Our shelling trips are usually planned with little lead time and our travel agent and good friend Sidney Gigliotti often has a problem with that when I call to book a trip to Timbuktu for the next week. When I called him on Friday, March 20 to book a trip to New Zealand for the 24th, it was probably the closest trip I ever booked and it did cause some trouble. I usually need some time to pack and make arrangements for getting to the airport, and because of the weekend, I only had Monday to take care of everything. Being rushed, I did not check my schedule carefully enough. For the first time ever, I missed the plane! I thought it was leaving at 6:00PM but it was scheduled for 4:00PM.

I got to the airport too late and had to pay US$ 380 to reschedule the trip. I wanted to take part in the New Zealand Shell Show in Auckland on Friday and had planned to arrive on Thursday before the start of the show on Friday. Luckily, Sidney booked another ticket so that I would arrive on Saturday morning in time to participate in the show. The trip from Sao Paulo to Auckland took 26 hours, as I had to change planes in Santiago. I lost a day crossing the International Date Line in the Pacific, which meant I left on a Thursday and got there on Saturday.

Auckland is 16 hours ahead of my local time, yet it was quite easy to adjust to the time change, but I always get very tired by the end of the first days. My arrival was very early in the morning, 5:00AM. Peter Poortman had sent me some hotel options near the show so I picked one which was within walking distance, Pakuranga Motor Lodge Motel (http://www.pakuranga.co.nz/) owned by Francesca Choi who kindly allowed me to check in early so I could sleep for a couple hours before heading to the Convention Center.

I was welcomed mostly by the local club members (http://members.tripod.com/~nz_seashells/). When I wrote to register, I was told all space at the bourse was taken, but Heather Smith kindly managed to get me a table in a very good spot. The show had very good attendance by local collectors and several others from Australia and other countries. The great exhibits also attracted many tourists. After the close of the show on Saturday, Martin Walker ran an auction and many beautiful items were sold. Afterwards, we went to a nice restaurant for dinner and awards for the winning exhibits.

On Monday morning, I took a flight to meet my friend Andrew Grebneff in Dunedin, South Island. Dunedin is the second largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the main city of the region of Otago. It is New Zealand's fifth largest city in population, the largest in size of council boundary area, and the hub of the sixth largest urban area. For historical and cultural reasons and its location, Dunedin is considered one of the country's four main centers, although Hamilton has overtaken it in urban area population and Tauranga has a slightly larger population. The city stands on the hills and valleys surrounding the head of Otago Harbour. The harbor and hills are the remnants of an extinct volcano. It is also the home of the University of Otago. (Source Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunedin )

I took a taxi to Andrew's home and we had a nice dinner with his family, his wife Kala, daughter Karishma and son Aden. Kala was born in Fiji to an Indian family so she spoiled me with delicious Indian food while I was there.

On Tuesday morning, Andrew and I left early to collect although low tide was at 3:00PM. We went to Bridge Point where we found several Cellana living on soft fossiliferous tuffs. From there we went to the south end of Te Hakapureirei Beach and found some Pholdadidea encrusted on soft rocks among other small Trochidae and Buccinidae. When the tide got lower, we went to Warrington where I found several species such as Scutus breviculus, Diloma bicanaliculata, Turbo smaragdus, Buccinulum vittatum littorinoides, one live Haliotis australis and lots of other species. On the way back, we stopped at a mudflat for Amphibola avellana and we found some beautiful Diloma with yellow aperture.

On the next morning, we went to a beach close to Andrew's home, Black Head. On one side of the beach there was a rocky place where we found many Diloma nigerrima, a white population of Buccinulum vittatum littorinoides and a few dead Haliotis iris in good shape. Diloma nigerrima is abundant there - but I found a rare albino! I gave it to Andrew since he had never seen such a specimen before. A few meters away, I found an orange specimen! We looked for any other colors without success. At low tide, we went to Pulling Head, inside Otago's harbor. We found many species such as Atalacmaea fragilis, Diloma aethiops, Trochus viridis, Bittium exile, a few Turritella roseus, Sigapatella novaezelandica, Xymene convexus. Aulacomya ater maoriana, Modiolarca impacta (inside its nest of byssus) and Andrew found one live Argobuccinum tumidum.

This was quite different from my recent trips, all shells were collected at the shore line, meaning I had to bend over and stand up hundreds of times instead of diving. My legs were not prepared for such exercise - I could barely walk by the second day... but at least I lost a few kilos!

On Thursday we went to Long Beach, north side of Dunedin. Not many bivalves washed on the beach as we had expected, but we found some large Siphonaria, Benhamina obliquata, more Cellana and a few live Maurea punctulata among Pyura ascideans. We walked a bit further to Pilot Point and discovered a population of large Turbo smaragdus and giant Perna mussels.

On my last collecting day, we went to Goat Island, a place where I had been on my previous trip. The tide was ebbing, but we were able to reach some rocks which were still being washed by the sea. We found some nice Cellanas and Lepsiella scobina albomarginata. There was a beautiful beach where we found a few bivalves like Mesodesma subtriangulata, Dosinia anus and Chione stutchburyi. When the tide reached its lowest level, we moved to the other side of the beach to climb some rocks to reach tide pools. We found Margarella antipoda rosea, a couple of Cookia sulcata, nice Cellana ornata, Lepsithais lacunosus and Buccinulum vittatum littorinoides.

I had become spoiled by the warm Caribbean water - in Dunedin it was very cold and felt like there should be ice cubes floating around. But at least I did not have any diving accidents - and no falling from rocks, either. We had to walk on cliff edges and a fall would have been really bad, not to mention ending up in freezing water.

It was time to fly back home so I packed the shells. I cleaned the larger ones, bleached a few others (by the way, I would like to thank Kala for allowing me to make a mess in her home...).
Andrew drove me to the airport so I could take a flight to Auckland and from there to Santiago, Chile. This time the flight was much faster, it took only 22 hours to get home - I left Auckland on Saturday at 6:30PM and arrived on the same day in Sao Paulo at 7:00PM, only a half hour later!

Note: If you are planning to fly LAN Chile or Pacific Blue Airlines be aware of their new carry-on weight limit: they are restricted to a maximum of 7 kilos. They made me remove all the excess and carry it in a separate bag. They suggested that I transfer the excess to my larger suitcase, but I explained there was no space left - not even for a toothbrush.