Great Barrier Day 2 - beautiful beaches and stinky long drops

back to catching up...

14-June-08
Great Barrier Island, day 2

Today we spent lazily exploring the island. In the morning we appreciated the nice campground that we had all to ourselves. It was sheltered from the ocean by some sand dunes, and situated between pasture land and a large estuary river.



We saw some of the native parrots fly over the night before, but this morning we had to settle for brown teals :)



These are a very rare duck that has a last stronghold on the Great Barrier Island and they're everywhere. At one end of the campground there was a large walking bridge over the estuary with several houses on the other side and a few residents walking back and forth. So we crossed the bridge and explored a little bit – this was where we first saw the brown teals.



We also saw this amazing modern house/cabin. The weather was sunny and pleasant and we were quickly smitten with the island.





A little while later we packed up and drove north to explore more of the island and check out one of the main villages, Claris. This major hub of activity turned out to be mostly closed – no surprise since we were here in the dead season – but a few shops were open. We made the obligatory visit to the Pigeon Post gift shop, but since I'm banned from buying any knick-knacks all I got was a topo hiking map. sigh. It's called the Pigeon Post shop because the Great Barrier Island used to use carrier pigeons to fly telegrams to and from the mainland!
We also eyeballed the Claris Texas cafe next door. Yes, that's right, just like Paris Texas. We didn't stop for anything today, but it looked good and was full of people.

Then we continued north through more beautiful countryside and up and over a couple headlands with fantastic views until we reached the Whangapoua Campground where we planned to spend the night. The road into the campground was just a couple muddy ruts through a pasture and even though we were afraid of getting stuck again we braved it and parked the van on the highest grassy knoll we could find! Since it was too late for a serious hike, we just spent a couple hours exploring the estuary around the campground – full of mangroves and nervous oystercatchers. It was low tide and we walked way out on the tidal flats and watched a nice sunset.





Then it was dinner, a movie and straight to bed. Oh, I also have to mention that even though this was a lovely campground it had the scariest long drop (pit toilet) that we've seen so far. If the bushes had been any bigger we wouldn't have used it!

Woefully Behind on the Blog... so here are some cute bunnies to tide you over

Hi all - we are, not surprisingly, a little behind on the blog. (Please don't leave too many comments on how predictable this is considering our personalities!)

So in the meantime, I offer up this set of impossibly cute angora bunny pictures.



We went to a place called The Shearing Shed near Waitomo Caves that demonstrates how to shear an angora rabbit every day to draw tourists into their expensive angora fibre gift shop. We escaped without buying anything, but the "show" was great!

The bunny of the day gets restrained and stretched out on a device that is half rack half rotisserie spit, and is then sheared like a sheep.







You have to see it to believe it. And we owe it all to our new-found friends in Auckland, Jen and James, for telling us about it :)

here's the full flickr set - including a short video

New Updates

Howdy all - finally got a couple new posts up... although we seem to be perpetually several weeks behind! In "real time" we are currently just north of Wellington and scheduled to take the ferry to the south island tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have good sailing weather!

And as always, leave some comments - let us know you're out there :)

-Christina & Justin

We Sail to the Great Barrier Island!!

Friday 13-Jun-08

Takapuna to Medlands Beach, Great Barrier Island

ferry photo set

Tryphena and Medlands photoset

Today we got up before the crack of dawn, packed up the van and drove into downtown Auckland to catch our 6am ferry. I had foolishly thought that the ferry would be at the ferry terminal – haha. After some frantic driving around and asking for directions we found the “other” ferry dock and proceeded to check in. The ferry wasn't nearly as big as we had expected – it could only hold about 12 cars and already had an interesting assortment of passengers. Everyone from a group of scruffy flannel-wearing guys who were going to the island for some dirt-biking and fishing (things we thought you could do much more cheaply on the mainland) to a management consultant for HP New Zealand who was headed for a weekend of diving and spear-fishing.

We set sail on time at 7am, just as dawn was breaking over the city and it was gorgeous.

I was a little worried about getting seasick, but I needn't have been – the water was smooth as glass.

The ferry ride takes about four and half hours, so we spent about half our time up on the second deck watching the islands go by, and the other half sitting in the van (more comfortable than the lounge.) Although we did sit in the lounge long enough to eat the steak pies we'd bought – inadvertently torturing a very good dog that was on board and sitting directly across from us. In fact we must have been torturing everyone because not ten minutes after we ate our pies, half the lounge went down and bought their own! Like we said before... the pies are really good here :)

The views were spectacular – we sailed past lots of islands and the northern tip of the Coromandel Peninsula (where we went a few weeks before). I thought it was an island at first – until I recognized our campground!

And the approach into Tryphena Harbour was stunning. Amazing patterns on the water that I tried to capture with the camera.

By this time we were sitting up at the front of the boat chatting with a really nice woman who used to live on the island and owned a plot of land, but now has to work & live in Auckland so her teenage son can go to school there (no high school on the island). She was coming back for a week's vacation with her younger son and we discussed what it's like to live in such a remote area.

As we approached the harbour, we were surprised by how small the dock was for the ferry – but they had no trouble maneuvering the ferry into place.

As we waited we saw a huge ray lurking under the dock – he must have been at least 4 feet across. Then before we knew it, we were back in the van and driving onto the island!

First order of business was lunch – so we stopped at one of the first little coves and made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (our favorite...ugh) and enjoyed the beautiful day. Then we drove into “central” Tryphena and explored the cove and the few little shops there. We met a teenager on the beach who was collecting seaweed in a wheelbarrow for his mother's garden.

After fooling around in Tryphena, we made our way across the island on the very windy roads to our campground for the night at Medlands Beach. This is a lovely sandy beach and we walked along it til sunset... this is the life :)

Last Few Days in Northland

Sat 07Jun08

Waitiki Landing to Pahia

After the tramp we were very tired and just drove straight back to Pahia and the Mousetrap hostel to take in some creature comforts and catch up on email and other necessities (ie. laundry and bathing!)

We even decided to treat ourselves to a restaurant for dinner which ended up being harder than we expected. Most of the restaurants had already closed by 8:30pm - even though it was Saturday. So we finally found a pizza place with decent prices that was open, but as we were trying to get in the door a large party came out and a women fainted/had a seizure and in all the confusion we ducked into a second door which seemed to lead into the same restaurant. But by the time we had been seated and given our menus we realized it was a more expensive seafood "sister" restaurant to the one we had meant to go into. Alas, at this point we just decided to go with it and had a nice seafood dinner. C'est la vie.

Sun 08Jun08

Pahia

We stayed for a second night at the hostel and so on this particular day we could be found lazying around, catching up on the blog, taking a stroll on the beach to the grocery store and watching some horrible NZ tv (we only had wifi reception in the tv lounge...)

We also met a really nice women from Dunedin, Jane, who we plan to look up when we get to that part of the country.

Also, I have to mention that "creepy guy" and his girlfriend were still ensconced at the hostel. sigh... not sure if I mentioned him the first time around, but let's just say that not everyone we meet at the hostels is nice and friendly. (Rollin and Dianna - I had the "creepy girl" mst3k song stuck in my head for days after meeting this weirdo.) Otherwise, the Mousetrap is an ideal hostel.

Oh - and I almost forgot, while we walked around town we spotted "Harry" the van - one of the vans we took for a test drive in Auckland. The camper van set is small here!

Mon 09Jun08

Pahia to Puketi Forest

Today we rousted ourselves out of the Mousetrap and headed inland for the Puketi Forest Park. The forest is one of the largest tracts of native forest in the Northland and has a nice cosy campground. We walked the one hour nature trail in the late afternoon which was quite nice because they had examples of all the main flora of the kauri forest labelled. We tried to memorize as many as we could, but don't quiz me!

This is true rain forest with hundreds of trees, bushes, grasses, mosses, lichen, fungi and even slime moulds. Everything is growing on top of everything else and all is green.

That night we had the entire campground to ourselves (very nice) and even almost had a campfire. The logs were wet and so just smouldered, but it was still fun to sit in front of while we ate dinner and listened to the animals crashing around in the bush. We're pretty sure we heard kiwis here - but we haven't seen one yet.

Tues 10Jun08

Puketi Forest to Rawene

This morning we went on a second short hike north of the campground to a small grove of old kauris called the Manginangina Kauri Walk - it was recommended by one of the park employees and was well worth it. Then we hiked the two-hour Waihoanga Gorge Kauri Walk on the southern end of the park to another kauri grove. What esle can I say - it was absolutely beautiful!

After this we drove toward Hokianga Harbour and the small bayside village of Rawene where we decided to spend the night in a holiday park. We didn't need the showers yet, but there weren't any campgrounds nearby.

The holiday park was nice and we thought we had the place to ourselves as we watched the sunset over the bay, but alas moments later the park was inundated with 3 huge motor homes and two more camper vans...

But it worked out fine and we enjoyed talking to one British couple, Stuart and Kayle, who had lived all over the world (most recently Vanuatu) working mainly as scuba diving instructors and had just gotten office jobs in the New Plymouth region of NZ. Very interesting folks.

For dinner we resisted the very tasty looking fish and chips takeaway in town and instead cooked up a nice kidney bean and lentil curry. Yes, more beans... it's surprising anyone will talk to us!

Puketi photoset

Wed 11Jun08

Rawene to Baylys Beach via Waipoua Forest

This morning we woke up and the little peninsula of Rawene was completely lost in thick fog - the first thick marine fog we've encountered here. After breakfast we bought some internet access at the local green grocers in the center of town - yes, fresh vege and internet :) I love shops that sell incongruous wares/services!

Then we walked around town to see some of the historic buildings and watched the car ferry appear out of the mist.

Back in the van we drove around the coast to Opononi and Omapere near the mouth of Hokianga harbour, had lunch at a picnic table and then got snared by the information booth/historical museum. We'd planned to only go in for a minute, but they insisted that we watch a 10min film from the 50's about Opo the dolphin who lived in the Harbour and was extremely friendly with humans - playing with swimmers and kids, following boats, etc. She was quite the sensation and tourists from all over crowded the beaches to see her, but sadly she died after only a couple years of this - most likely hit by a propeller. Anyways, the film was classic MST3k short material. We especially giggled at the scene when they take a ball away from a little girl and throw it to the dolphin. She looks extremely unhappy about this and watches as Opo takes her treasured toy way out in the water. Eventually it is returned to the poor girl who probably never let it out of her sight again!

After this we tried to leave gracefully but an older man who was working at the museum caught us in conversation and talked our legs off for at least an hour! Haha, he was very nice though and had lived in Vancouver and travelled extensively in the US so he told us lots of tales.

Free at last we drove to a lookout point at the mouth of the harbour where the old signal station used to be located. The harbour used to be a very busy commercial port and the signal master would raise signal flags to control boat traffic in and out of the harbour which was complicated by a large sand bar. Nothing remains of the station house now, but it is a lovely view.

Next we drove south to Waipoua Forest to see some more kauri trees and forest, including the two largest kauri still alive (although mere babes compared to the great kauri that were logged.) Tane Mahuta is the largest living kauri (not sure if this is by height or volume) and is quite magnificent...

but it's the second largest, Te Matua Ngahere that is the most amazing. It has an immense girth and a huge crown that is like a little city inside the forest bustling with birds and (presumably) insects. The pictures don't do it justice.

The forests are beautiful and full of lots of other giant kauri trees that deserve to be named as well! And this is where we first noticed the big wood pigeons whose wings make a whistling/whooshing noise as they fly laboriously from one treetop to the next. These wood pigeons are very important as they are the only native bird left that is big enough to swallow and spread the kauri seeds.

Afterwards, we were almost out of daylight and so drove south to Dargaville for groceries (resisting an amazing array of takeaway shops) and back to Baylys Beach for a nice holiday park stay.

Hokianga/Rawene photoset

Waipoua photoset

Thurs 12Jun08

Baylys Beach to Takapuna

This morning we walked on Baylys beach for awhile - a huge stretch of flat beach that people drive on like 90 mile beach to the north. Very beautiful.

Having finally decided to bite the bullet and go to the Great Barrier Island, we called Sealink and made the reservations and then headed towards Auckland since we needed to be at the ferry dock at 6am the next morning.

We drove through some nice country, mostly kumara-farming regions, and stopped for lunch near a huge Moreton Bay Fig Tree in Pahi,


and eventually arrived at our chosen spot for the night - Takapuna Holiday Park in Auckland. Worn out from driving and knowing that we'd be roughing it for 10 days on the island, we splurged and ate dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Devonport. yum...

photoset