Well, last time I wrote we were still in Wellington. We left expecting to travel an hour to our next destination which was Kapiti Island. Kapiti Island is one of 5 preserves that NZ manages to ensure native flora and fauna thrive and are protected. It is here where 1200 of the 1600 remaining kiwis live freely in the wild. This was one of the few destinations that we actually booked before we left the U.S. because we wanted to be sure to experience it this time.Kapiti Island is just 5 miles off the coast of the North Island and is just a short boat ride across the water to get there. We were instructed to check in with the boat service at 7am that morning to be sure the boat was going that morning. We did. It wasn’t. We were told the water was too rough to take us there so we called our booking contact to see what we could do to reschedule our lodging and boat trip to the island. We were able to re-book it for the following week. Now, our plans had changed and we needed to re-think our route because we’d have to stay in the area longer than we’d planned in order to try for Kapiti Island again.
So, we decided to drive north to the district called the Taranaki.
It’s a beautiful area with a volcano and ocean both within view at the same time. Mt. Taranaki (Mt. Egmont) is one of 4 volcanoes (2 of which are still active) in the area. We visited the other 3 later in our trip so I’ll describe those later. We hoped to spend a couple of days there hiking the mountain to fill the time before we had to make our way back south again. The weather was rainy and the mountain, much like Mt. Rainier, wasn’t visible at all. We found a place to stay in a town near the mountain and hoped the rain would let up in the morning enough to go for a hike. Turns out the rain lifted and about ½ of the mountain was visible. We went for it! Off to the mountain for a day of hiking. We selected a hike at Dawson Falls which is a well known track on the mountain. We set out for a 4-5 hour hike and weren’t disappointed. The forest was much like a rain forest. It was very very damp, mossy, and slippery for much of the hike. Once we hit the summit, the views weren’t great because we were essentially in the clouds that were hanging over the mountain. I can imagine the view if the day was clear! Spectacular, I’m certain.
We finished our hike and headed for the lodge for a “cuppa” (NZ for a cup of coffee or tea) and enjoyed a conversation with a British couple who were on holiday, too. That was it pretty much for Mt. Taranaki (Mt. Egmont).
WOMAD (World of Music and Dance) Festival
The next day we headed north to New Plymouth where we would spend 3 days at the WOMAD (world of music and dance) festival. We’d been to several WOMAD festivals in Seattle before 9/11 but since then, it has become too difficult for the musicians to get visas to enter the U.S. so the festival doesn’t come to the U.S. any more. It is a yearly event in NZ. We were happy to be able to attend. The venue was absolutely stunning. New Plymouth boasts a beautiful park in which to house the 3 day festival. Over 40,000 tickets were sold to this event. We heard music from all around the world and many from local NZ artists. The weather was perfect, too.
Kapiti Island...redux
Monday morning, we headed south again to finally go to Kapiti Island. This time, the weather had cleared and the boat was running! They deposited us on the east side of the island first where we had a brief intro by a Conservation Staffer about the island and NZ native wildlife and plants. They very strictly control what is brought on to the island and what is removed. All bags must be inspected to ensure not rats are inadvertently re-introduced. Rats had decimated the bird population and have been eradicated along with stoats and o’possums which had been introduced years ago when the island was inhabited by people. No seeds from fruit vegetables or garbage of any kind can be left on the island. Non native plants are strictly prohibited.
Along with a handful of other adults, we were joined on this part of the island by about 25 10-12 year old kids on a school trip. They were accompanied by 1 teacher and 2 adult chaperones. After the intro, we were free to spend the next several hours hiking to the summit of the island and appreciating the view.
John and I took off for the more difficult trail to the top hoping we’d be pretty much alone along the way so we could enjoy the hike. We met other adults along the way and one young German man who had been living in the area as a home care worker along with 2 other men. They cared for several severely disabled men in a home. This was his day off and he was taking advantage of the good weather to come to the island.
As we neared the top, we could hear the kids. I couldn’t believe the clamor they made. Where on earth were the adults in charge of these kids?! There simply couldn’t be a bird left in the immediate area with all the racket that these kids were making. We squeezed past a hoard of them to get to the viewing tower. These kids were climbing all over the tower, running, screaming and generally being a nuisance. Where on earth was the teacher!?
It was lunch time so we decided to have our snack while standing on the viewing tower in amongst the kids. While there, I watch one of the kids throw his apple over the edge and down the cliff. One of the other kids yelled at him but no adult was nearby. Shortly after that, I saw another kid drop his plastic wrapper on the steps. I asked the kids to pick up their trash and to carry it out. They looked at me like I was from Mars. I asked again, this time more sternly. One of the girls picked it up and tried to get the boy who dropped it to take his trash. He refused. That was enough. John went down the stairs and found the teacher to tell her what her students were doing and could she please manage them. She did get up of the bench that she and the other 2 adults had been seated at for the duration of our stay and come to where the kids were to monitor them. My question is “why bring all these kids to a place like this with no program for them to be working on while there? “ It seemed like this was recess day and the kids were left to run wild. I was furious.
It was such a beautiful place to be but totally spoiled by these Ill-mannered kids who were largely unsupervised. What a waste.
Finally the kids were sent down the hill to catch their boat back to the mainland. Good riddance.
Our boat wasn’t due until 3pm so we lingered behind long enough to avoid the cacophony of kids heading down the trail ahead of us.
We hopped on our boat which was now taking us to the northern part of Kapiti Island where we would be lodging for the night. We were met there by a very lovely Maori woman who was working for the Conservation Department. She showed us around and introduced us to our hostess, Amour. Amour is a long-time resident of the island, one of only 5 families (all related) who remain on the island from the time when it used to be inhabited before the NZ government purchased most of the land for conservation. The land where the lodge and houses are is private property that was never sold to the government. Amour showed us to our unit which was different than the one we’d reserved when we were in the U.S. since we had to re-book our trip due to bad weather. The only room available when we re-booked was one that had a bathroom/shower in the unit which the original unit didn’t have. We had to pay more for this room but I figured that was a ok since I like not having to wander around in the middle of the night outside to go to the bathroom! The one thing we didn’t know is that there was no hot water running to the unit. There was indeed a toilet and a shower but any showers we took would be cold ones. I chose to take none. John was braver than me and took cold showers while we were there. I made due with a spit baths. I was a little miffed that we had to pay $50 more for this “service” and we didn’t even have hot water. Oh well. It’s all part of the experience.
We unpacked our small overnight bag and joined the others at a communal table for dinner of steak and salad and other fare. We lingered at the table until well after dark to head out on our guided walk to find wild kiwi. We split off into 2 groups of 8 each and off we went as quietly as possible and with as little light as possible to find the elusive nocturnal kiwi birds that are the national symbol. Kiwi’s are endangered all throughout NZ because predators introduced by humans have killed them in such quantities that they can’t reproduce fast enough to survive. Sadly, this is true for many birds in NZ.
Kiwi, while technically are birds, really somewhat mammal-like. They do not fly, they live in burrows, they have whiskers and produce an egg that is almost 1/3 their body size. One of the kiwi blokes, in relating that last little piece of trivia, commented that the size of the egg was really only a problem if your are a female. Ah, chauvinism is alive and well in NZ!So off we went, searching under the brush quietly and intently listening to their calls. The male kiwi has a two tone call and the female will respond with a single tone. They communicate like this for quite a while during the early darkness to get a sense for their location. Round and round we went along the darkened paths. We stopped and listened, hearing only our heartbeats and an occasional rustling sound in the brush. About an hour in to the search, we headed back toward the lodge where the native grass was abutting the buildings. Our guide, astute to the sounds of the kiwi, thought he heard one in the grass. He signaled to us to stand still and he went into the grassy area where he heard the rustling. Just a moment later he said he’d found one and waved us all to come slowly to its location. Sure enough, it was a juvenile kiwi, our guide said it was probably this year’s chick. It was about 12 inches long and 8-10 inches tall with a beak that was very long for rooting around in the forest floor for bugs and such. We all got a good look and called the other group with a cell phone to come over to see it. The kiwi stayed put this whole time and the others were treated to a peak at a wild kiwi, too.
Cool!
The next day after breakfast, we were taken back to the mainland where John and I could continue our journey north somewhere. We had no real plans now so we were following the weather.
Tongariro National Park
We decided to head toward the center of the north island to the Tongariro National Park where the 3 other volcanoes were located that I mentioned before (Mts. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom), Ruapehu, and Tongariro) . The fourth being Mt. Taranaki (Mt. Egmont). I’d read about a great alpine hike across the mountain that would be about 19km and I thought we were ready for a good long hike and the weather seemed like it would hold so we headed inland to a small town near the park and found a place for a couple of nights to stay while we conquered our next mountain!
We learned that there was a bus that delivers you and picks you up at the trailhead so we booked excitedly hopped on our transport ready for a good day’s hike. When we arrived, we were not alone. There were hoards of others heading out for the same hike. Yikes. I thought this would be a nice quiet minimally traveled hike. We found out later that over 1000 people a day and sometimes 2000 people a day hike this trail. We were merely one of many ants making our way. It’s frustrating when you have so many people on a trail because John and I tend to hike pretty fast so we need to pass people frequently which isn’t always simple depending on the trail. But we trudged along, sometimes stuck behind slowpokes and sometimes in the clear. We made it to the crossroads where we could head up Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom from the Lord of the Rings fame) or we could head on along the trail like any sane hiker would do. So what did we do? Yup, we headed up Mt. Doom. Geesh.This volcano is still active and has a crater near the top that is what everyone climbs it to see. However, the entire mountain is volcanic rubble (mostly loose) and rocks that tend to come flying down toward you when someone above you is inattentive and lets sets one freefalling in a trajectory directly headed for your kneecap. John, like a billy goat, climbed effortlessly to the crater hardly breaking a sweat. I, on the other hand, was more like a fish out of water, wondering what the hell I was doing climb this mountain now. Hadn’t I learned from the last one! I climbed and climbed and hugged the rough volcanic rocks as best I could but eventually gave up. I didn’t care any longer about seeing the crater but cared more about getting down this mountain in one piece. Down would be no cakewalk because it was loose gravel and rocks and nothing to stop the fall except for more loose gravel and rocks. Oh yes, did I mention the flying rocks from above?
Once down the mountain, we headed off to finish the rest of the hike which was formidable but beautiful. We made it to the parking lot with 15 minutes to spare. Whew, it was a good day and we were both pooped. Another mountain climbed.
The Forgotten World Highway and New Plymouth
We left this area to travel “The Forgotten World Highway” which is a section of road that has been pretty much left as it once was with settlements all along the way that have been largely untouched for years. It took us the better part of a day to travel this magical road to our next destination which was New Plymouth, again. We were sort of killing time and wanted to see the area more thoroughly just in case we thought we liked it best. Turns out we spent 3 more days there but decided to move on to Auckland.
Devonport / Auckland
We were fortunate and found a nice place to stay for a week in a neighborhood called Devonport across the bay from Auckland. I loved this place. It’s very quaint and small but just a short ferry ride across the bay to Auckland. We wanted to spend a week here mostly because we wanted to hear a visiting professor of primate studies, Franz de Waal, who was guest lecturer at Auckland University. His topic was “The Evolution of Emotion”. Fascinating talks and his book “Our Inner Ape”, was an equally fascinating read. I’m glad we stayed the week.
The Coromandel
From Devonport we headed east to the Coromandel peninsula. This is one of the places I wanted to visit when we traveled to NZ 2 years ago. Sadly, we didn’t have the time to do it then. We’re staying in a town called Hahei. The picture to the right is of Cathedral Cove which is near Hahei. Hahei is a pretty little village that boasts a beautiful beach that is safe to swim in and more stunning views. There is so much natural beauty in NZ that we’re sometimes catching ourselves being a little complacent about each new stunning vista. This area is truly gorgeous but so are so many of the other places we’ve seen during our trip. There simply aren’t enough adjectives to uniquely describe each of the beautiful places we’ve visited here. You have to see it for yourself to understand the problem!We went for a walk this morning on a beach called Hot Water Beach which is just adjacent to Hahei. This beach is aptly named because there are 2 hot water springs just under the sand near the water’s edge. It’s a real attraction for tourists to dig a hole in the sand at low tide and boil their buns for a while. The spring water can get to 69 degrees centigrade! When we walked across the sand, we could sure tell where the spring was. Just digging our toes in a little was warm enough. We didn’t want to boil our piggies! Other than the hot water springs, this beach has very rough undertow and is apparently a very dangerous swim. However, there are some pretty good waves here, too, so the rip tides didn’t seem to faze the intrepid surfers willing to do whatever it takes to catch a wave.
After Hehei, we’ll spend a couple more days touring the Coromandel area and then will head to the Northland, which is the peninsula north of Auckland. It’s above the freeze line so never freezes and is considered semi-tropical. We’ll spend most of the rest of our time somewhere in the Northland. Hopefully we’ll be able to find one place that will suit us for the 2 weeks. However, it is Easter vacation and we may be lucky to find a comfortable bridge to sleep under. So it goes on our great adventure in which we are trying very hard not to plan much ahead of a day at a time. That’s not always been an easy thing to do but it’s been good to experience.
More soon!
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