Our luck with weather (at least the weather we experience) continues to hold: the overnight rain in Christchurch cleared by morning and the heat wave in Adelaide broke before we arrived. But torrential thunderstorms (nearly 10 inches of rain in 24 hours) closed the Auckland airport last night and diverted ALL international flights to Christchurch, a situation that continued through this morning. The Christchurch airport was a zoo. We were lucky to have our flight to Melbourne take off only an hour late and we made our connection to Adelaide. Some of our companions from the New Zealand trip are stuck in Christchurch till Monday!
Adelaide is a very walkable city with many museums and parks and interesting Victorian and Edwardian buildings. The Australians, being practical people, have amended the British crest which normally has a lion and a unicorn (rampant). Adelaide has a crest that keeps the lion but substitutes a kangaroo for the mythical creature, while Australia substitutes both, and has a crest with a kangaroo and an emu. On a long walk this afternoon we explored several Adelaide neighborhoods. As we walked near the zoo, we saw at least five hundred Gray-headed Flying Foxes (fruit bats) roosting in the trees and flying around. It was overwhelming. We also saw three kinds of parrots and a number of other birds we recognize from the north Australia trip last fall.
Pictured: Adelaide crest, the Beehive building (1895), Gray-headed Flying Foxes roosting
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