Day 347: Driving Creek Railway, Coromandel

We had no idea that last bit of road onto the Coromandel peninsula was going to be so narrow and winding.  After a day in which the gps already got creative about our route and took us on the shorter, slower, scenic route.  However, we made it eventually and found a cabin in a campground just outside Coromandel itself.  It was a beautiful place, quiet, surrounded by forest and with access to its own beach.  Just as well, because the next day we were going on a sort of roller-coaster ride.

Barry Brickell is a potter from around here who started to build a railway up his land to carry clay down to his workshop.  It's rather a DIY style thing, with lots of loops, switchbacks and viaducts designed to somehow get the wagons up the track.  Then Barry ran out of money and decided to run passenger trains up his track for money.  The return ride takes about an hour, and while it's more scenic than scary, I could understand my dad's comment that he has a brave insurance company.  One of the fun things about the ride was that it features lots of art work of various kinds, as well as native plant species that they are trying to re-establish on this land.  Perhaps the most significant will be the kauri.  You would not be able to tell how impressive these trees are from the youthful version, but my parents found a mature one on a botany trail and took us to see it in the morning.  It must have been about 500 years old and quite reminiscent of the Avatar tree.

Day 345: Tongoriro

It would be fun to show a photograph of the beginning and end of the Tongoriro crossing and pretend I just did it with my parents!  Well actually, we didn't: we just did the section at the beginning over the lower lava fields, drove off to Whakapapa, then drove round to do the bit at the end through the forest!

It wouldn't have been a great day to do the crossing.  It was clear, but it was already intensely windy at the lower levels, and rather cold.  The last time I really did do it, I thought Antonia would blow away from me and it wasn't as bad as this.  So what we did, as an opportunity to look at different kinds of landscapes and botany worked out rather well.

Day 344: Napier

My parents were here to look at Art Deco buildings. Many years ago, Napier was flattened by and earthquake and the city decided to rebuild in the style of the times. Mike and I kind of left them to it and went to mooch around - an activity that ended in me buying a possum sweater.  Finally Mike and I have matching possum sweaters.  It may sound a strange thing to have, but possums are not popular in New Zealand.  In fact, they are one of many kinds of plant and animal life which is unpopular here.  Everywhere you go in New Zealand, there are traps, signs warning of poisoned bait and injunctions to clean your water-based equipment, or your hiking and camping gear so that you don't spread undesirable species into new areas.  It's a battle for its endemic and native species that I don't know if New Zealand can ever fully win, but which if would be even more devastating to just give up on.

In the afternoon, we drove to Lake Taupo in the rain and set about the task of finding an affordable motel room containing a private spa tub.  Taupo falls into the geothermal section of New Zealand and most motels offer tubs at varying rates.  We succeeded, and I spent as much of the next two days as possible soaking in hot water. Aaaaah!

Day 343: Gannets at Kidnapper's Bay

Young gannets

 At the end of Kidnapper's Bay, near Napier is a gannet colony.  There are several ways of getting there:  you can take a minibus right up to the colony, you can take a tractor along the beach at low tide and walk up the last hill.  Alternatively, you can walk along the same beach at low tide.  Obviously, we chose the latter option.  We set off just as soon as the tide made it possible, with angry waves lapping at our ankles.  To the far end of the bay it took about two hours of walking.  At the point where we had to turn to the next bay we began seeing gannet chicks then a few adults nesting on rocks and we thought that was pretty cool.  It isn't the main colony however.  To get to that, you have to continue along the beach, then climb a steep hill to the top of a cliff.  My Mum and Antonia stayed on the beach while my Dad, Mike and I climbed the hill. 

When we got to the colony, there was an overwhelming stench of ammonia and a whole lot of gannets, nesting in an orderly way on their side of a small chain fence.  We visitors kept to ours, where we could sit on benches with clothes pegs over our noses and look at them.  The highlight for me was seeing one of the young gannets make its maiden flight.  For the first few moments, it acted rather astonished that its wing flapping exercises had somehow launched it into the air.  After that, it manifestly realised it had better concentrate on keeping an even keel and steering.  It wasn't very good at it, and I kept thinking it would get flipped on its back. It was the only young bird in the sky and all the adults were flying around so gracefully it really stood out.  Its third problem was trying to land again without being blown off the edge of the cliff.  It had to circle several times before it managed this and when it did it made contact with the ground like a falling meteorite.  That does seem to the normal technique for gannet adults as well.  After this, we had to rush back to get along the bay before the tide came in again.  We arrived just in time, with angry waves lapping at our ankles.

Day 341: Wellington

The last time we went to Wellington's botanic gardens it poured on us.  But it was February and the flowers were in full bloom.  It was interesting to visit a month later in the season and see how much fewer flowers there are.  But there were still a lot, and we could actually see them instead of having to peer through a wall of water.  This time we got to enjoy the sculptures as well.

I do not know what New Zealand has done to deserve this!

The Te Papa museum has not changed at all, but it is still a great place to see the natural history collections of every kind of animal known only to New Zealand, walk all over the floor map of New Zealand and admire Maori carvings.

Day 338: Puponga

Antonia sliding on dunes

I had to take my parents to one of my favorite places in all New Zealand - the sand dune beach on the west coast of south island, just under Farewell Spit.  All the way there, I was afraid it would rain, but fortunately, it was only cloudy. Antonia had a great time sliding down the dunes, and we had a great time exploring the sands and rocks, and watching the seal pups.

Seal pup

We had a bit of an exciting time getting back.  In theory, I knew that if you walk along the beach there is a path at the far end leading back to the car park past a couple of lakes.  We set off to look for it, but after a while we weren't sure if we had gone too far or not far enough.  We headed off into the bush, hoping to strike the path, then decided we weren't striking it.  My dad - whose age will not be mentioned - decided to be the advance scouting party, and started pushing through the trees to see if he could find the path.  After deciding he couldn't, he started to come back down but went a different way and ended up to one side of us on the other side of dense bushes.  Meanwhile we were waiting and waiting, then eventually started calling him. He replied a couple of times then stopped despite our encouragements.  This was unfortunate because sound was the only way we could locate him, but he, being deaf in one ear, doesn't appreciate the usefulness of sound in this respect.  Eventually, we found him and once we all got ourselves together we realised we were standing on an expanse of rock, with the path at the far end of it and the beach just visible at the end of the path.

So a good time was had by all, and everyone agreed that this is a very beautiful beach.

Days 322 - 337: Work and family time

We spent about a week at the end of February doing nothing much except work and lessons.  I walked down to the cafe every morning and did a couple of hours work there. Then I walked home, had lunch and did a couple more hours work.  Mike has been helping our host with various internet and electricity related issues.  Antonia has been studying (and spending inordinate amounts of time on the phone with friends in various time zones).

On 1 March, I drove to Picton to pick up my parents who had just flown in to Christchurch and taken the train up.  We hadn't seen each other for 11 months!  We spent the first week in the Abel Tasman area, before setting off on a whistle stop tour of north island.