The Green Monkeys in Queen Charlotte's Cowshed

14Jul08
Cowshed Bay to Nelson

You would think that when camping we would wake up early because of the sunlight and unfamiliar noises, but our curtains block the morning light so well we never seem to get that dawn start I imagined back at the trip's beginning. Today, despite our usual slow start, we're determined to walk at least one leg of the Queen Charlotte track. It's a relatively sunny day, and the track itself is supposed to be quite easy. We drive a short distance from Cowshed Bay to where a road intersects the track, pack lunch, then head up a hill.



The track wends its way through the usual DOC-land regenerating bush, and the more overgrown spots are quite shady and cool, while others are completely out in the open. Here and there through clearings, we are treated to views across Queen Charlotte and Kenepuru. The waters are still and undisturbed except for the occasional boat.



Across the water small houses and sheep dot the hills; the views are all quite pastoral. It's very strange to me to look out at this and think of it as a vision of England filtered through New Zealand. I've never been to England, but the views I see call up memories of pictures of English farms, hedgerows, stone fences, and green, green, rolling hills. We stop to eat lunch at the high spot of this leg of the tramp, and watch the clouds drift by.

The length of track allocated for this day's walk is much less than we expected. I suppose it's meant as one of the easier tramps. In any case, we get back to our van much earlier than we had expected. With a couple of hours of sun left, we detour down to the Queen Charlotte side of the peninsula and admire a beautiful little cove tucked away between the hills. There's a tiny pier here; its legs are encrusted with shellfish and dotted with starfish. The water is clear and shallow and almost demands that we come back with kayaks. Across the water a tiny boathouse, palm tree, and dock hint at the bach half-hidden up in the bush.





Eventually a strange assemblage of boats smokes into view. By the time it reaches the middle of the cove, we can make out the details, but they only add to the mystery. It's a tiny fishing boat, engine smoking heavily under the load, a smaller launch, and a tiny flat-topped barge, laden with junk. All of these are somehow lashed together and slowly puttering along. Aboard is a salty-looking guy and a dog which jumps back and forth between the 3 boats excitedly.

We leave the cove and drive out the way we came in, then westward to Nelson. There are far more mountains to climb over than I anticipated from staring at a flat road map, but our slow progress is rewarded by coming into Nelson with the last of the fading day. It's chilly, but the lights of Nelson on the hills are welcoming, and the sunset over the mountains and what must be far-away Farewell Spit is stunning.



We check into the Green Monkey, which turns out to be a really nice hostel, then go out for kebabs at a place recommended by the owners. After a few days of camping it's really pleasant to shower and put on some clean clothes.

The hostel itself turns out to be named in honor of the hosts' less-than-pleasant encounter with a group of green monkeys in Africa. I make a mental note to never take a nap someplace where monkeys could pee on me.

One of the other guests at the hostel is a guy named Charlie, who turns out to be a British expat doing mostly contract IT work in Asia. He's well-read, and we spend some time comparing books we are currently reading. He's going through Thomas Paine's "Common Sense", and I'm dredging my way through David Henry Thoreau's "Walden", and we chat on a bit about them. Charlie's just finished an alpine loop through the Nelson Lakes, and he regales us with stories of trudging through snow. He also suggests we take instant hummus powder along with us as an addition to our tramp food, an idea we are excited about because it's something not sweet, not junky, not granola-ey, not gooey, and not sausage-y.

Eventually the long day gets the best of us and we crawl in bed.



15Jul08
Nelson for a day

Though we've just made it into Nelson, we are already planning to leave. The forecast this morning shows a window of decent, 'mostly-dry' weather for the next 3 days, followed by a period of serious rain. Weather forecasts haven't always been the most accurate here, but it's the best we've got, and we know that if we don't do the Abel Tasman Coastal walk now, we may not get another chance.

The Abel Tasman park is home to lots of stunning scenery which I've been dying to see first-hand since I first started researching NZ, so I don't really mind the fast turn-around. We're coming to one of the parts of NZ I am most excited to see.

The easiest way for us to cover most of the Abel Tasman is to take an 'aquataxi' boat up the coast to near the NW end of the track, then walk back SE out of the park and to our van. We go ahead and book a ride for next morning at 9am. People we ask at the hostel opine that it'll take about 45 minutes to get from Nelson to the Aquataxi launch in Marahau.

This done, we venture out to see a bit of Nelson and buy any supplies we need for the trip. Charlie, our acquaintance from last night, walks along with us to the DOC office/I-site, then heads off on his own errands. It's an overcast but mild day. We book the huts for Abel Tasman, check for any warnings or alerts, then head out and around the town.

Nelson is a bustling, lively little town nestled into the hills surounding the south end of the Tasman Bay with an obvious art scene, lots of cafes, many charming old houses, and plenty of sights to rubberneck at for free. We wander around the downtown for a bit, which is nice enough, although the Nelson Central Post Office and clock tower loom over the rest of the buildings like a prison complex. We head up the main street and walk through the landscaped Christ Church Cathedral grounds, then peek at the church's interior before wandering back out in search of coffee.

Eventually we make it to Lambretta coffee house, with a (surprise!) Italian Lambretta motor scooter mounted over the door. It's a nice break from the busy streets; the coffee is great and helps wake us up. We people-watch out the window, wondering why the 80's fashions which are back are the ones which stunk the worst the first time around. I guess that's what geezerdom does to you.

The rest of the day pretty much passes without note, and aside from hitting the grocery store and cooking dinner, we don't do much besides pre-pack our bags for the tramp.

Marlborough Sounds and Nelson photoset

Unbefouled by Peafowl

13Jul08
Robin Hood Bay to Cowshed Bay

The morning is chilly, but still clear. While our backs are turned during the usual breakfast clean-up, the pea-hen hops into our van. After a few seconds of tense-but-restrained hand-waving, hoping not to stimulate a load-lightening flight response, we chase her back out. Luckily, inspection confirms we acquired nothing worse than a couple of muddy footprints on the floor during her visit. Our van is not quite yet ready to be turned into a poultry house!

North winding along the coast, we drive through skies so blue they almost hurt, stopping periodically to look down and across the sparkling turquoise sea. Each cove, inlet, and bay is its own little world. A few of them have houses; many are unpeopled. The area we are driving through is part of the Marlborough Sound region, and here the land and the sea so intertwine that the coastline seems a perfect example of a real-world fractal as described by Mandelbrot in "The Beauty of Fractals". The land itself is hilly and often steep, rising right out of the water except for tiny half-hidden beaches that can only be reached by boat.



It would all seem idyllic and unspoiled were it not for the fact that aside from a few homes, every slope is either managed pine forest or devastated clear-cut. If you squint your eyes a bit, it's still mostly just green hills against beautiful, almost still waters, but close-up the sterility of the pine plantations is pretty obvious. Aside from the trees, little else grows except a few shrubs and ferns on the roadsides. The number of birds and other wildlife is markedly lower than we've seen elsewhere. I remember looking at pictures on flickr of this area and noting the green, green hills against the sparkling water, but completely failing to remark the fact that the green was plantation and not native.



Even so, it's a most spectacular day. We drive through the sunshine and daydream. Towards noon, we drive into one of the few tiny seaside cluster of homes, and stop for lunch on a gravelly spot down beside the water. We pull our van's table out and sit facing the sea. A few local boats bob slowly and the occasional car drifts by.



Eventually we make it through to Picton. We hurry on west out of town and up the peninsula sandwiched between Kenepuru Sound on the North and Queen Charlotte on the South. Out here it's a mix of rural homes - modest farmhouses with enormous boats parked in the front yards - and holiday bachs perched on the edge of the water. Everywhere along the water's edge continues to be gorgeous, and we agree that the area is at least as striking as the bay of islands if not more so. Marlborough seems to have suffered less of the posh development that seems to be turning the bay of islands into a pretty-but-dull rich-person's playground.

Near dark we pull into a DOC campground on Cowshed Bay and park near the water. So buffered here is the sea from the ocean's surging that the waves barely lap the shore. Tonight's avian camp docent is a weka, who motors over to the van, begs shyly, then runs away.

Midway through dinner, a spanish couple show up. They are very friendly and turn out to be on a weekend jaunt up from Christchurch. It's apparently their first couple of days out in a van, and we do our best to help when their gas stove turns out to be fiddly. The guy drives their van with a great deal of energy, and after observing him spinning his tires repeatedly while repositioning the van within their site, we suggest they move to higher, more gravelly ground near us. After so many nights of going to sleep on dry ground and waking up in a bog, we don't want to see them get stuck. Moreover, as they turn out to be leaving at 6am the next morning, we don't really want to have to wake up at 5:30 and help dig them out!

It's another very quiet night. Though we are perhaps only 20 feet from the edge of the water, the sound of the waves against the land is so slight that I have to strain to hear it as I drift off to sleep.

Crashing Blinds and Curious Peahens

12Jul08
Kaikoura to Robin Hood Bay

It's an incredibly blustery night in Kaikoura. The whitecaps we saw in the fading evening light were obviously a foreshadowing of the storm to come. There's a window with a broken latch in the bathroom adjacent to our room, and the wind that howls about our hostel sucks it open no matter how I try to jam it closed. The venetian blind on that window then proceeds to smack into the frame with thundering crashes at the rate of around 2-3 a minute. Around 2am I get up and raise the blinds. This lets all the heated air in the house whistle out, but at least it's now possible to sleep.

In the morning we find out that the storm winds reached 140 km/hour. The streets are full of debris, including a large sheet of styrofoam trapped under our van. We eat breakfast, say goodbye to Eva and Stephanie, and head out on the road. It's a beautifully clear day, and we are eager to see new sights.

We take a few minutes to see Kaikoura in the daylight. We stop back at the headland we visited last night to see it in the sun, but the parking lot is soon overrun by a 'Kiwi Experience' bus and passengers, so we head back through town, stopping at a small memorial park on the waterfront. The park has a monument to fallen soldiers in WWI, and a walkway lined with arches of weathered whale rib.



Kaikoura was a local center for whaling in the 19th century, and just across the street are a few 'try pots', giant cauldrons used for the rendering of whale blubber. Now they are simply rusting monuments amidst a few quiet trees.



On the way out of town, we visit a locally-popular pie shop, then drive north back towards Picton.



At Blenheim, we stop for groceries and coffee, then strike out towards the coast on a winding 2-lane road. Through little sea-side developments, then up into the coastal mountains we drive in search of a place to spend the night. As the light begins to really fade, we drive into Robin Hood Bay and decide to stay at the very basic DOC campground. At least there's a long drop! Another couple's also parked for the night, but we never actually meet.

The campground is patrolled by a ravenous peahen. The evidence of its daily route is the fact that the parking area is a minefield of peahen-poo. She loiters about the van most of the evening while we cook dinner, peering inquisitively at our activities and waiting for the inevitable or inadvertent handout.



It's nice to be camping for free, but the local sandflies still demand a payoff. I cook dinner while dancing around to keep the worst of them off, then we eat in the van with the windows closed.

It's a beautiful, quiet, star-filled night.

Kaikoura to Picton photoset

Cook Strait, hobo holiday park, and stunning Kaikoura

10Jul08
ferry crossing to Picton

We got up and out early to catch the car ferry across the Cook Strait to Picton in the South Island. Though it's sad for us to say goodbye to the North Island we're really looking forward to the south!

We had a little time to walk around Wellington before the ferry left, so we went inside Old St. Paul's Church - a rare example of timber gothic architecture and a very nice place.



We also walked around the famous NZ government house nicknamed the Beehive. It's very modern and iconic, but not very pretty.



The ferry was quite large – like the one we took to Victoria Island from Vancouver several years ago. The cars all drive into a lower deck – including several semi-trucks, and you aren't allowed to stay below in your car. We thought it was kind of stinky when we boarded, but it wasn't until we disembarked that we noticed a semi of fertilizer was on board!


The weather was forecast to be fairly calm – something I consulted when making the booking! So we spent some time up on the top deck watching them ready the boat to leave the dock, and then watching the views as we sailed out of the harbor. The ferry ride lasts about four hours, but you are never far from land and there's great people-watching onboard. The last third of the voyage is sailing up Queen Charlotte Sound and is absolutely spectacular. These sounds are very convoluted and would be great fun to explore on a boat.





Back on dry land in Picton, we stopped at a cafe for a coffee and to decide where to spend the night. We ended up choosing a holiday park that turned out to be fairly run down AND the lousy desk clerk gave us a spot only a couple meters from the freight train track! As the trains rattled by all night it just reminded these two hobos of living near the freight trains in Norman in college. It was also very cold and we were glad to have the heater.

ferry photoset

11Jul08
Picton to Kaikoura

Based on the weather forecast we decided to head south to Kaikoura before looping back to see the Sounds area. We drove through Blenheim which looked like a nice town, and stopped at an historic cob house just outside town that Justin had to investigate for our future homebuilding plans!



After awhile the road begins to closely follow the coast – squeezed between beautiful beaches to the west and steep hills and mountains to the east. We stopped a couple times- for a walk on the beach, and to see a seal colony that had lots of babies/juveniles playing on the rocks.





Then into Kaikoura and around to the headlands to look for more seals and to have a “photo reverie” as the late afternoon light dramatically lit up the ocean.



Haha – it's going to take me years to properly go through all my photos and tweak the RAW files when I get home! But I think I have captured a few gems. As sad as I was to not bring a film camera on this trip it sure has been nice to not worry about buying film and getting it developed and all the additional costs. Of course the downside is that I have so many more “snapshots” to sort through! I've been uploading no more than one-fifth of my photos to flickr. Ah the photographer's burden.

Anyways, that night we checked into a hostel and met a friendly pair of German girls – Eva and Stephanie – who were traveling and gave us lots of recommendations for things to see in Australia. Including a WWOOF farm where you get to feed and take care of orphaned kangaroo babies!! Oh, I can't wait!

Also at the hostel we ran into the two quiet German guys we met at Moana Lodge in Plimmerton. One of them had had his camera stolen the day before (not at this hostel) and was very unhappy. It reminded me to backup my photos! Late that night a huge storm blew through, rattling the house and ruining our sleep.

Kaikoura photoset

Cable Cars, Sundials, and Temperamental Weather

08Jul08
Wellington

Today we went into Wellington again mainly to see the botanical gardens. We took the historic cable car uphill – sitting across from a friendly woman and her two daughters. At the top we stopped for a coffee and snack at a cafe (carrot cake) and enjoyed the great views of the city and the harbor. We visited the cable car museum - my favorite was the antique cable car that had slanted seats thus creating level seats when on the steep incline.





Then we meandered our way downhill through the large park stopping at several attractions – an old observatory, an Australian desert garden, a human sundial,


(Justin telling time or praying to the gods of astronomy - you decide!)

a rare NZ plants garden, a section of native forest, a cacti and succulent garden, a “tornado” sculpture, and finally the Victorian hothouse.



This is a really nice park and since we had fairly good weather it was full of people and kids. Very cheery.

Then we made our way back to downtown, via the government district and drove back to Moana Lodge for the night.

During dinner we talked to a couple girls who were traveling together about things to see in NZ and Southeast Asia. One was from Ireland, and the other from Corpus Christi! Haha... although the Texan girl was trying very hard to affect a kiwi accent and did not seem very happy to talk about our mutual Texas connection. They had a very funny story about zorbing in Rotorua. For those of you not in the know, zorbing is a kiwi-invented adventure sport where you climb inside a huge inflatable ball and get rolled down a hill inside it. To make it more exciting they put some water inside the zorb to splash around with you. Well when the Irish girl was ready for her turn, the supposedly warm water turned out to be freezing cold and she was literally blue when she climbing out of the zorb at the bottom of the hill! Brr!
I must confess, that I really, REALLY wanted to go zorbing while we were here – but we were so turned off by Rotorua that I didn't. Plus it's expensive :(


09Jul08
Plimmerton

On this blustery day we explored the coast north of Plimmerton a little, until we got driven home by the bad weather. For lunch we had tasty fish and chips (or as the Brits say “had a chippie”) at MacLean Street Fish Supply in Paraparaumu. It was takeaway and we ate at a picnic table overlooking the sea (with lots of “friendly” seagulls). Afterwards we headed out to the Queen Elizabeth park on the coast and took a short walk. By then the nice day had turned cold and cloudy so it was back to the hostel to get everything prepared for leaving tomorrow. And by sunset, the clouds had cleared again and we were able to go for one last walk along the beachfront in Plimmerton.



Wellington photoset

Wellington Art Museum, and a Quiet Day at the Hostel

06Jul08
Wellington

After deciding to stay in Plimmerton for a few days instead of moving to a hostel downtown, we headed into Wellington to sightsee. We visited the great Te Papa Museum, that has everything from NZ natural history exhibitions to displays of ladies fashions from the 40's. We only had time to take in less than half the museum on this very crowded Sunday – the natural history exhibit, a rotating exhibit on Scots in New Zealand, and a charming exhibit about Mary-Annette Hay, "The Queen of Wool." She was the enterprising spokeswoman for the NZ wool board and promoted NZ wool garments with elaborate fashion shows in the early 50's. Even her own wedding dress was wool! We skipped a large exhibit featuring the compelling paintings of Rita Angus because we planned to come back another day. (and alas - we never did!)


(wellington waterfront)

After we were sufficiently cross-eyed from the museum we walked around downtown window-shopping and people watching. We walked through the popular Cuba Street arcade and stopped for a coffee and pastry at a real French bakery!

Then back to the hostel for a home-cooked meal.

That evening we met a nice family from West Virginia who were sightseeing in NZ for a couple weeks with their daughter who is studying abroad here. They had just crossed the Cook Strait on the ferry the night before in a tremendous storm. They said the ferry ride was very rough with glassware flying out of the racks and people falling down. The ferry staff even handed out seasick bags to all the passengers... fun! Later on we talked for a long time with the father of the family who runs a handmade natural soap company, about everything from politics to real estate. Very pleasant folks.


07Jul08
Plimmerton

Today was a designated “do-nothing” day :) So we stayed in the hostel all day, mostly camped out on a sofa in front of the fire reading and surfing watching the windy and wet day through the windows.
After browsing the hostel's bookshelf I settled on a wonderful little book of true stories about a woman in Canada who raises orphaned wild owls. I'll definitely have to dig up a copy when I get home! It's called, A Place for Owls, by Katherine McKeever.


(view from the hostel - on a sunny day)

Alas, this evening Justin went out to the car to fetch something and found that someone had tried to break into the van by shoving something into the passenger side lock! Fortunately the would-be thief was pretty inept, and didn't get into the van – although he did manage to jam the lock. Surprising that this happened in such a sleepy little town, but we'd been warned that campervans are popular targets. Our friends Jen and James had theirs broken into in Auckland and the thieves stole all kinds of pointless stuff – clothes, books etc. Oh well, all we could do was to move the van to right outside the hostel and under a streetlamp.

Fairytale Playground, Distant Relatives and a Friendly Hostel

04Jul08
Turangi to Palmerston North, via Wanganui

This morning it was still raining some with heavy clouds. We debated about heading west to the Mt Taranaki region, but after looking at the forecast (rain and more rain) we decided to skip it and just head south to Wellington. We drove past the Tongariro mountains and saw some snow, but all the mountain tops were hidden in clouds.



So we did a short walk to a waterfall and kept going. This is an area I really wanted to see and do some tramping in – so we will have to come back here someday in the summer!



We took the route south to Wanganui which turned out to be a fantastic drive down a river canyon. A very windy road, but very scenic (and apparently a real pain for the road crew to maintain). And the town of Wanganui was cute enough – the real gem being a fairytale-themed playground! We had to run around and explore it :)



Then it was back in the car to Palmerston North and a hostel for the night. The hostel was nice enough, but the owners (who lived in back) were strange, and all the guests acted weird and unfriendly because of it. Oh well...


05Jul08
Palmerston North to Plimmerton

This morning we called up Justin's sister-in-law's cousin, Robyn, who lives in Palmerston North. And fortunately even though we called at such short notice they were home and generously had us round for lunch. We had a nice afternoon chatting with Robyn and her family – while it clouded up and sleeted outside! Her boys were very excited :)



Afterwards we drove south to Wellington, but as most of the hostels were booked up for a big rugby game, we ended up staying just north of the city in a town called Plimmerton. We completely lucked out – the hostel we choose by chance turned out to be fantastic and became one of our favorites. Right on the oceanfront, a room with a view AND a fantastic kitchen, giant six-burner stove and all. Good thing we couldn't move in!

The owners were quite friendly and we talked about world travels -in particular they had been through Dubai recently, but they hadn't really liked it. Also, the big rugby match was on tonight, so the hostel was fairly empty. Plus a big storm had closed all the mountain roads and several guests were having trouble getting to the hostel.

That night we chatted with a very hip and affable German guy who was in NZ on a working holiday for a year. Strangely enough, at home he had worked for a company that makes sheet laminates – ie. the fake-wood stuff on the particle-board furniture. I just always find it amusing to be reminded that companies like that exist – someone has to do it. Especially since I've noticed that the fake-wood furniture in NZ is made to look like native NZ hardwood. That $10 bookcase comes in “Rimu” instead of “Oak” here. Regional fake-wood is not something I'd ever thought about before!
There were also two German guys who were friendly but very shy and nerdy. They were scheduled to make the ferry crossing in the morning and were nervous about the bad weather reports. Both were touring NZ for about 6 weeks before going home to start university.

Tongariro and drive south photoset
Wanganui playground photoset
Palmerston North photoset

Hamilton Gardens, "Taking the Cure" in Rotorua, and Thermal Wonders

02Jul08
Hamilton to Rotorua

High-tailed it out of our unfriendly holiday park, stopped for a quick daylight viewing of the Riff Raff statue,



and then headed to the grand Hamilton botanical gardens.



The gardens turned out to be not so grand, especially the “Paradise Garden Collection” section which consisted of poorly-designed small themed gardens such as the underwhelming “Japanese Garden of Contemplation”, the extensively hardscaped “Indian Char Bagh Garden” with only poppies in the beds (what does that imply?) and our favorite, the “American Moderist Garden” consisting of a swimming pool, modern art sculptures and a picture of Marilyn Monroe! Where's the “garden” in that?



Hamilton obviously spent a lot of money on these gardens, but we were not impressed. And the fact that tour buses of Asians were being taken to these poorly rendered gardens was laughable. Fortunately the rest of the large botanical park was more traditional and much nicer, with an inviting hothouse that we got trapped inside during a torrential downpour.



After the gardens, we drove to Rotorua. It was raining pretty solidly by then, so we just checked in early at the holiday park and took advantage of their thermally-heated mineral spa. Rotorua is known for its geothermal activity and so all the accomodations have thermal pools for guests. This pool was outside, but under a roof so it was nice to relax and boil ourselves in the spa while watching the rain. The park even had naturally thermal-heated tent sites! Of course, the downside is that the whole town stinks of sulphur :)


03Jul08
Rotorua to Turangi

We spent the morning in the Rotorua museum which was fairly interesting.



The building used to house a fancy Victorian Bath House, where people from around the world came for treatments (called “taking the cure”) or just to enjoy the thermal mineral waters of Rotorua. The heavy mineral content of the water wreaked havoc on the Bath House – corroding everything in sight and causing constant upkeep, eventually closing the operation and leaving the building in ruins. The museum has one wing dedicated to the Bath House museum with some of the remaining fixtures and tiles.



It tells all about how mineral water treatments were high science and thought to cure everything in the world with many variations of treatment, from mud to electrified baths.



The other half of the museum has a nice Maori exhibit and details on the devastating Tarawera volcanic eruption of 1886 that buried entire villages and the famous Pink and White Terraces – a beautiful area of mineral deposits forming cascading terraces (like at Yellowstone).

Rotorua is one huge tourist trap so we didn't want to see much here, but we did want to take in some of the thermal landscape so we headed to the Wai-O-Tapu thermal park – which seemed a little less touristy than most. The park is similar to Yellowstone with geysers, boiling mud, colored thermal pools and mineral concretions.






We enjoyed walking around and seeing it all, but about three-quarters of the way through it started to pour down rain and we had to run back to the car. We were completely and thoroughly soaked (we might as well have jumped in one of the pools!) So we changed clothes and headed to a hostel in Turangi. We drove past Lake Taupo which is supposed to be beautiful, but in the heavy rain we couldn't see much.

Hamilton photoset
Rotorua photoset

Kiwis, Bunnies, Another Cave and RIFF RAFF!

30Jun08
Raglan to Otorohanga

Got up, escaped the “Point Break” scene and headed out to two of the famous surfing beaches nearby. A famous film called “Endless Summer” was filmed here... we'll have to check it out someday. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed walking on the beach.





On our drive south we stopped to see Bridal Veil Falls,



and eventually arrived in a town called Otorohanga – home of a great native bird park (scheduled for the next day). We stayed at a very little holiday park that turned out to be run by the local Lion's Club, and the proprietor gave us a hard sell on the town and urged us to by our souvenirs there instead of in the big city! He also tried to get us to eat dinner at the Lion's Club private restaurant (he would “make a call”). We declined, but later realized that it was the only restaurant open in town! So we ate some leftovers instead. The holiday park was adjacent to the bird park and at dusk huge numbers of birds flew in to roost in the trees – you know how wild birds love to hang out near aviaries!



01Jul08
Otorohanga Bird Park, Shearing Shed, and Aranui Cave – to Hamilton

This morning we got up fairly early and headed straight for the bird park. The highlight of which was the indoor kiwi exhibit that kept the kiwis on reverse time so that we could see there nocturnal antics. There were two kiwis on display, but I mainly watched a female Great Spotted Kiwi who was absolutely wonderful! She was very active running all around looking for food, preening, etc. They look for food by probing their beaks into the leaf mold and under rocks sniffing for bugs. I wish I had pictures but they weren't allowed in the kiwi house...



We also watched the keas and kakas (separate cages) get fed which was quite entertaining. The keas are the alpine parrots that are very smart and mischevious. Kakas are similar parrots, but much more rare and forest-dwelling. The park has many other native NZ birds on display – including some very rare ones, and was a lot of fun.





If we hadn't been on a schedule, I would've stayed at the bird park all day -but we had to make it to The Shearing Shed by 12:45 to see the angora rabbits! So we raced to Waitomo and made it there just in time. I've already posted about these funny rabbits HERE.

Too bad Justin turned out to be so allergic to them... I'd love to have one someday :)

To end our very big day, we decided to take in one of the famous Waitomo caves. Since we'd already seen a glowworm cave we took a tour of Aranui cave which has lots of formations, but no glowworms. The cave was beautiful BUT we were extremely disappointed at how touristy the whole area was and how brief and canned the tour was. The guide literally herded the large group through the cave, with very little time to stop and look around properly and she couldn't or wouldn't answer any real questions. We'd been warned that Waitomo was a real tourist trap and it's true!



Not wanting to stay overnight in Waitomo, we drove north to Hamilton for the night, driving through Te Awamutu on the way – the birthplace of the Finn brothers of Crowded House fame. Justin wouldn't let me stop and be a groupie...

In Hamilton we stayed at a strange holiday park right in town. The park itself was clean and in good shape, but the owners were weird and acted like they didn't want us there. Plus there were dozens of nit-picky signs in the kitchen and bathrooms saying don't do this, and don't do that. Too Orwellian for our tastes. And the showers had miserly pushbutton controls that you had to hit every ten seconds to get more water – like larger versions of the washbasin ones. It did not leave us with a good impression of Hamilton.

However we did manage to find two bright spots in this city – one a great, authentic Chinese restaurant (where all the clientele spoke Chinese and we had to order off a picture menu because we couldn't)



and second, a fantastic bronze statue of Riff Raff (ie. Richard O'Brien in Rocky Horror!)



Turns out he spent some formative years in Hamilton that helped him write the Rocky Horror Show. Hamilton is boring enough now, we can't imagine how bored he must have been stuck there back then!

bird park photoset
Aranui cave photoset