Great Barrier Island, day 3
This morning we woke up and realized it had rained overnight and were immediately concerned that we might be trapped in by the muddy road. Fortunately after a quick breakfast, Justin successfully drove the van out (not slowing down for any of the big mud holes) and although everything got thrown around a lot, we made it to the sealed road. Hooray!
The rain had mostly cleared up – so we did a 4 hour hike on the nearby Harataonga Walkway. This is a nice track that takes you around the side of the headlands with views of the oceans and beaches below as you hike through manuka/kanuka forests.
There was quite a bit of damage along the trail caused by the wild pigs (although we didn't see any), so there were large stretches of manuka forest with little or no undergrowth. The trail follows the edge of the coast line so you frequently wind inland to cross a stream and then back ocean-ward to a lookout. The stream areas were lush - teeming with tree ferns, nikau palms, moss and other ferns. Just beautiful.
We had particularly nice views of Rakitu Island and some very tantilising beaches – that for some reason we didn't bushwhack down to.
The trail was also very slipperly – lots of wet clay... but this was just the beginning of our mud hiking on Great Barrier!
After the hike, and with more rain clouds developing, we decided to play it safe and try a different campground – one that didn't require a drive through a muddy field. So we drove over to Port Fitzroy for the night and parked the van on what seemed like high ground. Once again, we had the campground to ourselves... mostly. As we sat at a picnic table, drinking tea and just having watched the sunset, two dark shapes waddled towards us in the waning light. Did I mention that brown teals are nocturnal? Haha... apparently nocturnal ducks have no trouble begging from campers in the dark! It was a pair, and they were very persistent, even circling around the van while we cooked dinner – I'm surprised we didn't accidentally step on one! So I can now cross “get begged by world's fourth rarest duck” off my life to-do list :) There were banded rails (another native bird) running around the park as well, and these and the ducks made a ruckus all night.
It wasn't raining yet, but by the occasion gale-force gusts of wind we were getting, we figured something was blowing in. This did not forebode well for our planned tramp the next day...
1 comment:
You should make a list of all the things you have done, as if it were a to-do list. That sounds so much more uplifting to me than the other way around. The ducks will definitely have to be on there.
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