Marshall goes to school and we hike in another great park

Good day and welcome to another edition of our blog. This posting covers our week from Tuesday, February 7th to Friday, February 10th in Hamilton, and our weekend of February 11 and 12th camping and hiking in the Whirinaki Forest Park.


Our week in Hamilton

What was exciting about this week is that Marshall started school on Tuesday the 7th. He is attending Knighton Normal School which is only a ten minute walk from our house. He is in Room 27 and his teacher is Mrs. Karen Walshe. There are around 26 students in his class, which is more than in his class back in New Brunswick. The session he is in goes to April 5th. Public schools in NZ have 4 sessions. This is session 1, or the start of the school year, like students would start in September in Canada.

Marshall was not keen on going to school. Karen and I don't blame him for being nervous. However, he and I were really starting to drive each other crazy and we want him to meet and make friends with kids his own age. Going to school is the best way for him to do this.

We are impressed with his school and teacher. The school has been very accommodating and open to having Marshall attend, even if it is only for 2 months. Being close to the University, Knighton has a fair number of international students. I think Marshall is the only Canadian presently attending.

The school is not one big building, but rather is made up of a number of smaller buildings that house the classrooms. Marshall's class shares a small building with Room 28. His classroom is great with one wall of floor to ceiling windows and sliding doors. Their is a large overhang over the front of the building and the students leave their bags and shoes outside the classroom under the overhang. Try doing that in a Canadian winter.

The school even has its own swimming pool and in sessions 1 and 4, swimming is part of Phys Ed and Marshall's class is supposed to swim two times a week. Unfortunately, the pool liner has a leak, so no swimming so far - probably starting the week of February 27th. We hope so. Marshall loves to swim and this was one (only) of the things he was most excited about his new school.

One different thing about Marshall's new school is that all the students are required to wear hats during recess and lunch in sessions 1 and 4. All of the students wear an official Knighton Normal School hat--blue with a brim all around (think Norman from On Golden Pond). I think they could have found a cooler, less daggy, design (not cool = daggy in NZ lingo). However, everyone wears the same hat, so everyone is cool or daggy at the same time, depending on your view of the hat. If a student doesn't have his or her hat, they have to sit under a big awning during recess or lunch.

As many of you know, Marshall is not the most outgoing guy and making new friends does not come easily to him--he needs time to 'sess out new people and places. As you can probably guess, this transition to a new school, however temporary, has not been without its challenges for Marshall, and in turn, Karen and I. As they say though, challenges create opportunities and Marshall has been working hard at making the most of his time at his new school. Week 2 went better than week 1, and week 3 has gone better than week 2. We have spoken with his teacher several times and from her reports, Marshall as a student, both socially and academically, is excelling in her class. She has told us several times she would like Marshall to stay for the year. More importantly, Marshall is branching out and making friends.


Whirinaki Forest Park - best forest walk yet

After school and work on Friday, February 10, we drove to Whirinaki Forest Park to camp and hike for the weekend. Whirinaki is about 1.5 hours southeast of Rotorua, which is about an hour from Hamilton. Rotorua is a major geothermal area and has lots of hot springs, geysers, etc. It is NZ's  most popular tourist destination. We took a pass on Rotorua for this trip, but being so close to Hamilton, we will spend some time there eventually.

At Whirinaki we met up with our friends Will and Diana. Will is a professor at Colorado State University and he and Diana live in Fort Collins, Colorado. Will is on sabbatical and they are spending some of it in NZ. They are good friends with Chris and Sharon, our NZ hosts, and have been in NZ several times for extended periods. Will and Diana are both a lot of fun and we had a great time spending the weekend with them. Marshall was particularly glad to have someone else to talk to. He talked their ears off all weekend, although they did get to see a bit of the impatient Marshall on Sunday morning (details to follow).

We camped at the Mangamate Waterfall Campground run by the Dept. of Conservation. It was a great deal - $12/two nights. On Marshall's campground rating: scenery - 3.5 (right along the Whirinaki River with a waterfall); campground quality - 3 (outhouse toilets, no showers, nice covered cooking/picnic hut, cold but fun swimming in the river, fishing (if you had a rod), firepits, and easy blackberry picking (yum)); noisiness - 5 (there was only one other group in the campground and they were drowned out by the waterfall). I really enjoyed this campground. The setting was great and I felt like we were actually camping. We were able to enjoy campfires Friday and Saturday night, our first campfires of the trip. Camping = s'mores to Marshall and Karen.

On Saturday we had a leisurely breakfast supplemented with fresh-picked, sweet blackberries. I have developed a new system for rating blackberry picking. I call it "scratch per unit of effort", which is a modification of the population biology term, "catch per unit of effort". A low scratch per unit of effort is good. This means you picked lots of blackberries but did not get many scratches. (This is the opposite of catch per unit of effort, where generally a higher number of catches is considered to be better than a lower number of catches). Anyway, the picking at our campground was excellent, with a very low scratch rate. Marshall was very keen to pick blackberries throughout the weekend.

Later in the morning we went with Will and Diana and walked/hiked the Waterfall Loop Track. This is a long walk - 3.5 to 4 hours. We did it in around 5 hours, but we stopped for a long lunch and later in the afternoon to explore some of the river. It is a fabulous trail that takes you up one side of the Whirinaki River, stops at a good sized waterfall, and then brings you back down the other side of the river. The trail runs through the Whirinaki Ecological Management Zone (Whirinaki EMZ) which is part of the larger Whirinaki Forest.

 

Walking through the tree ferns, H-tree Track, Whirinaki, NZ



What is great about the Whirinaki EMZ is that it protects a large area of podocarp forest. If you recall an earlier posting about our time in a kauri forest, podocarp trees are a type of "older" coniferous tree (there are other types of podocarps) that are restricted to tropical and sub-tropical lands like New Zealand. What makes them different than Canadian conifers (e.g., white pine, balsam fir) is podocarps spread their seeds through berries vs. cones. Podocarp trees are also usually slow-growing and long-lived. A lot of the trees where we were walking were estimated to be 500-700 years old.

In addition to the cool trees, you will usually find tree ferns in podocarp forests. Because of this, when you walk in a podocarp forest you feel like you are walking in the age of dinosaurs, tree ferns towering above your head. As I wrote earlier though, walking through these forests does not feel gloomy. Being conifers vs. broad-leafed trees, a fair amount of light filters down to the forest floor. Because of the large numbers of berries the trees produce, podocarp forests can/did support a lot of birds.

The five major podocarp trees in NZ are: totara (my favourite), kahikatea (the tallest native NZ tree), matai, miro, and rimu (awesome grain for furniture). All of these trees were used by the Maori for different purposes.

Podocarp forests used to dominate the NZ landscape. Most of them have been cut or burned for timber and to open up the land for agriculture. According to the DOC, the remaining podocarp forests are threatened by invasive plants and possums (possums seem to like eating the choicest parts of plants/trees). Grazing from sheep, deer, and feral pigs also makes it hard for podocarp forests to regenerate. Logging of native trees in Whirinaki Forest did not end until 1985 after a great deal of public controversy (trees vs. jobs/forestry community).

After dinner and a swim, Marshall, Diana and I went out and hiked the Forest Sanctuary Loop (8:30 p.m.). Kiwi birds live along this trail and we were hoping to see one. (Marshall and I are becoming obsessed with the thought of seeing another kiwi in the wild.) This is a shorter trail and we only walked (i.e., stumbled through the dark) for about an hour. We didn't see any kiwi but we heard scuffling along the trail at one point, so we think we were close to a kiwi--that's our story and we are sticking to it. Actually, we had a hard time hearing anything over the strong winds that night. All around us the trees were creaking and popping. It felt kind of spooky even though you know there is nothing dangerous in NZ forests. We did see lots of glowworms, which was fun. Karen and Will seemed happy with their decision not to come along and instead sit around the fire talking science.

On Sunday morning packed up, picked more blackberries, and some of us went for another swim, which seemed much colder at 9:30 a.m. vs. 6 p.m. the day before. After that we walked two shorter trails in Whirinaki, each about an hour long.

The first trail we wanted to hike is called the H-tree Track. However, we couldn't find the trail head, so we hiked the Waiatiu Falls Track instead. Marshall was not impressed. The H-tree Track is supposed to have a lot of birds along it, in particular the kaka, a large parrot native to the north island of NZ. Because he wanted to see birds, not another waterfall, he wanted to do the H-tree Track first. On the Waiatiu Falls Track, Marshall became the leader of our group and showed his displeasure about our trail choice by setting a mean pace. Will and Diana were nice and kept up with Marshall. Karen and I were not so nice and lagged behind enjoying the forest. We knew Marshall wouldn't wander too far off.

Not to worry though, Will has Marshall's number, and during this walk told Marshall he was going to get him a book called New Zealand's 50 Greatest Waterfall Walks so we could walk them all as a family. Then when we did walk the H-tree Track he said at one point, "I think the waterfall is just around the next bend." (There is no waterfall on the H-tree Track.) I am not sure how funny Marshall found these comments, but both Karen and I laughed. Anyway, the Waiatiu Falls Track is nice but the Waterfall Loop Track we did the day before is better, so if you have the time, do it vs. the shorter Falls Track.

After getting some directions we found the H-tree Track, which really wasn't that hard to do. This is a great trail and Karen's and my favourite forest walk to date. It is signed, has a lot of big podocarp trees along it and large areas of tree ferns. On top of that, it is the forest in which we have heard the most bird life so far. We did see some kaka parrots flying but they were far away. Marshall and I would like to walk it again but earlier in the morning when more birds are out.

The H-tree Track gets it name from the shape of two rimu trees that have grown together

After the H-tree Track it was time to head home to Hamilton. On the way we stopped at Kerosene Creek, just a little south of Rotorua. Kerosene Creek is a hot-water (geothermal) creek that has several large pools you can wade and sit in--they are not deep enough for swimming. Very relaxing. I am not sure why it is called Kerosene Creek. Being geothermal, it does smell somewhat sulphury, but not as bad as other hot springs Karen and I have visited. One note of caution for those with young families who want to visit Kerosene Creek. Being free and unregulated, it seems to attract a certain amount of the "free-spirit" crowd and I am not sure how age appropriate it would be in the evening. Car break-ins are also a problem.

New Zealand Maori phrase of the week: Toitu te whenua - Leave the land undisturbed.

Next posting: We spend a weekend near Hamilton.

Hot tubbing on the beach

Saturday - Kawhia Kai Festival and a hot-water beach

After our trip up North we were only in Hamilton for a couple of days before it was time for us to hit the road again and enjoy some nearby beaches. On Saturday, February 4 we drove an hour to a small town called Kawhia (Calf-ee-ah) to take in some of the Kawhia Kai (food) Festival, or more particularly, a Maori food festival. We went with friends, Landis and Carole (Canada) and John and Shardelle (NZ).

[Poster's note: In Maori, wh = f (a soft f, think of "woof").]

While we were there we enjoyed several seafood fritters (think of an open-face sandwich), one with mussels and another with whitebait. Unfortunately, we did not try any hangi. By the time it was ready, we were already full. Hangi is a traditional way of Maori cooking - dig a hole in the ground and build a fire in it. Once hot, place rocks over the fire. Once they are hot enough, place food (lamb, pork, sweet potatoes (kumara), corn, squash, etc.) on the rocks and cover it with sacks/weaving. Cover the hole over with earth. After a few hours the food is ready - steamed. It sounds good and we want to try hangi before we leave.

Kapahaka with poi (swinging balls that add to the dance)

We also watched some kapahaka (a dance (haka) done in rows in which the dancers also sing). A kapahaka can have both men and women participating. Most of us think of haka as a Maori war dance (like the haka performed by NZ's rugby team, The All Blacks, before their matches). While this is one of their purposes, haka are also used for welcoming, telling stories, etc. During one of the kapahaka, the men did slap their chests and thighs like they do when performing a haka as people outside of NZ would normally see one being done (again, think All Blacks). This haka is not for wimps--when the men were finished they had bright red welts where they had been slapping themselves.

There were also some arts and crafts being sold. Marshall bought a small jade pendant. Jade from NZ is an important part of Maori art/crafts. Marshall loves the colour and had wanted to get his hands on a piece since we arrived.

We enjoyed the festival but were a bit under-whelmed. Karen and I thought the fair would highlight more Maori culture/tradition then it did.

Later that afternoon we drove to Ocean Beach, a black sand beach near Kawhia, to go swimming and enjoy a hot-water beach. There are beaches around NZ where springs of hot water (geothermal) bubble up to the surface. During low tide you can find these springs, dig a hole in the sand, and enjoy a hot tub after (or before) swimming in the refreshing ocean. The deeper you dig, the hotter the water and sand, and you don't have to dig too far before the water becomes uncomfortably hot. We had read about NZ's hot-water beaches before we came and were on our list of must-do's.

We had a really fun afternoon at Ocean Beach. The waves were really powerful and Marshall was continuously setting new personal records for the longest body board run (where a wave pushes him on his board up the beach). Karen and I and our friends had fun diving into and over the waves and I worked on my body-surfing skills (riding a wave with no board). Karen described her personal hot tub experience as heavenly.


Sunday - Raglan Beach

Sunday, February 5, was supposed to be hot and sunny vs. Monday (a holiday), so we decided to take advantage of the weather and let Marshall enjoy another beach day before he started school on Tuesday. While the weather was not quite as hot and sunny as promised, we had a choice afternoon.

Ngarunui Beach near Raglan, NZ

Raglan is a well-known surfing town, both in and outside of NZ, and is only 45 minutes away from Hamilton. Just south of Raglan are a series of beaches, each of which has progressively bigger waves/swells. We went to Ngarunui Beach, which is the most popular beach with families. It has lifeguards and is generally safe for swimming. While we were there the waves were not too big so we didn't see much surfing.--novice or beginning surfers practice at one end of Ngarunui Beach. Marshall wanted bigger waves of course and was somewhat peeved that the swimmers and body boarders were unofficially restricted to the calmer end of the beach while the few surfers that were there got the bigger waves. He could have gone to the surf area but Karen and I were not keen on him getting run over by a surf board. What Karen and I liked about Ngarunui Beach was its warmer water -- 20 C.

One day when the swell is up we want to go back to Raglan so Marshall can enjoy some bigger waves and we can watch some real surfing at Manu Bay (famous amongst surfers for its left hand breaking waves, whatever that means), which is a few kilometres south of Ngarunui Beach.


Monday - Treaty of Waitangi Day

Waitangi Day is celebrated every February 6th in NZ and is a national holiday. It is a day to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 between the Maori and the British. There was not a lot going on in Hamilton to mark the day so we just hung out at home, fed the ducks at the University ponds, and recovered from our travels of the week before.

To finish up this posting, a little more about the Treaty of Waitangi. Like treaties in Canada, determining its correct interpretation was and is a matter of contention--the Maori and the government have different ideas of what rights the Treaty gave to each side. The Maori, like Canadian First Nations, were never conquered by the British and the Treaty was entered into with good-will and intentions. Also like in Canada, after the Treaty was signed, Maori lands and resources were taken from them by settlers and the government. The Maori were a bit more "assertive" than Canadian First Nations peoples and a series of land wars were fought in the mid-1800's after the Treaty was signed. The Maori were eventually defeated but a new Treaty was never signed. A lot of this fighting took place in the Waikato region where Hamilton is located.

From my work on and reading of Aboriginal law, I don't think the Maori have more treaty rights than Canadian Aboriginal peoples. However, I do believe they have been slightly more successful in enjoying/enforcing those rights. For example, during the above land war in Waikato the government seized 360,000 hectares of land from the Maori and gave it to British soldiers/settlers. In 1995, the Waikato tribes received $170 million in compensation plus any land still in government control along with an apology from the government (from: Lonely Planet - New Zealand, p. 216). The Maori also enjoy revenues from resources. While Canadian First Nations have also received compensation for loss of treaty lands and receive revenues from resources, it just seems to be now more matter-of-course/fact in NZ vs. Canada. This may be because 1 in 7 New Zealander's (14%) are from the Maori ethnic group, while in Canada only 3.75% of the population is Aboriginal (First Nations, Metis, and Inuit) (from: Census statistics).

Seven days touring the Northlands and we only scratch the surface - Part II

Good day. I am continuing from our last posting on February 10. As a reminder, this and our February 10th posting are about our week long touring/camping trip in the Northlands (or Far North) of New Zealand from Thursday, January 26th to Wednesday, February 1. The itinerary of our trip was (see February 10th posting for a map):

Part I
Thursday, Jan. 26 - Trounson Kauri Park
Friday, Jan. 27 - Trounson Kauri Park and Waipoua Kauri Forest
Part II
Saturday, Jan. 28 - 90 Mile Beach and Te Paki Recreation Reserve (giant sand dunes)
Sunday, Jan. 29 - Cape Reinga and Matauri Bay
Monday, Jan. 30 - Matauri Bay and Mimiwhangata Campground
Tuesday, Jan. 31 - Poor Knights Island
Wednesday, Feb. 1 - Whangerei, Waipu Beach, and home

Saturday - Sand, sand everywhere

On Saturday we drove from Ahipara to our Saturday night campground at Tapotupotu Bay near Cape Reinga. The theme of our day was sand and we had a lot of fun playing in it. On a map this looks like a long drive, particularly if you think you are going to be driving on NZ's ever-winding highways. However, much of the highway from Ahipara to Cape Reinga is flat and straight, so we made good time which allowed us to enjoy a bit more of the sites.

Our first stop of the day was at a store that sold kauri wood products - "Ancient Kauri Kingdom". All of the items in the store from furniture to picture frames are made from swamp kauri. The best part of the store is a wide spriral staircase they have cut out of the middle of a kauri log. Walking up it gives you a better sense of how wide these trees were/are.

Rarawa Beach - silica sand

From there we drove to Rarawa Beach which is on the east side of the Aupouri Peninsula (I call it the Cape Reinga peninsula). It is part of a stretch of white silica sand beach. Silica sand is very fine and essentially white--think of walking on sugar. This was an awesome beach that we spent not enough time at eating our lunch and picking seashells. One of the highlights of our stop there was that no one other than our campground host, including our guidebook, suggested we go there. We felt like we found something new that lots of people who tour around NZ don't see. (This is because much of the focus is on 90 Mile Beach on the western side of the Cape Reinga peninsula.)

If I have one regret from our Northlands tour, it is not spending more time at this beach. It really was spectacular and peaceful. We had a list of things and places we wanted to see, which were all good, but we should have planned a little more slack time. I don't want to sound like we were obsessed ("You'll have fun and you'll like it!), but like the title suggests, 7 days was not enough.

Rarawa Beach was also the start of our sand love-in. It was pretty windy on Saturday and silica sand is pretty light. So, not only did we have sand between our toes, but it blew into our hair and ears, our backpacks, lunch, etc.

From there we drove to a little town called Te Keo and each had a big, single scoop of ice cream. Delish. NZ has really good ice cream.

After Te Keo we drove to the Te Paki Recreation Reserve. Within the reserve is a 7 square km area of giant sand dunes. Some of them are easily 300 metres high and they stretch several kilometres inland from the coast. It is hard to describe just how big and extensive they are. Up to this point, this was Karen's favourite site/place we visited. It is a stunning landscape.

Te Paki Sand Dunes

One of the things you can do at the sand dunes is rent a body board (that you would use for body surfing on waves) and "sandboggan" down some of the dunes. Like I said, they are high and steep and you get going pretty fast (exhilarating might be the word). We all wiped out at the bottom, me more than once, and ate some sand and got it into a lot of uncomfortable places. Great fun. The worst part was climbing up the dunes to go for another run. Climbing through the deep sand left you exhausted by the time you reached the top. A lot of people only do one run. Not us of course, "we" had to go until we could hardly walk. (The Scottish in me made sure we got our money's worth out of that board rental).

After sandbogganning we climbed the dunes one more time to get a look at the ocean. However, where we were sandbogganning from was not the highest dune, so we had to climb some more, walk, and then climb some more. Then we could see the ocean. I had thoughts of walking to the ocean until I reached the peak and realized it was still about 1.5 kms away and required more ups and downs. Too far for that point in the day. Marshall had a lot of fun jumping and running down the dunes. Given the wind, plus all of our sledding and walking, I am sure you can get a pretty good idea of how much sand we carried out of Te Paki and into our van.

Most people come to Te Paki simply to sandboggan. While this is great fun, I would recommend that if someone had the time they pack a bunch of water and spend the day exploring the area. There are more than just sand dunes at Te Paki and the walk to and along the coast looked very cool.

Throughout this posting I have talked about 90 Mile Beach. This is a stretch of beach that runs continuously from Ahipara to Te Paki. I have heard it is not 90 miles long. This maybe true, but I do know it is over 100 km long. You can access the beach from several points along the way up to Cape Reinga. People use the beach as a highway, although it is not recommended if you don't have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Apparently you can find abandoned vehicles that have been trapped by the incoming tide. The guides for the area warn you that your auto insurance, including rental, will likely not cover loss or damage to your vehicle caused by being swamped in the ocean. Somehow this didn't surprise me. Anyway, other than Te Paki, we did not spend any signficant time on 90 Mile Beach. Marshall and I walked a bit of it while we were in Ahipara. We weren't about to drive on it and we didn't know where any of the highlight areas of this beach were, so we confined our explorations to doable things like Rarawa Beach and Te Paki Sand Dunes.

Campground rating - After Te Paki we drove to our campsite at Tapotupotu Bay. This is a DOC (Dept. of Conservation) campground. It is located on a beautiful bay with a sandy beach surrounded by high cliffs. However, despite its stunning vista it did not rate high on Marshall's list: scenery - 4.5, campground quality - 1.5 (outhouse-like toilets, coldwater showers (although these were pretty welcome after a day in the wind and sand), no picnic tables or shelters, and lots of mosquitoes (more on those later)), and noisiness  - 0 (It was a Saturday night of a long weekend and one group was a "fun" time. However, when they can even wake Marshall up at 1 am, you know they were being noisy.) This was too bad because it did spoil a beautiful location.

Our neighbour in the campground was a NZer now living in the States. He was home and touring around NZ in a unique way--travelling along the coast, surf fishing. This sounds like a great way to explore NZ and, if you knew where to fish, would take you off the beaten track.


Sunday - Visiting Cape Reinga - a sacred Maori area, and we lose some hotdogs

After a night of poor sleep and a morning filled with bad mosquitoes, we were on the road pretty early and arrived at Cape Reinga around 9:30, well before the multitude of crowded tour buses.

Cape Reinga is pretty much the northern most point in mainland New Zealand. When you look out from the lighthouse at Cape Reinga you can see where waters from the Tasman Sea (west) meet with the southern Pacific Ocean (east). There is a an area of strong current, white water and standing waves. If you think about what you are witnessing and what those oceans and seas represent, it stirs your imagination. Quite moving.

Looking north from Cape Reinga. You can see the
meeting of the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean to the left.

Cape Reinga is also a very spiritual place for the Maori. In Maori it is 'Te Rerenga Wairua' (leaping-off place of spirits). As I understand it (I deeply apologize for any mistakes), after dying, the soul travels north to Cape Reinga and then leaps off the hill/cliff overlooking the ocean. From their it falls into a 800 year old pohutukawa tree and climbs down the tree's roots into the underworld. After that the soul follows a spirit pathway back to the Maori's homeland, Hawaiki. You are not supposed to eat, drink or smoke while visiting Cape Reinga. (Pohutukawa trees are like eastern white cedar, they can grow in pretty tough conditions like the sides of cliffs.)

Cape Reinga is very interesting. I felt a real connection with the land and sea during our time there and I am glad we took the time to visit it. Throughout the site are subtle and well-placed signs that tell you different things about Cape Reinga, such as about its importance to the Maori, legends, wildlife, and exploration history of NZ.

After viewing Cape Reinga itself we walked down a steep path to Te Werahi Beach (on the west side of the cape). Some biggish waves were rolling in, crashing on the beach and the volcanic rock cliffs around it. We spent quite awhile there just walking around and talking. After a bit, Karen turned back to the start of the beach to relax and enjoy the waves. Marshall and I kept walking farther down the beach. After we turned around we realized the tide had been coming in. We walked and ran the kilometre back to Karen and we all had to climb some rocks to get above the tide and reach the trail head. Karen said if we had been much longer she would have been heading to the highground without us. We didn't blame her. The only downside to the walk, especially from Marshall's point of view, is that Cape Reinga is about 400 metres above the beach. It was a bit of a workout climbing back up.

Travel note - Cape Reinga is a very popular tourist site and a lot of tour buses come there every day. They say it receives 120,000 visitors a year. I am not sure what the departing souls think about that, but I am glad we arrived early and were able to take it all in when it was quiet. I was saying to Karen and Marshall afterwards that I was glad we took the time to walk down to Te Werahi Beach. First, it helped us experience the area more than most people do (as I told Marshall, if 100 people visited Cape Reinga, only 1 person (or fewer) would walk down to the beach). Second, I believed it was a more respectful way to visit Cape Reinga. Something about zooming in, taking a few pictures, and leaving wouldn't have worked for me.

After Cape Reinga we drove south and east to visit and camp at Matauri Bay. Along the way we stopped at a popular fish and chips restaurant in Mangonui (on Doubtless Bay) and had a late lunch. There is a good reason why it is popular. Again, delish. We should have got less chips (french fries) and more fish though.

Campground rating - First off, Matauri Bay has a great beach, shallow, perfect for swimming. (I know it sounds like every beach/bay we visit is spectacular. What can I say, NZ has a lot of them--think Hawaii on a bigger scale but without the warm water.) However, as I said to Karen, if there is a camping hell, this is it for me. The campground was simply rows of trailers and tents packed in cheek to jowl (Marshall really got a kick out of this description). To me, the lack of privacy was very unnerving. Part of the problem is that we only had our little three man tent so we had to do everything, particularly cook and eat, out in the open. By the end of our stay I had tent envy. Some of the tents can only be described as canvas mansions. There was nothing wrong with the facilities (private campground by the way). The showers were hot and fairly clean. There was a big kitchen, etc. I just don't like being separated from my camping neighbours by 2 metres or less. Some people must like it, the place was packed. I am sure a lot of the people are regular guests. There were lots of big groups of friends and family spending the long weekend together, but sorry to say I'm not sure if I like my friends and family enough to spend more than one night "camping" like that.

[Side story - My friend Dean will not be surprised by the above as he knows my penchant for simple, quiet camping. For a few Springs I joined up with him and friends to go camping in May and fish for lake trout. However, silently, or perhaps not so silently, these weekends drove me crazy. It seemed much more time was devoted to meal and drink planning and preparation than fishing. By silent agreement I came to be no longer invited on these trips. Sad but true, I am a camping snob.]

In the end we couldn't give this campground a rating. It wasn't Marshall's favourite but it wasn't the worst to him either. And to be fair it was pretty quiet in the campground after 10:30.

One final funny story about our stay. Because our ice had melted we left some of our food in the community fridge. That night was the Sunday night of a long weekend and there were some festivities going on on the beach. We guess someone got the munchies because in the morning our remaining hotdogs were gone. They weren't very good so no real loss.


Monday - From camping hell to paradise

In the morning we packed up and then spent time in a small bay behind the campground snorkelling, looking for shells and having an early picnic. After that we walked up to a lookout that overlooks Matauri Bay and the area. Great view (more about that in a moment) but the other reason we climbed up was to see the monument to the Greenpeace ship - the Rainbow Warrior III.

The Rainbow Warrior was blown up in 1985 in Auckland Harbour by a unit of France's special forces. Greenpeace was protesting France's testing of  nuclear weapons on French controlled islands located in the South Pacific. Greenpeace was going to sail their ship to the islands/atoll as a way of preventing the test. France wanted to stop this, so it decided to blow up the ship. Unfortunately, a Greenpeace activist was killed in the explosion. Because of this there was a real concerted effort to find out who blew up the ship and the French plot was exposed. The Rainbow Warrior was later brought to the Matauri Bay area and sunk to form an artificial reef which is now a popular dive location. Hence the monument.

Given Karen's and my affinity for environmental protection, we both wanted to see the monument. I am not sure what she thought, but I took a moment to reflect on and thank the efforts and devotion of groups like Greenpeace and people like Fernando Pereira (man killed in explosion).

Looking out from the monument we could see the Cavalli Islands, some of which are quite close to Matauri Bay. We all wished we had ocean kayaks then so that we could paddle and explore the many small bays and beaches below us and out on the islands. Next time.

After Matauri Bay we drove to KeriKeri, a small city, to get a few groceries and so Karen could take care of an important email. (It really was, one of her students wasn't going to get paid.) There are a lot of orchards around KeriKeri and it seemed like a pretty prosperous place.

Brief interlude - We got along very well and had a lot of fun together on our trip, but you know after 5 days of travelling something is going to come up. So, picture if you will, the following scene:
- Family is in a van, husband driving, trying to leave KeriKeri. They are travelling on a different road than the one that brought them into town.
- After a minute or so of this, beautiful wife politely (really) asks, "Is this the right way?"
- Not so beautiful husband, "If I didn't think it was the right way would I be going this way?"
- Minute of silence while family continues travelling down unknown road. Cute, freckle-faced son in back seat paying most attention in a week to what his parents are saying.
- Van pulls suddenly into a side street. Map is consulted. Husband swears silently to himself as he turns van around. Family heads out of KeriKeri on same route it came into town on. Husband massages his own ego by thinking to himself, "Not how I would have designed it."
- Eternity of uncomfortable silence (5 minutes), husband and wife both looking straight ahead. Son still paying rapt but unwanted attention, waiting for next moment of choice dialogue between parents.
- Husband sees sign for macadamia nuts, knows beautiful wife loves macadamia nuts, and wheels in.
- Beautiful wife gives husband a funny look, gets out of van and returns with macadamia nuts.
- Beautiful wife, "These are good." Cute son, "Mmm hmm." Not so beautiful husband, "Yes, the are," meanwhile thinking to himself, "Damn I'm good."
- Family, happy once again, resumes road trip.

Joy - no more driving today

Our destination for Monday was a DOC campground at Mimiwhangata Coastal Park. It just sounded so idyllic to me - quiet beach, no camper vans, you have to carry your stuff to the campground, etc. The drive in however was far from idyllic. The road into the park is a long stretch of unpaved, windy, single lane road, a good portion of which skirts along a cliff (not a mountain, but a long way down none the less). Karen did not enjoy this drive at all as she was the one overlooking the cliff.

Campground rating - scenery - 5, campground quality - 2.5 (outhouse-like toilets, coldwater showers, but the swimming was excellent), and noisiness  - 5 (just the waves and some morepork owls hooting all night.I even heard a male kiwi call once). I think you can tell that from our point of view the drive in was worth it. The road ends at a beautiful bay and beach. After you park your car you have to carry your gear up and down a small hill into a smaller, more sheltered bay. Once there, you pitch your tent almost right on the beach. After Matauri Bay this was paradise for me--we were only one of 5 tents in the campground that night. (It sounds like we got a bit lucky arriving on the Monday night of a long weekend. One of the other remaining campers told me it had been pretty busy there over the rest of the weekend.) Because we were only staying one night and had to leave early the next day for our snorkeling trip, we did not carry our food, stove, etc. in. We simply cooked by our van and ate our dinner on the first beach. Sitting there, looking out, eating dinner, I felt so fortunate. After supper Marshall and I went for a swim at both beaches while Karen took pictures and enjoyed sitting and digging her toes in the sand. We all wished we had got there earlier in the day, rather than at 6:00. If only we knew.
 

Mimiwhangata at sunset


 Tuesday - Snorkeling at the Poor Knights Islands

We were awake at 7:00 and packed up and at our van by 7:30. Being ahead of schedule for once we took the time to eat our breakfast on the beach. I think I could get used to eating granola while sitting on a sunny beach. After that we drove the treacherous road back to the highway, which seemed easier driving out compared to going in. From there it took us a little over an hour to drive to Tutukaka where we were taking our snorkeling tour from. Attached to the dive shop is a nice restaurant. After 5 days of camping coffee, Karen really enjoyed her coffee that morning.

We went with a company called Dive! Tutukaka, which has a really good reputation. Although pricey, we think it is well deserved. The boat and food was top-notch (with hot showers for after snorkeling, a real treat). The crew was friendly, professional, and informative. We really enjoyed our day with them.

We left the dock around 11:00 and got out to the Poor Knights Islands a little after noon. We had perfect weather, sunny but not too hot, and calm. Perfect for snorkeling and being out on a boat.

On the way out we slowed down to see some common porpoises ride the bow wave and frolic around. A nice addition to the day. Once at Poor Knights, Marshall was anxious to snorkel, so we were in the water right away.

The waters around Poor Knights Islands are a marine reserve (1981). The water is sub-tropical (still cold), so there are a lot of fish species there. It is considered one of the top diving spots in the world. The snorkeling was excellent as well. Because the water is cold, there is no coral there. Instead, you have a bottom of lava rocks, sand, and kelp. Different than we have snorkeled elsewhere. We didn't see the same variety of fish, or colours, that we have seen other places. However, never have I snorkeled in a place where the fish were so abundant--teeming would be a good word. One of the neatest things we saw was a huge school of trevally. We also swam through an arch which was really cool and had a lot of fish under it. There are more fish in the shade, such as under the arch or right along the cliff face, than out in the open. They are hiding from gannets, a diving bird, who can't see them in the shade.

After about 30 minutes we were all pretty cold, even with wetsuits, so we headed in to warm up and have some lunch. After that Karen went out exploring in a kayak while Marshall and I went back in for another look around. After we got out, Karen picked us up and we went for a quick paddle into a giant cave (very wide open) that she had explored and really wanted us to see before the boat went there. We had fun yelling and listening to the echoes by ourselves.

From there (2ish) they took us on a boat tour around the islands, explaining their natural and cultural history. (The islands themselves are a nature preserve and there are stiff penalties for stepping foot on them.) One story we were told is that the islands used to be home to a tribe of Maori. This tribe had pigs, which had been given to them by explorers. A chief from a mainland tribe travelled a long way to come out to the island and trade for some pigs. The chief with the pigs apparently said no (big insult) and sent the pigless chief packing. Somehow the pigless tribe found out the men from the island were going raiding somewhere. The pigless tribe went to the island and killed everyone left behind (and presumably took all the pigs they could). When the men came back they laid a curse on the islands and left forever. The islands have been tapu (forbidden) ever since.

Some of the arches at Poor Knights Islands

Despite this chilling story we had a great day (a highlight amongst highlights). Next time I would go diving vs. snorkeling and wear a wetsuit hood.

Campground rating - After Tutukaka we drove about an hour to the city of Whangarei. Here we stayed at another Top 10 campground, scenery 3, facilities 4 (no swimming), noise 3.5 (it is in the city so you hear some street traffic).

After dinner we went for a walk on some trails behind the campground. After a bit we came to a sign that said, Lookout - 40 m. Karen and I assumed this meant 40 metres, or the trail for it started in 40 metres. Wrong. 40 m means 40 minutes of continuous climbing. After a long day, walk was a four-letter word to certain members of our family. In my defense I never said we had to climb to the lookout, only that I was going to. What really burned Marshall was that you could drive to the lookout by a different route and that there were people enjoying the view who had not walked the 40 minutes. He felt they didn't deserve the reward. When we got back to the start of the trail we read the sign again. It still said 40 m, but if you looked closely someone had pencilled in 40 minutes, which someone else had crossed out and pencilled in 40 miles. Always read the fine print.


Wednesday - We come home

After packing up we toured some of the art shops in Whangerei (Marshall was thrilled). From there we drove down the coast to Waipu Beach (kids love this name) for one more swim and a picnic. After a drizzly start the sun came out and we had a lot of fun. Waipu Beach is a well-know surfing beach so Marshall and I had a lot of fun splashing in the big waves. This was Marshall's first chance to use his body board.

After that it was a quiet drive home.

One happy Kidd

One more story though about the Waipu area. Earlier I mentioned the mosquitoes at Tapotupotu Bay. These were the only bugs, other than a few sand flies, that we encountered on our trip. So far NZ seems pretty bug free. Because of this I have said if I was an English settler, NZ would have been my first choice. Think about it, Canada - cold winters and lots of bugs, Australia - hot, dry, criminals, and lots of poisonous animals, NZ - more moderate climate, fewer bugs, although you are a long way from England. I am glad I live in Canada now, but to have been a settler would have been pretty rough.

Apparently I am not the only one who thought this way. A group of Scottish settlers created a community in St. Ann's,  Nova Scotia. In the early 1850's some of the settlers had had enough of the cold weather (and other problems) so they built ships and sailed to Australia to start a new community. Once there they found it not to their liking (a gold rush was bringing a bad element to Adelaide). So they packed up once again and settled in the Waipu area in NZ. In the end, almost 1000 people moved from St. Ann's to Waipu.


The End

For those of you who have made it this far (sorry about the novel), that was our tour of the New Zealand Northlands in a not so brief nutshell. Simply put, we had a great time and we saw a lot of amazing sites. Definitely a part of New Zealand any visitor should spend some time exploring.

Next up, our weekend in Raglan and at a hot water beach. Then, our weekend in Whirinaki Forest.

Seven days touring the Northlands and we only scratch the surface - Part I

Kia ora this fine Friday morning from New Zealand. Marshall is at school (his fourth day), Karen is at work, and I am at home writing our blog. It's a rough life but someone has to lead it.

In our last blog I wrote that we were going on a week long touring/camping trip of the Northlands (or Far North) of New Zealand. The Northlands can be considered the area on north of Auckland. We left on Thursday, January 26th and returned on Wednesday, February 1. The following is a brief intinerary our trip:

Part I
Thursday, Jan. 26 - Trounson Kauri Park
Friday, Jan. 27 - Trounson Kauri Park and Waipoua Kauri Forest
Part II
Saturday, Jan. 28 - 90 Mile Beach and Te Paki Recreation Reserve (giant sand dunes)
Sunday, Jan. 29 - Cape Reinga and Matauri Bay
Monday, Jan. 30 - Matauri Bay and Mimiwhangata Campground
Tuesday, Jan. 31 - Poor Knights Island
Wednesday, Feb. 1 - Whangerei, Waipu Beach, and home

Thursday night - We see a wild Kiwi!

I am getting ahead of myself, but on Thursday night, Marshall and I went on a guided evening nature walk and had the wonderful and rare good fortune to see a Northern brown kiwi. What a thrill. Marshall was really excited and talked about it for a long time. If that doesn't make you want to read on, nothing will.

We left Hamilton around 2 in the afternoon, drove north through Auckland, and then west along the Kauri Coast. Again, what looked and sounded like a reasonable drive turned into a 4.5 hour slog. We got held up by some really bad traffic in Auckland. As an aside, Auckland and region has about 1.4 million people. (The total population of NZ is around 4.4 million people. Hamilton and area where we live is a little over 200,000.) That afternoon it seemed like about 1 million Aucklanders were on the main highway through their city.

For all you urban planners out there, take note of Auckland as an example of how not to locate or design a city. It is crowded between two big harbours at one of the narrowest parts of the north island. This basically means there is room for only one "express"way north-south through the city. I would not want to deal with it every day.

We arrived at our campground around 7:30, quickly set up our tent, and then Marshall and I (Karen was not feeling great, too bad) met up with our guide for our evening nature walk through Trounson Kauri Park - there were 10 of us on the walk. We had an excellent evening. Our guide Sarah was really good/informative and was able to describe many of the different types of trees in the park even though it was getting dark.

Trounson is 450 hectares and is a "mainland island". The NZ Dept. of Conservation (DOC) has established areas around the country that they fence in, try and remove all the predators, and let the area revert to a native NZ landscape/ecosystem. So, they are islands of wild/natural NZ surrounded by very human-modified lands--farms, urban areas, predators, etc. Sarah said the fence around Trounson needs work and predators, particularly possums, are still getting into the park. These islands are refuges for NZ birds like the kiwi. (If you are like Marshall, your are probably thinking as he was at the start of the tour, "Finally! Enough talk about trees and parks, let's go looking for kiwis.)

We got to the park around 8:45, were given some details about the park and kiwis, and then set off along the trial around 9:00. Kiwis don't come out until after dark so there was no point going in earlier. Kiwi calls are very loud and can carry a long way. About 20 minutes into our walk we (Sarah) heard a male kiwi call, but it was behind us. Essentially at the same time, she and I (I am not sure about the others in our group), heard a scuffling in the bush right near the trail. If you remember my earlier write-up about kiwi birds, they are always probing the ground looking for insects. Although we could not hear the kiwis at the Otorohanga kiwi house as they were behind glass, I imagined they would make a lot of noise as they worked their way along the forest floor. I was right.  

Sarah used a red-light flashlight and after a bit of searching found the kiwi close to the trail. It was a small one, only about 4 months old. (Northern brown kiwis can lay and hatch several chicks a year, so they kick the young kiwis out at abou 2-3 months. If you remember that Northern brown kiwis can live up to 40 years, that is not a lot of parental care. Other kiwi species will care for their chicks for up to a year.) Once the little kiwi sensed/knew it had been spotted it started running. First it ran beside the boardwalk we were on, then jumped on top of it, went to the other side, then started zig-zagging through the bush beside it for a bit. In the end, we observed it for about 30 seconds. Like we saw at the kiwi house, kiwis can run fast when they want to. We were unbelievably lucky. Most people, including NZers, do not ever see a wild kiwi. Awesome and a big highlight of our time in New Zealand for Marshall and I. We felt bad that Karen missed it. After our walk we found a bunch of glow worms in our campground and eels, and some big ones, in the stream by the campground.

A few more notes about why kiwis are rare. Basically, other animals like to kill them or eat their eggs. One dog got into a kiwi park and killed 500 kiwis in 2 weeks. Kiwis have a musky odor that is really attractive to dogs. Plus, because they don't fly, they don't have much of a breast bone, so as Sarah said, one bite usually kills the kiwi. At one point there were an estimated 12 million kiwi birds in NZ. Now there are concerns they will be extinct from the mainland of NZ by around 2050. A lot of campgrounds and trails do not allow dogs to stay in or walk on them.

Other animals like possums like to eat their eggs and NZ is overrun with possums. If I remember correctly, they trap possums trying to get into Trounson and over a short period of time (two weeks ??) trapped 200 possums. Possums were brought over from Australia (they are different from N. American opossums) to create a fur industry. Today their fur is still valued, but their biggest purpose presently in NZ appears to living, or once-living, speedbumps. Turning them into road kill is considered a good thing to do.

Campground rating - We stayed in six different campgrounds during our trip and one thing we started to do after the third night was rate the campgrounds. Karen didn't really like this game but Marshall could talk about them for hours, although he also liked to talk about what our favourite part of the day, and later, the trip was. He developed a rough scale (1-5) for three categories: scenery, campground quality, and noisiness.

Here we stayed at Kauri Coast Top 10 Holiday Park - a private campground. It scored very highly, 3.5, 5, and 4. Actually, it was campground hotel. It had a full kitchen for guests, BBQ, tv and computer (pay) lounge, hot shower, trampoline, zip line for kids, etc. All we did was set up and sleep in our tent. The real highlight for Marshall was the camprgound had a large stream running through it with a deep swimming hole, complete with rustic diving board, swinging ropes, and inner tubes. He and I spent a fun 45 minutes or so in it on Friday morning. Anyway, this campground was nothing like I had experienced before. The only thing was that there were no private sites - you set your tent up out the open next to other peoples' tents. This is common throughout NZ and apprarently Europe as well. Karen has had students from Europe who are amazed at Canadian campgrounds. Probably Marshall's favourite campground of the trip.

Friday - We visit the "Lord of the Forest" and learn how short our lives are

After packing up and going for our swim, we took Karen to Trounson Kauri Park. The park has a really nice 45 minute trail through it that takes you past a number of cool NZ trees and ferns, small streams, etc. It is a well-laid out and peaceful trail. While you are on it, you really get a sense of the forest. How thick and full it is, although at the same time not dark or oppressive. We all really enjoyed this park and would recommend it.

After Trounson, we drove to Waipoua Forest. What is special about Waipoua Forest is it is the largest remaining virgin Kauri forest in New Zealand. What is special about kauri trees is they are an ancient species of coniferous tree dating back to the time of the dinosaurs. Like the tuatara reptile, kauri trees and podocarp trees (a different family of ancient coniferous trees found in NZ) are the remnants of plant and animal communities that inhabited Gondwana. Gondwana was the southern super-continent that broke up into continents like Antarctica and Australia and countries like New Zealand. Because of NZ's isolation, ancient species were able to survive and thrive here. In most of the rest of the world, kauri and podocorp forests have been replaced by modern coniferous and broad-leafed forests. There are "newer"  trees in NZ as well, but kauri trees have adapted to co-exist with them. I am not sure why they didn't do so well in other parts of the world.

Trounson Park also has kauri trees. Much of Trounson was gifted to the NZ govt by a Mr. Trounson.

Why people are fascinated by kauri trees is that individual trees can be several thousand years old and grow to immense proportions. They are tall--around 50 metres (165 feet), but not overwhelmingly tall. What they are are is wide. Tane Mahuta (Lord of the Forest - Waipoua) has a circumfrence of around 14 metres, or a diameter of roughly 4.5 metres (14.5 feet). Bigger trees have been recorded. Because they live such a long time, kauri trees have a neat adaptation. The older trees shed their bark over a six-year cycle. This means any parasitic plants growing on them fall to the ground with the sloughed off bark. If they didn't, then after a 1000 years kauir trees would be covered with a green carpet sucking nutrients out of them.

Lord of the Forest

This is a picture of us standing in front of Tane Mahuta. Although we are not right against the trunk of the tree, it gives you an idea of how big it is. When you stand close to one and recognize how old it is, you can't help but feel small. As Marshall said, not a bad small (insignificant), just that you are part of something much bigger. I would describe it as humbling.

Kauri forests once covered much of the Northlands and reached down to around Hamilton. It is estimated there is now only 4% of uncut forest left in small pockets (Wikipedia).  They were heavily logged for several reasons. Kauri trees have very straight trunks with no branches except for the crown of the tree and its wood is light and resitant to rot. This makes them excellent trees for ship building, including as masts. Its outer wood also has a beautiful grain that was popular for building furniture. The Maori burned kauri forests to clear land. Kauri isn't logged anymore. Instead they mine it from swamps. Old kauri forests were covered by swamps, which the trees fell into. Now they dig up these "Swamp kauri" trees, dry out the wood and use it to build furniture and other stuff. Swamp kauri is around 40,000 to 50,000 years old.

I was the one who most anticipated going to Waipoua and in the end I was disappointed. Not with the kauri trees themselves, they are awe-inspiring, just with the forest experience. The big kauri trees that you visited were at the end of short trails that you drove to. There was little signage explaining other parts of the forest, etc. It all felt like it was geared towards being a tourist vs. experiencing the forest. However, much of this has to do with the kauri trees themselves. They feed through fine roots that are close to the soil surface. These roots are very fragile and easily damaged by being walked on. You are supposed to stick to the trail to avoid damaging the roots. All the big trees are surrounded by fences. Also, kauri trees are now suffering from a disease, "kauri die-back". It can be transferred from place to place on people's shoes (you wash your shoes with a special solution going into and coming out of Waipoua). Given all of this, I understand why access to kauri forests needs to and should be restricted, but the selfish side of me wanted something more.

Campground rating - After Waipoua, we drove another long drive to Ahipara, a town at the southern end of 90 Mile Beach. We stayed at the Ahipara Holiday Park, another private campground, which is about a 10 minute walk from the beach. Although nice, it did not score as high on Marshall's list: scenery - 2.5, campground quality - 3.5 (a little more well-used, no swimming except at beach), and noisiness (4). The one nice thing is that is stopped raining about an hour before we arrived at the campground, after raining off and on, sometimes hard, all day. We went to bed and awoke to clear skies. The rain on Friday was our only rain of the week.