Weird Constructions, Windmills and Planes, Make for a Really Boring Car Ride (NOT!)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The upside of not being allowed to drive is that I am free to sit in the front passenger seat and take photographs of our journeys.

I lament the fact that our kids these cry “sooo bored” on long car journeys and from a young age mastered the art of frighting (to what at least sounds like near death) in the back seat.

I endeavoured for years to teach them car games like “I Spy” or singing in the car, I tried paper games and bribery of ice cream upon arrivals, but to no avail:  paper games resulted in pencil wars, singing, in disputes about tone, song words, which song to sing and volume, “I Spy”, arguments after 68  ”no’s” as to whether the object had really been seen 15 minutes earlier or just made up as we went past something new two seconds ago and the ice creams never delivered because they were never earned.

Himself and I got sick of trying to control the meltdown of two terrible monsters in the back seat without having meltdown ourselves and found it hard to believe that when they were out with other people that they were cherubic examples of  sweetness and light, so much so that friends and relatives raved about their saintly behaviour (so it IS apparently possible, it’s just that Himself and I have never actually witnessed it).

After several (actually all) disastrous long car journeys for the first 6 years of their existence together, were Himself and I (barely) resisted stopping by a canal and throwing said little monsters into the water to sink or swim as they may, we bought Nintendo game machines to provide some distraction.

I tempered the purchase with the strict rule: Only  for use on long car and plane journeys and they have to wait half an hour into the journey before the “on” button  is activated.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Suddenly peace reigned in the back seat and car journeys became about 500%  less stressful.

I on the other hand have to look out of the window, the window has to be as clean as possible and I have to be facing forwards, otherwise the result is that I turn green and emergency stops are required whilst I make swift exits of vehicles to return breakfast / lunch / dinner to whatever nature is by the side of the road.

For me, looking out of the window is never boring, you see funny things,  strange vehicles,  architectural edifices ranging from the good to the bad to the ugly and  you learn about the countryside you are travelling though.

Little Mr. does have an uncanny knack for looking up from his game just in time to scream: Train! Police car!, Ambulance!, Fire engine!, or  Tractor! as appropriate,  but for the rest is more interested in the adventures of Mario and Luigi. Today’s interesting stuff as seen from the road include some mystery constructions: energy pylons maybe? something to do with a new high speed rail link (that was maybe due in this area if I remembered correctly, or completely somewhere else if I didn’t), maybe something to do with a new over bridge?

Who knows?… Your best guesses are most welcome.

We see windmills in all sorts of places, giant fibreglass fruit in the middle of a roundabout and (as you do) a not so small aeroplane fuselage sans wings standing next to a barn (the guest quarters? or a build-it-yourself and he’s still saving for the wings? ). Certainly discussion points and they give us a giggle too…  all you have to do is keep your eyes peeled, how on earth can a car journey be boring?

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We park the cars in a parking area (i.e. paddock)  at the end of a tiny road, and climb the steps of the dyke to follow a little path that is next to the canal on top of the dyke … the next stage of the adventure unfolds…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

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Learning New Tricks and Getting Into the Water to Play…

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This post continues one of yesterday where we have come to the Dolphinarium in Harderwijk so that Kiwi Daughter and her two best friends can swim with dolphins and share a unique experience together before one of her best friends moves overseas.

As regular readers of my blog will know, I don’t to put photos of my family on the internet and so for this post you get edited photos of our group with identifying features removed.

Yes I’m very aware that I’m useless at editing and it’s a bit of  a blotchy mess  but my limited skills achieved what was required and that’s what counts.

I never claimed to be Michaelangelo but at least I know my limits and won’t be attempting to touch up any fresco’s any time soon…  no matter how much repair they might be in need of.

First we all go and watch a film about the Dolphinarium and the work they do, yes swimming  with a dolphin is expensive but we learn that every cent goes back into caring for the wildlife, not just the ones we can in the public areas but also rescued marine mammals from all over the Dutch coastline.

These animals are bought here due to injury or illness, are nursed back to health in a quiet, dedicated area well away from the public eye and whenever possible, once healthy are released back into the wild.

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Dolphins who are unable for whatever reason to be re-released into the wild are looked after and if they show an interest in learning tricks and getting close to the public then they are taught by the keepers. The Keeper tells us that different dolphins have distinct preferences about the tricks they prefer to do but that none of them is forced to learn a trick or if they know one, to perform it.

If they don’t fancy doing it that day, it’s all ok and for this reason no guarantee is made to the group that any specific experience will be met, and on the day we were there were three dolphins in the enclosure when the group went into the water, one came to check out the group but decided it didn’t want to play today and swam away.  It got some fish regardless but preferred to  play and dive close to where I was taking the photos, on the far side of the enclosure.

The second and third dolphins hung around the trainer and made it clear that they wanted some entertainment with the guests and so the tricks were changed to these dolphins preferences.

For some reason it was decided that it would not be safe to swim in the deeper water with the dolphins today, but that shallow water playing would be fine. I’m not sure if this was because of the ages of the children or for other reasons but at least they get to get close enough to touch.

The keepers have set commands that they use to communicate with the dolphins and once each member of the party had practised one of these sets of signals they went and put them to the test with one of the dolphins. The tricks ranged from tight circular turns, jumps, and splashing to “speaking” where upon command the dolphin came out of the water and chattered Flipper style to the group.

The relationships between the keepers and the dolphins are clearly close, there is a special bond of trust and respect between the two… even just observing from the shore it was a moving experience.

The local birds also provided some entertainment,  hanging around and circling low in an attempt to catch a low flying fish mid-air en route to a dolphin’s mouth.

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Little Mr. Causes Time Travel…

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When Little Mr. was a toddler, he spied a tablecloth on our dining room table.

I’d avoided tablecloths for a long time before this point because he had been previously crawling and hoisting himself up during his attempts to move from the horizontal to the vertical, but this was a special occasion:  the Dutch St.Nicolas and the whole family were due at our place for a buffet lunch.

I should have known better.

I’d made a large gingerbread house and spent way too much of the night before assembling and decorating it: the dining room table had all the plates and glasses lined up at the end, plus the gingerbread house.

I was busy ferrying things back and forth from the kitchen to the table but then decided to get a photo of a gingerbread before everyone arrived so retrieved the camera.

I was absent from the room for a grand total of  maybe one and a half minutes so imagine my horror when I  returned to find Little Mr. tugging heartily at the tablecloth for all he was worth.The result of his efforts was that an entire line of glassware and plates now overhung the edge of the table above his head, and the gingerbread house a little further along was not far behind.

I put the camera down on the nearest chair and sprinted to the table to save kid and crockery and since Little Mr. gave one more determined tug before relenting his grip, ended up on my knees in front of the table with both arms outstretched as the only barrier against between the table items and gravity,  yelling hysterically for adult reinforcements in the shape of Himself.

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Himself duly arrived and removed leaning glasses and plates off my arms,  and we were almost finished when there was a horrible crash.

Little Mr., having discovered the camera laid within reach in haste, picked it up and then threw it on the floor. The damage was ridiculous but fatal.

The camera body sported a large dent  where the battery was, which also broke the door off the battery compartment.

To add insult to injury, my very beautiful (but clearly not structurally certificated) gingerbread house then had it’s roof  cave in and became a decorated ruin about five minutes before the guests arrived.

We sent to camera back to the manufacture in an effort to have it repaired  but they said it was hopeless. Stupidly the camera itself still functioned, but since the battery could not be removed or recharged it died once the juice ran out.

Now fast-forward to last weekend I was sorting though some stuff I’d shoved in the back of a cupboard and lo… this broken camera resurfaced.

I’m still debating if I should try somewhere else to get it fixed, and so loathe to throw it away, I went to put it on my desk. For some reason I stopped when I passed by the desk later and looked into the camera where the chip would be and to my surprise there was a chip still inside it…  … with photos dating  from April 2008!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

These photo’s pre-date my blog by just over a year.  There were also a lot of photos of Little Mr. as a toddler so this chip must have been forgotten in the camera all this time.

So I’m taking you on a mini-time-travel-tour.

This is a walking tour that Himself, Little Mr and I made in the centre of the Hague a the time (for a reason I’ve long since forgotten, Kiwi Daughter was elsewhere on this day).

The Hague is not Capital of the Netherlands (that distinction goes to Amsterdam) but it is the seat of government.

The first of what became the old parliament buildings called the Binnenhof   (the inner court)  was completed in the 13th century, and new parliment buildings (not pictures here) were added directly next door in the 20th.

The Ridderzaal  (knight’s hall) that looks a little like a mini castle is the central feature in the complex of old buildings and is still in use as the venue where the official opening of the Dutch Parliament takes place on the third Thursday of September each year.

These photos are just a few of the buildings that make up the Binnenhof complex… Let’s take a look…

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The octagonal turret is the Dutch Prime Minister’s Office…

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Even Stunning Displays and Architecture Topped by Something Even More Magical…

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In my final post about our visit to the Science Centre NEMO  in Amsterdam, I’ll take you on a little tour of the building inside and out.

Of course you’ve seen a few of the exhibits but the building itself is also amazingly built.

Firstly, since land is a scarce commodity in the Netherlands, back in 1968  they utilised space with usual Dutch ingenuity and built a  highway in a  tunnel called the IJtunnel under the sea to connect the centre of Amsterdam with Amsterdam Noord.  Wiki tells me that:

The total length of the tunnel, including on- and off-ramps, is 1682 metres.(5518 feet). The covered part is 1039 metres long. (3408 feet) The deepest point of the tunnel lies 20.32 metres (66.8 feet) below sea-level.

Then they saved space even further by building the five story NEMO building in 1997 on top of the tunnel. From a distance the building looks like a ship, so it almost appears to float in the harbour.

The fifth floor of the building houses a Café, the food of which we were not particularly impressed with because we took a very late lunch at quarter to four (NIMO closes at  5 p.m.) and there was practically nothing left on offer. What we did have was mediocre at best,  but the view from the top of the building was what really grabbed our attention.

Massive tiered steps slope down the face of the building,  there’s a giant chess set to play with and best of all, views of central Amsterdam that take your breath away even on a grey rainy day like this.  The kids of course don’t mind the rain and run up and down the steps in the drizzle,  I venture out a little way to take photos, and muse that if you can marvel that there’s so much to see on a day like this, how magnificent it must be when the sun is shining.

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The NEMO website says that it’s possible to get to this observation deck for free and I think if I was an Amsterdam worker, working nearby then this would be a wonderful place to come during your lunch break, just bring your own sandwich and enjoy the fabulous vista.

Inside the building there are not too many windows: the walls being filled with exhibits, but where there is a window, there are also stunning views over the harbour and central Amsterdam.

Finally, there were two exhibits that totally defied my attempts to photograph them. The first was an especially set up display Heath Robinson style, on the first floor where at a designated time Staff set off a chain reaction as balls, balloons, shopping trolleys and a myriad of paraphernalia set of a domino effect.

I tried static shots from a vantage point on the balcony as the various bits and pieces whizzed, popped, banged, bounced, skidded and fell, and managed to miss all of the dramatic moments completely (rather an achievement considering the amount of opportunity presented).

It appears I was always one step ahead of the action or one step behind it, so note to self: This kind of action is probably best left to a video camera or a camera that takes stills in slow motion (and probably with many retakes.)

The second was a moving light:  to the human eye it made a complete circle of connected loops, but the camera couldn’t get even remotely close to what I could actually see in front of me:  even the fastest setting, I could only capture the tiniest portion of the circle, proving indeed that no matter how amazing the science we have seen here today, that the magical miracle of the mechanics of the human body and brain still out-shines every single one of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IJtunnel

http://www.e-nemo.nl/

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Forget Gangnam Style, This is Learning FUN FUN Style!

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Continuing from yesterday’s post,  Family Kiwidutch are exploring the Science Centre NEMO in Amsterdam.

The building is five stories high and packed with many more things to do and exhibits that even a fanatic photographer like me could keep up with,  so maybe I photographed a tenth of it all.

The lower levels are more suited to the interests of younger children, the higher you go the more complicated and scientific the exhibits become, but everything remains interactive and hands on.

There are moving displays, entire  ride on exhibits, mechanisms that open and close items on the ceiling, moving solar powered mini aeroplanes, sensors in walls or floors that triggered amazing lighting displays, and even a set of recumbent bicycle pods that you lay in and peddle as fast as you can: the faster you peddle the faster you are hurtled virtually through space on a massive screen in front of you.

Can you get past Mercury, the sun, through various nebula and to the edge of galaxies as the computer tells you where you are and how far away from planet earth you have travelled?

If I remember correctly you have only three minutes to see how far you can get… Kiwi Daughter got ultra competitive and  competed with Himself and despite his best efforts and long legs he actually struggled to beat her, only grazing past her score in the last seconds.

Next to them was a boy having a fabulous time dancing, fighting and lunging in front of a giant screen that threw down virtual lightening as sensors picked up his moves.

It seems that if a mechanism can be driven with water, electricity, magnetics or air, it’s here to be played with an explored, there’s a cultural area, puzzle area, even an area that explores the latest in Green technology.

If and when you want there are information boards detailing how everything works, this is learning fun-style and there’s plenty of noise in the place as excited squeals and whoops of laughter ring out all over the place.

With all the buttons to push, handled to turn and things to spin, our kids should have burnt off their excess energy today plus extra…in the meantime they are charging in front with Himself,  and sprinting back to me as I walk slowly behind to update me with the latest item ahead that’s got the Wow factor. If I covered four of the five floors once, I think they must have covered them ten times with all the rushing backwards and forwards.

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Finding NEMO …A Scientific Discovery!

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Another post from my 2012 archives  for you whilst I head back to bed.

Last May the kids had school holidays and most days it rained. After organising some weekday play-dates by the weekend we were all looking forward to going out to a morning  appointment in Amsterdam.

After the appointment we sat thinking about something that might be nice to do here in Amsterdam with the kids and this is how we ended up at “NEMO”.  On their website I got the following information:

NEMO  is the  Netherlands’ largest science center and opened in 1997. It consists of  five floors packed with scientific and technological things to do and discover. Science Center NEMO is the place to discover science and technology in a fun and educational way.

The name NEMO has been used throughout history by many famous authors to describe events and people who find themselves on the border between fantasy and reality. In Latin nemo means ‘no one’ and indicates a world between fantasy and reality.

Visitors to NEMO Science Centre can become a scientist, technologist or technician for a day. Suddenly dreams are real.

The name “Nemo” is already very well known:

The most famous Nemo – written here with small letters – is the mystical captain of the famous 19th century book ’20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ by Jules Verne. In his submarine Nautilus, Captain Nemo travels through the murky underwater world, having amazing adventures.

In 1910, the American cartoonist Winsor McCay created the dream boy Little Nemo. In his dreams, Little Nemo has many adventures, in which fantasy and reality are so intertwined that it is no longer possible to distinguish one from the other.

The oldest use of Nemo to mean ‘no one’ can be found in the Latin version of Homer’s Odyssey. After the Trojan War, Odysseus sets off home, crossing the land of the Cyclopes, the one-eyed giants.

One of them, Polyphemos, takes Odysseus and his crew captive. Odysseus begs Polyphemos to let him and his crew go. When Polyphemos asks his name, Odysseus replies ‘Nemo’. 

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Instead of letting him and his men go, Polyphemos eats two of the prisoners. Odysseus then thinks of a clever way to escape.

He gets Polyphemos drunk on wine and while he is sleeping off the intoxication, Odysseus sticks a glowing pole in his eye. Polyphemos screams. The other Cyclopes hear the noise and come running. They ask if someone is trying to kill him.

Polyphemos cries: “No one is trying to kill me, friends.” “Then deal with it on your own,” the other Cyclopes think and Odysseus is able to make his escape.

Nemo, the famous fish from the Walt Disney film, captured the world’s imagination in 2003. Since then, many young visitors have asked the director why his science centre is named after a clown fish.

Around 500,000 people visit the green building above the IJ Tunnel in Amsterdam every year.

From the very beginning where they discover an orange shell-like structure that echoes back sound, or the orange and red cylinders what revolve  the faster you spin them the more lights light up, or the machine blows bubbles or sand rises in a chamber, to using a magnet to make a TV work, or playing with light and colour: this place is as hands-on as it gets and both children and adults present are having fun having a go… … and there’s still so much more to see!

http://www.e-nemo.nl/

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The Icing On the Blogging Cake is Very Sweet Indeed…

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One thing about blogging and following other blogs is that over time you learn about other people around the world, how they live, their interests,  travels both near and far and sometimes a little bit of magic happens along the way and you build up a relationship with the person behind the blog.

In my own experience this comes about because they take an active interest in your blog, they comment often and visit every time you post.

Generally we follow each other’s blogs because of shared interests like family life, cooking, travel or photography.

We all lead very different lives but there are threads woven into each of them that are shared connections and we can relate to these in each others blogs.

After getting to know these people better, sometimes we chose  few of these people to surprise with a few gifts that are local to us but definitely exotic to someone else on the other side of the globe.

I’ve just received not one but  two of these gifts this weekend and wanted to not just say a BIG  Thank You  to the senders but also tell you about the treats new to me (and possibly to you too!).

The first parcel (photo above) arrived from blogger GH from “Noodles with Butter”  http://www.noodleswithbutter.blogspot.nl/ and contained some beautiful postcards of the region she lives in, a Christmas card and newsletter (not pictured for privacy reasons due to photos of her daughter on the front), two key-rings, herbal tea, two packets of apple chips, some fruit bars,  some chocolate bars and a little plastic bag that contained some Washington Rain which made us giggle.

Last year we decided that when we travelled we would pick up a very little bag of sand or stones from beaches we have visited and I have an old printers type box that has lots of little compartments that we aim to slowly fill, this bag of rain is destined to join this collection.

Our kids love the dried fruit strips, which we call fruit “roll ups” after a favourite New Zealand brand of the same. (the USA version about three times the thickness of the New Zealand version but they are both delicious!)

My eighteen year old oven is currently dying a slow death and it’s temperature gauge is terminally ill so in recent months I’ve been looking for a new oven, one with a specific feature that’s proving hard to find: one that starts in temperature at 30 C instead of the usual 50 C, because then I could use my new oven as a dehydrator and make things like home-made fruit roll ups and beef jerky.

The second parcel (second photo) is from Tracy from MilkayPhoto http://milkayphoto.wordpress.com/  and the contents include Reeses peanut pieces and peanut butter cups, granola (a.k.a. museli where I come from) some marshmallow fluff, jif  peanut butter, some home-made rhubarb and strawberry jam, an amazing array of specialist salts.

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The Danish Viking Smoked Sea Salt and Vanilla Salt sound particularly  tasty and  whilst I can’t partake due to my mushroom allergy, Himself loves mushrooms and is very much looking forward to trying out the Porcini Salt. There  are candy covered coffee beans (Himself pricked his ears up and grinned a lot at that one), some Tomato Jam, parsnips (I’d mentioned that they used to be hard to get here, but they are more easily available especially in the last year), some Crisco, a sort of baking butter.

There’s bacon spread (we giggled about that one because it sounded rather a strange product  and will look at the website provided on the label for some interesting ideas to use it with) and a vanilla chocolate sweet called the Charleston Chew which it is recommended both by Tracy and on the packet to place in the freezer and then break the frozen pieces to eat.

Since I read that earlier I placed one packet in the freezer and we shared one of the two strips with the family last evening… a total hit! Had I left our children alone with the other two packets, even unfrozen I think they might not  have been there when I came back, such was the popularity of this one!

Being a prudent parent I omitted to tell them that there was a second strip in the freezer … I think that Himself and I can quietly enjoy that one by ourselves LOL. Naturally we haven’t tried everything in both the packages yet and will very much enjoy rationing out the treats, although I predict that the sweeter items will disappear very quickly. A huge Thank You and big thumbs-up to both GH and Tracy !

Both these blogging friends have excellent blogs which I can highly recommend visiting. Of course I blog because I love writing and taking photos and because it’s an on-line journal of all of our Life’s adventures, but the icing on the cake is that I also get to meet some brilliant people from all around the world. And the friendships I have made show just how sweet that icing is…

Our Fears are Extinguished As we Leave a Morning of Fire and Ice…

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For my last post in Schoonhoven we are being treated to  multiple displays from the Schoonhoven Brandweer (Fire Service) as part of National Open Monumentendag (Open Monument Day).

This is where numerous organisations open their doors for the day so that the public can learn more about what they do.

Little Mr. has discovered that this fire station is hosting all manner of activities and so we’ve stayed here to take a look and it’s turned out to be very interesting and well worth the detour.

There’s a trailer here too where two of the sides  drop down and the fire service can take  it out for demonstrations in the community. In this demonstration involves learning what to expect if you ever should need to use your home fire extinguisher and is an excellent way to do it in a controlled environment.

We first watch a teenage girl have a go and then I ask the fireman if he could please do a demonstration so that I can take photographs for my blog,  something he is more than happy to do. He says that if anyone ever has the opportunity to have a go in a controlled situation like this one, that they should do so because it will given you real confidence and an extra element of calm that can be a life-saver should a fire break out in your home or workplace.

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I’m a bit too tired after all the walking I’ve done on crutches today to attempt this, but directly after these photos were taken Himself had a go and said that the experience was a real  revelation: knowing  afterwards what to expect definitely made him far more confident that he could handle our extinguisher at home without hesitation if ever the need arose.

Lastly there was the decompression diving tank, with the duikteam (diving team) divers inside.

It was difficult to get photographs because reflections in the very thick porthole windows showed the background behind me, but I managed a few interesting shots, even right to the other side of the tank where people were looking in windows on the opposite side.

We manage to see everything on display and are only a little behind schedule in getting back to the car and back to Den Haag (The Hague) for our 2.00 p.m. appointment. The whole family is unanimous  this day out has been a total success, even with the combined themes of Fire and Ice (cream)!

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(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

When Fundraising Reaches Scary New Heights…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Continuing from the previous day’s post, we are enjoying the displays and events put on by the Schoonhoven Fire Service as part of  ”Open Monumentendag” (Open Monument Day) where various organisations open their doors so that the public can gain an insight to what they do.

One of the things that this local Fire Service also does is to raise funds for various projects and for this  they have an brilliant  idea.

The public can take a ride in the cherry-picker “basket” on the end of the biggest extension ladder and in an ingenious twist the ladder extends from the vertical great height to a horizontal one over the roof of the fire station where a large red bucket (or is it an old oxygen tank?) sits waiting for their donation to be deposited.

Himself and I asked the kids if they wanted a ride in this too and confessed our secret relief to each other afterwards when both children looked horrified at the idea and swiftly declined.

Having no head for heights ourselves we reassured them that not wanting to go on this was absolutely fine with us too and I told Kiwi Daughter afterwards that I found the height that this ladder went to rather scary, so didn’t blame her in the least.

It’s certainly a brilliant idea, and I wish I was brave enough to have enjoyed what must have been some fabulous views from so high up. Maybe if the opportunity ever arises again I should stop being a cowardly lioness and summon some courage to give this a go.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Pincers to the Rescue: a Coconut Crab Would be Proud…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Our family day out in Schoonhoven has taken an unexpected detour as we discover that today is also “Open Monumentendag” (Open Monument Day) when Little Mr. found a local Fire Station giving displays and information.

We arrive just in time to see a crash dummy in a car that’s been in a car  ”accident” and a demonstration of how the fire service use their tools and training to cut the car open to extract the “victim”.

It’s amazing to see that sometimes a low tech solution is the best one as a firewoman sticks what looks like a wide roll of heavy duty sellotape onto one of the car windows, after pressing it to the glass she then smashes the glass with a special mallet and hey presto, lifts off all the broken pieces of glass (still in the shape of the window) stuck to the tape for clean, easy and swift disposal.

On the other side of the car a fireman is in the back seat keeping the head and spine of the “victim” stable whilst colleagues use massive hydraulic snipper claws (yes thére’s probably do have an official name for them but I have no clue what it might be) to first remove both the doors from the car body and then chop through the pillars between the front and rear seat section of the car.

There’s a dull thud as the hydraulic claw crunches through the metal… children, definitely not a hands-on toy for you to play with, as it would make rather literal short work of fingers or limbs. The spinal board is levered expertly into the back of the car and I’m surprised to see that once al hands are on deck that getting the “victim” out is a smooth operation that only takes a few minutes.

Mission accomplished, the “victim” is stretchered away for “treatment” and we turn out attention to the “claws” used to extract him…

Humans regularly steal brilliant ideas from nature and Tasmanian King or Coconut Crabs may be two of the biggest crab species in the world, but I dare say they would be very jealous of the pinching power of these man-made claws…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)