being anti-social.

Before Sommes Island was a reserve, it was used in WWI and WWII as a holding place for enemy aliens. Prior to that it was a quarantine station for animals and humans. There is also a lighthouse on Sommes Island, and it is the first lighthouse in country. Impressive!

Eoin and I walked every trail on the island, all three of them :) We saw where the quarantined animals were kept, where the detainees stayed and where the WWII artillery was placed. We also saw sheep! It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful place.

Looking out towards Wellington from Sommes Island.
Sounds...delicious?