Goat Island

After a rainy first day in New Zealand, blue sky made an appearance for my second day here. Nat and I bounced around the countryside a bit, finally ending up at Cape Rodney-Okakari Point Marine Reserve, also known as Goat Island Reserve to the locals. Estalbished in 1975, it is New Zealand’s oldest marine reserve.

Not only is this a marine reserve, but this was where an important radio astronomy science experiment took place in 1948. Nat and I ran across a plaque commemerating the Cosmic Noise Expedition during which John Bolton and Grodon Stanley set up an antenna on nearby Pakiri Hill and became the first people to identify radio waves originating from stars outside our solar system by comparing direct radio waves with those reflected off the surface of the sea here using interferometry. Science!