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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks.

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Speaker 2: That'd be our travel correspondent is Mike Gardley. He's here

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Speaker 2: with us this morning and before we turn our attention

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Speaker 2: to the Galapagus Islands, Mike, you've got tickets for this evening.

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Speaker 2: How are you feeling this winter morning in Christy?

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Speaker 3: It's certainly winter Jack, Yes, I'm feeling confident that the

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Speaker 3: weather will favor us. He does not favoring us, but

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Speaker 3: my heart will window day Jack. So the Crusaders to

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Speaker 3: win twenty eight to twenty five.

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Speaker 2: It's okay.

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Speaker 1: I like that.

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Speaker 2: I feel like that's a that's yeah. I would go

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Speaker 2: with you. I would go with a heart overhead slightly.

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Speaker 2: But I don't know if the head necessarily says the

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Speaker 2: Crusaders aren't the favorites here. I mean, they've obviously got

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Speaker 2: an impeccable playoff record when it comes to Super Rugby,

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Speaker 2: but you know, to Mighty Williams's back, that's going to

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Speaker 2: be in our favor The Chiefs, Yeah, they faltered a

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Speaker 2: little bit against the Blues a couple of weeks ago,

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Speaker 2: and that Super Rugby semi so you know there is

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Speaker 2: a superb playoffs, so you know, but my gosh, it's

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Speaker 2: going to be a thrilling match tonight. So in the

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Speaker 2: last match in that stadium for Crusaders fans, which I'm

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Speaker 2: sure everyone will be pleased about regardless of the result.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it. I went to the opening game back

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Speaker 3: in twenty twelve, never knowing it would take so long

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Speaker 3: to get a permanent stadium.

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Speaker 2: So you're like, we'll be here for two years, Max.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly, so it'll be great to be there

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Speaker 3: for the big closer.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah. Okay. So last week, if anyone hasn't heard it,

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Speaker 2: they should go and see your article at Newstalk ZB

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Speaker 2: dot co dot nz ford slash travel and you told

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Speaker 2: us all about cruising around the Galapagos Islands. But this

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Speaker 2: week you're telling us about your experience staying on the

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Speaker 2: islands themselves on Santa Cruz Island. So what would you

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Speaker 2: say is best of the two options, a cruise or

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Speaker 2: a land based stay.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great question, Jack. I'd say do both

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Speaker 3: mix and match it because with the cruise you get

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Speaker 3: that unplugged dreamscape experience, very wild. You know, very few

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Speaker 3: people with an island stay, you get a we dip

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Speaker 3: with the soul of living on the Galapagus. And there's

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Speaker 3: only thirty thousand people that live on those islands, so

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Speaker 3: it's very tightly controlled and you're just mixing with the locals,

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Speaker 3: eating that sabulous seafood they have. That's really special. I

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Speaker 3: would say definitely Santa Cruz Island because it's close to

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Speaker 3: the airport. There's a stack of excursions you can do

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Speaker 3: on the island, and with my cruise, which was with

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Speaker 3: Weaver Expeditions, it was very easy to transfer from the

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Speaker 3: cruise for a land base to stay, you know, just

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Speaker 3: very stress free. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Nice, Okay, that sounds like a really good thing. And

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Speaker 2: what is distinctive about the port town on Santa Cruz

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Speaker 2: Island Puerto Ayora.

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Speaker 3: It's really eye catching, a beautiful, colorful waterfront town. It's

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Speaker 3: got the tourist trappings, got accommodation to suit all budgets,

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Speaker 3: and it's all strung around the esplanade or the melei

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Speaker 3: Con as they call it. Of course in the Galapagus.

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Speaker 3: But for all of the alluring creature comforts, what really

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Speaker 3: struck me Jack nature still holds court. So you've got

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Speaker 3: marina guanas piling up on top of each other around

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Speaker 3: the harbor front sneezing out excess salt, which is quite

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Speaker 3: a clever little trick. And I loved watching the sea

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Speaker 3: lions just haul the ebulging bodies up onto the beach.

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Speaker 3: They commandeer the park benches, they hijack the picnic tables

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Speaker 3: for a spot of sunbathing. They clearly have right away,

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Speaker 3: and the locals love it that way. In Puerto Ayorda.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Oh, that's fantastic. Times of the Charles Darwin Research Station.

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Speaker 3: Right, yeah, it is. So if you want to first

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Speaker 3: hand primer on the theory of evolution, this is the

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Speaker 3: place to go. It's like this living lab, the biggest

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Speaker 3: bio research center in the island to toe to sixty

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Speaker 3: five years of these hundreds of scientists who work there,

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Speaker 3: and they play such a critical conservation role. They monitor

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Speaker 3: invasive species like the ghastly vampire fly, which I did

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Speaker 3: have a couple of close encounters with. Do suck the

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Speaker 3: blood out of you, beg flight. I was also struck

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Speaker 3: jack by the similarities to New Zealand. New Zealand's predator

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Speaker 3: control missions. They've had all manner of animals introduced on

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Speaker 3: the galapagus that went feral, like goats and pigs and

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Speaker 3: dogs and cats. So they're working really hard to send

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Speaker 3: all of those animals packing too.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, right, okay, how successful is their giant tortoise breeding program?

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Speaker 3: It is a wafer. It is globally acclaimed because it's

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Speaker 3: just been so prodigious. To date, over seven thousand giant

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Speaker 3: tortoises have been released from that station successfully rewild across

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Speaker 3: the islands. And one of their most famous breeders was

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Speaker 3: a tortoise called Diego. He siged nine hundred offspring jack

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Speaker 3: being retired to eat. Maybe not as wealthy, but he

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Speaker 3: reached the age of about one hundred and five I

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Speaker 3: believe before he was allowed to retire to Espaniola, so

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Speaker 3: he's still kicking about. I walked all around the breeding enclosures,

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Speaker 3: and it's so called because you'll see all the babies

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Speaker 3: in the nursery and then you'll see the adults canoogling

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Speaker 3: right in front of you. So I think, at last come.

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Speaker 3: The Galapicus tortoise population is now at about twenty five thousand,

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Speaker 3: so that it has been saved from extinction.

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Speaker 2: Right, Oh, that's so good. So, speaking of existential problems

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Speaker 2: for gallipigus island tortoises. Did Charles Darwin eat tortoise meat?

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Speaker 3: Yes? Yes. Most historical accounts believe Darwin and his Crewel

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Speaker 3: and HMS Bigel consumed about thirty torsoises, and in fact

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Speaker 3: there is a reference in one of Darwin's diaries how

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Speaker 3: he notes that the flesh had a particularly delicious buttery

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Speaker 3: taste and texture. So shockingly, it's estimated now is eight

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Speaker 3: about two hundred thousand giant tortoises which walk into the

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Speaker 3: edge of extinction. Yeah, it would have typically taken according

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Speaker 3: to my guide, six men would have been needed to

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Speaker 3: carry a giant tortoise onto a ship, and they had

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Speaker 3: to tie it up with rope and attach it to poles.

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Speaker 3: Of was the hell of an effort. Darwin also took

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Speaker 3: some juvenile tortoises home alive to England, and one of

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Speaker 3: them was believed to be Harriet, and a lot of

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Speaker 3: Kiwis will have seen Harriet. She lived out her last

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Speaker 3: twenty years of Australian zoo and died at the age

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Speaker 3: of one hundred and seventy five.

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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that's amazing, aid, isn't it. I think?

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Speaker 2: What does this tortoise live through. Yeah, that's amazing. Okay,

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Speaker 2: So beyond the research station, where is the sort of

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Speaker 2: best place for FaceTime with the giant tortoises.

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Speaker 3: My runaway highlight from the Galapagus was going up to

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Speaker 3: the highlands of Santa Cruz and there's some a number

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Speaker 3: of nature reserves up in the highlands joining the national Park.

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Speaker 3: And this is where you will be transfexed by the

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Speaker 3: size of these giants. Because it's the highlands, they've got

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Speaker 3: a lot more to eet, a lot more foliage. And

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Speaker 3: when I went into this nature reserve called Rancho Promissias,

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Speaker 3: it was like entering Jurassic Park. These guys were supersized,

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Speaker 3: fully grown giant tortoises and from a distance they look

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Speaker 3: like colossal boulders with their dark domes. Just scattered them

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Speaker 3: in the meadow, and then you just walk with them gently.

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Speaker 3: It's just the most extraordinary experience.

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Speaker 2: And what impressed you most about them They.

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Speaker 3: Are mammoth, but so mellow, or two hundred and fifty

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Speaker 3: kilograms of them. And when one of these big daddy

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Speaker 3: tortoises stretched out has wesned old face in front of me,

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Speaker 3: it became readily apparent. What inspired Steven Spielberg's creation of

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Speaker 3: et that the faith. Yeah, they have such a limited agility.

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Speaker 3: Every movement Jack seems exhaustingly slow and deliberate. But what

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Speaker 3: really blew my hair back about these ancient creatures. The

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Speaker 3: giant Galepicus tortoise can survive but up to a year

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Speaker 3: without food or water. Isn't that remarkable?

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Speaker 2: Gosh, it's amazing, isn't it. It is like it's like

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Speaker 2: time affects them differently in every sense. Yeah, it's like

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Speaker 2: that whatever our kind of measure of time is that

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Speaker 2: they're on a they're on a different kind of scale altogether. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: what a remarkable experience. Make you know how envious I am?

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Speaker 2: But that does sound amazing, And hey, good luck tonight

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Speaker 2: was speaking of envy, My goodness, I will be thinking

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Speaker 2: of you. It's when the Crusaders hopefully record their upteenth

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Speaker 2: Super Rugby title. Mike Yardley is our travel correspondent. For

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Speaker 2: all of his tips on walking with the giants on

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Speaker 2: some to Cruz Island, you can find his piece on

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Speaker 2: the news Talks. He'd be website, Newstorks, he'db dot co

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Speaker 2: dot mzi Forward slash Lifestyle forward slash travel, or just

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Speaker 2: go to our show page. That's where we put everything

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Speaker 2: from the show.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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