Asia Update #29 - Snipe Hunt?

On Saturday I was snowboarding with John McBirnie. It is Wednesday, and I just got back from a run where I was wearing shorts and a tank top, and still sweated up a storm. No, the weather in Seoul hasn't taken a turn towards summer (actually, it was supposed to snow some more last night). But instead I got myself out of Dodge and headed South. Way south. I am currently in Melbourne, Australia.

Australia feels like California, except they speak funny and drive on the wrong side of the road. Melbourne is in the midst of a multi-year drought, so many of the plants have a golden brown tinge to them, much like California in the summer. Even the prices seem the same, until you realize that it is in funny money Australia dollars, not real money (divide the Aussie price in half and you have the rough US price). Means everything is cheap to those paying in real dollars. Nice to hear English and see English signs and all that. Also good to see people out exercising (lots of cyclists and runners around).

This trip is a week and a half in Australia and then a week in New Zealand. Melbourne, Sydney, Gladstone, Auckland, Palmerston North, and Wellington. Four of the Australian cities are common places for visitors to go to. Gladstone has a plant which we are trying to sell to, so off I go. Most maps of Australia don't even show it, so that means I get to fly puddle hoppers to get there (2 of them each way - it is small enough that there are not even direct flights from Sydney). No industrial plants in Palmerston North, just agriculture plants (and probably lots of sheep). But going there for a holiday to visit a Kiwi friend (who, surprise-surprise, works for the New Zealand Government in dairy-related research).

On my run, I saw various birds of interest. One that stood out is the purple swamphen. Beautiful bird with shimmering purple-blue breast, about the size of a crow. Here's a picture of one:

I bet they taste like chicken. I sure hope for the swamphen's sake they don't migrate to China.

Saw the picture below on a sign describing the local flora and fauna. Surprised me - I always thoughts that snipes were a made up animal for boy scouts to use to trick younger scouts to go on 'snipe hunts'. Up there with sending a scout out to find a 'left handed smoke shifter' or to go cow tipping. Maybe they are real animals? Then again, I didn't see any on my hike. Maybe they are fake and this is the Aussie park service having a good laugh on us tourists?