A moment of awe and blessing

March, 2014. Napier, NZ. While enjoying the art deco buildings of this delightful downtown, I noticed a dragonfly traveling up and down the pedestrian walkway. I snapped several pictures, hopping one or two would be in focus.

I reached the end of the block.  Much to my amazement, the dragonfly came back and landed on my camera case.  Did this finely tuned, exquisitely beautiful  creature know I was observing it, and wanted to find out who/what I was? 

It remained quietly with me for close to five minutes.  Obviously, the meaning, if any, of this encounter is totally speculative.  I just enjoy this remarkable memory as one of the awesome blessings  that randomly occur in our lives.

The dragonfly is center far left, below the green sign of the Body Shop

Here it is to the left of the black pole

And now it is to the far left, against the black marble. Meg is in blue, in the upper right, close to where I enjoyed my dragonfly moments shown below.

The most incredible gannet colonies of Cape Kidnappers, Napier, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

Meg and I enjoyed five days of travel last week with friends with whom we had spent time in the Peace Corps.  Paul and Betty have lived in Australia for quite a time, and Mary is from northern California.  The two years in Tonga in 1968/69 were seminal experiences for us.  Even though we have not seen each other for years--raising families and developing professionally--we quickly shed the distances and enthusiastically shared many, many conversations.

We stayed in Napier, a remarkable town that rebuilt after devastating earthquake in 1931 in the art deco style of those times.  From Napier we went to Cape Kidnappers, so named after Captain Cook's Tahitian translator was kidnapped by Maoris when Cook sailed into the northern portion of Hawkes Bay in 1769.

Besides spectacular geology, Cape Kidnappers holds the only gannet colony in the world where you can get within ten feet of these magnificent birds. They live between 25 to 40 years, once they survive "childhood."  We watched as the youngsters flapped their wings in the gusting winds, wondering how surprised they would be to be suddenly airborne, navigating the tricky winds and figuring out to dive for fish to feed themselves instead of waiting for food to come out of their parents throats.

At about sixteen weeks, they fly off to Australia, a distance of twenty five hundred miles.  After a couple of years there, like many human Kiwis who cross the sea, they return to New Zealand to stay. The colony we visited overlooks Hawke's Bay. Thousands of acres of farmland were purchased and turned into a world ranked golf course.  The owners have also transformed the land into a nature preserve, removing and fencing out the many species of introduced mammals that have decimated the bird populations.  Numbers have steadily increased to 8,000 pairs, making Cape Kidnappers the largest and most accessible mainland population in the world.

If you do come to New Zealand, Napier should definitely be a place to visit! Oh, and I forgot to mention that some of the best New Zealand wines come from the Napier, Hawke's Bay region.

gannet, Cape Kidnappers, Napier, Hawkes Bay 

gannet, Cape Kidnappers, Napier, Hawkes Bay 

gannet, Cape Kidnappers, Napier, Hawkes Bay 

gannet, Cape Kidnappers, Napier, Hawkes Bay 

gannet, Cape Kidnappers, Napier, Hawkes Bay 

gannet, Cape Kidnappers, Napier, Hawkes Bay