February is a good time to take resolutions, here is mine : writing my next posts in english so my non-french friends can read them. By the way, it should be a good exercise for me.

So, this story begins with a ring. That’s quite convenient when you’re in the country of the Lord of the Rings !

A ring I discovered 1 year ago.

This ring figures the heads of 2 nice looking birds. I was told they were « fous de bassan » that we could literally translate « fools from Bass ». Why would a bird be named « fool » ? What do they look like for real ?

I googled it and discovered one of the nicest looking bird I had ever seen : yellow head, blue eyes, long neck, black make up… Could I see one while on my trip around the world ? No, they’re not living on the Pacific Ocean. Maybe an other time, for an other trip…

I can still paint one.

So, no fou de bassan but so many other great animals to see around the world !

Then came december and Oamaru. One day, waiting for Raewyn to get ready for a walk to see yellow eyed penguins, I leafed through one of her son in laws’ book. He’s a great photograph and published a lot of books about New Zealands’ wildlife : sea lions, albatros, kiwis, penguins…

Oh, but, what’s that ?

Looks like they have « fous de bassan » in New Zealand ! But, here, they are called « gannets ».

Yeah, nice ! but they are sea birds, I don’t think I will be able to see any this time. At least, I learned how they name this sort of bird.

7 weeks later (have I said it was a story about patience ?), my mum and I spend some time with Amandine :

Amandine – So, where will you go next ?

ChaMi – Mum wants to see the beaches West of Auckland.

Mum – Yes, the one from The Piano.

Amandine – Oh yeah, Piha is a great beach ! You could also go to Whatipu, it’s huge and really savage… and to Karekare and to Muriwai see the gannet colony…

Mum – The what ?

ChaMi – Fous de Bassan. I want to go there !

So here we go, a couple of days later : Muriwai’s gannet colony !

A perfect place to play « Where is Waldo ? » !

The gannets have found a really nice place to nest with rocks artistically shaped.

Aren’t they nice looking birds ?

Now, I just need to come back with a better camera !