
Tonight (11th Februarary 2009) I joined hundreds of other people from Christchurch, New Zealand
,

to farewell the Eastern bar-tailed godwits as they prepare to go back to Alaska. This annual migration back to their breeding grounds in the Alasaka Arctic Tundra.
Every year we locals farewell them from our shores and when they return the catherdral bells peel out to welcome them back to their summer feeding grounds here on the Ihutai/Avon- Heathcote estuary such a short distance the centre of our city.
