September 17th 2010
Reads a bit like a miracle cure for weight loss doesn’t it.
Well, for visitors that start arriving in our region this month its a fact.
A buyer for a home for sale in Nelson, hmmm….I’m not so sure about that.
Its possible you could do the same, but one has ones doubts. You see…..there is just one slight technical hitch here.
You’d have to fly, unaided….”on the wing” as in non-stop between Alaska and New Zealand.
Whats that in human speak…about 11, 500kms non stop!
I’m talking about our regions influx of annual visitors, the bar-tailed godwit.
Seeing as how this week is Conservation Week in NZ, this absolutely epic journey to our local shores in the Nelson Bays region seems just all the more relevant.
”]You can swat up on the Godwits here in an article I wrote last April, where I mentioned things like;
The birds would have gobbled up energy at some eight times their resting basic metabolic rate (BMR) during their week-long exertion, he said. Professional cyclists can only manage about five times BMR for a few hours. “Lance Armstrong would be no competition for these birds,” he said.
Colour me impressed!

Farewell Spit in the top western corner of NZ's South Island
There’s also the related reference to the “longest bar in the world“ which is at Farewell Spit….where the local paper stated this week “About 10,000 would flock Farewell Spit.”
Now that’s what I call serious endurance.