paua shell
Mostly owing to the minerals in the waters around New Zealand also the Paua's diet helps as well.
The "Big Paua" is mostly found in deeper waters, but for the best and largest shells, the Chatham Islands hold that record hands down. However the statue of the "Big Paua" is in Riverton at the base of the South Island.
Both the Paua and the Greenstone (Pounamu) help add mana (spirit) to any carving they inhabit plus giving it a indefinite link to New Zealand
They vary in price from a few cents each to a few dollars, depends on where you shop.
Paua has mostly only 2 "enemies" one being obviously human and the other is a star fish. The star fish has a unique way of attacking the Paua, it attaches its self to the outer part of the shell and starts to bite a hole through the shells surface. The paua decides it's being attacked and releases its self from its rock to try and relocate.......that is when the star fish grabs the Paua and can turn it over for consumption.
Paua Fritters are a combination of flour, egg and minced Paua.
There are only 3 species that can be directly called Paua. Silver Paua, Virgin Paua and normal Paua (though they can all be split into sub species).
e whai ahau he Paua ' literally means 'I have a Paua!
Your average adult Paua can possible nibble through about 1kg of Paua in a day, of course the larger the Paua the healthier the appetite.
There is 3 variations of Paua in New Zealand. The Standard Yellow or black foot, then a slightly smaller Silver Paua, and down in size again to what is called a Virgin Paua (or sometimes called Baby Paua.
There is plenty of pictures of Paua on the internet, just type "Paua" into Google's images section.