Flying Home

After a short drive we spent a few hours at the Auckland botanical garden.

Some interesting statues as well as the plants.

Extreme yoga I think

Then off to the airport after short a detour to fill up the hire car. Good old Avis try to charge us again for overrunning our rental. Their system can't cope either a hire of more than 31 days. Sorted after an hour discussion, then off to catch the plane. 

Eric thinks this is a good way to fly

Honestly it's a plane not a submarine

Don't have time to write much as we only have a short stopover at Brisbane before the long leg of the flight to Dubai - about 14 hours. 

Drive to Te Kauwhata and the Disappearing Wetlands

We have breakfast early today as we have a long drive to reach the last sleep of our holidays. One night on a chestnut farm about an hour south of Auckland. This will mean we don't have to drive through Auckland again, and can visit the Botanic Gardens on our way to the airport. 

We know the drive will be mostly through farmland but have found that there is one of those wetlands of International importance (Ramsar site) close to where we are staying. It is apparently the largest bit of wetland in the North Island, and home to Australasian Bittern, Spotted Crake and Marsh Crake amongst others. The leaflet tells us there is a National Wetland Visitor Centre due to open in 2007. We head for there first and then plan to do the 50km drive loop tour of the highlights outlined on the leaflet.

The drive is fairly uneventful, although initially we find ourselves close to the coast and with views of the sea far more frequently then we were expecting. Hey, who's complaining. 

The road eventually turns inland but the farmland is not flat at the moment.  There are more of those duvet hills, but this time with sharper edges. Some parts also look like The Peak District and Dartmoor. There are buttresses and wind-sculpted rocks.

We go past a sign for Waitomo Caves - I remember someone telling us that these are glow worm caves - apparently you can sit in a rubber ring and float through the caves in the dark - eeaargh - good job we missed those.  Also see the native NZ pampas grass. It is more yellow with drooping fronds. We had been told about it but this was our first sighting this trip. 

Look for somewhere pleasant to sit and finish off the remnants of food we have in the boot. Suddenly we are on a major highway - one with two lanes each side and a barrier in the middle, and it has a very smooth surface. Plus a cycle lane down the inside.  A novelty for us - First road we've seen like this in NZ.  Navigator says take next turn, follow this down small road over brow of hill and magically a picnic table appears alongside the river.  

Interesting snacking - crackers, butter, jam, cheese straws, kiwi fruit (one gold one green), water, a can of sprite and a Mars bar. Well at least the water and Kiwi Fruit are healthy!  

Keeps us going for a while and empties the car of excess rubbish.

Arrive at Rangiriri and stop at information centre to ask where Wetland Visitor Centre is.  Map on leaflet says on shores of Lake Kopuera.  

Although there is an iSite 'i' outside the building, the information centre is a laundry and appears to have no info. Ask some people outside where wetland centre is. They've never heard of it -  the one lady says there are wetland signposts and boards along the road to Te Kauwhata but knows nothing about a centre.  Fetch iPad to show them, it says it's on edge of this lake - lady still says, no, that lake is on private land and no access to it. Mmm-wonder what's going on here. Decide that as marker posts are there we will try following the tour loop. First stop works anyway, scenic viewpoint over Lake Waikere - board explains how it was formed - and then how it has been ruined by human activity - one of the most polluted lakes in NZ.  Tells us that there is another lake (Rotokawau) on the South Western shore, a peat lake, one of the best examples of it's kind - but the board informs us that you can't see it from here! Doesn't tell you if or where you can see it either. 

Manage to see the next point - oh, it's 400ha of land that used to be part of the Whangamarino Wetlands, but was drained and converted to pasture under a government subsidised swamp drainage scheme!  (when that was allowed, it wouldn't be anymore). 

Next we see a big green sign saying Whangamarino Wetlands and lots of bog and wetland just to the side of the road. Nowhere to stop, though can see what look like three or more hides in the middle of the bog (but no paths!)?????

Find the river about 500yards further along the road, a small gravel pull-in and a stile into the bog, but still no path. Without wellies not sure if safe to wander in. No information board here with map or anything else for that matter!

Moving on we look for signs of the 'good example of a restiad bog' here. The bogs in NZ are formed from rushes not Sphagnum moss, and apparently the restive bit refers to the type of rush. A fire burned 2000ha of the bog in 1989 but it recovered and resulted in good populations of the swamp helmet orchid, which is only found here.  Exciting. Apparently they are still here in smaller numbers, but of course we can't see them!  We can see some bog in the distance but much of the closer bit has been taken over by willow.

The next stop is a weir they have built to restore water levels - but we can't see this either! Give up on the tour and find accommodation for the night.  

Our hosts tell us that the intended National Wetland Centre was never in fact built - some local dignitary put a stop to it, allegedly. More long stories to tell here...will have to wait...go for dinner in a local tavern with our hosts.  On return - a NZ Hawk (Kestrel) flies over the garden - first sighting of this bird on the trip!

A New Day in New Plymouth

It looks like a glorious day ahead when we open the curtains to see...

 Anyone recognise the face on the mountain?

Having enjoyed our cycling in Napier it seemed only natural to sample the cycle pathway offered on the coast at New Plymouth. 

We head into town straight after breakfast making for the cycle hire at Strandon. Here the bikes are hired by the hour rather than day/half day as in Napier. Selecting suitable steeds we settle Eric in the bike carrier

Then take the advice of the hirer to head in the quieter direction towards the Te Rewa Rewa bridge. 

Wheee - this makes a good slide

There's that mountain again

The route was clearly the best option as we discovered later. 

A duck in the river, or more accurately on a rock in the river. A passer-by informed us it was a Whio, or Blue Duck. Whio not so sure as wrong sort of habitat (they like rushing rivers, which this one hardly is).  

Returning the cycles after an hour we decide that that's long enough, as the path is a lot busier than we would wish- it is a Sunny Saturday after all. 

We walk along the Coastal Walkway in the opposite direction toward the town, and find it to be both busy and distinctly undulating. Not "Alp D'Huez" you understand but it would have been hard work on the heavy hire bikes with only 3 gears. 

Along the way we see lots more of these butterflies.

Past the town and the wind sculpture and towards the port.

These boulders along the edge of the walkway make a great vantage point for Eric.

We make it to the port end of the walkway and discover a vegetarian specialist cafe. Seriously delicious cake and coffees ensue. 

The endpoint for the more adventurous is Paritutu Rock, a volcanic plug you can climb up.

We give this a miss - too full of cake + probably wouldn't make it the 6.5 km back to the car after climbing that!  Excuses, excuses.

After a good rest we make the return walk to the iSite tourist office to locate Pukekura park. It's a council managed garden close the the town centre but we need know exactly where. 

That mountain keeps cropping up so we take another photo. 

A sign at the start of this end of the walkway is handily labelled 'predicament' and as with all those choices it's a wonder there aren't hundreds of people around dithering about where to go. You may see it also mentions that mountain. They have obviously noticed it too.  

A new friend

Eventually we are headed for that furthest headland (after the park). It looks further in the picture than it actually is, we hope.

As we walk through the main town centre we spot some interesting art work. Another one of those 

Connecting Rings wind sculptures, as first seen on the marina in Auckland, only made out of spoked rings this time.

Eric has spotted something interesting across the road.

Obviously an Elephant 

Obviously something else but what??

At the entrance to the park there is a very smart looking cricket pitch  

Those stands look rather unusual

A closer look reveals that they are

Steeply banked earth terraces. Looks like it would be a very comfortable place to watch a game. 

Then we find the main lake. 

With a fountain

And a Poet's Bridge - there's that mountain in the background again

And a waterfall

The Pohutakawa are just starting to come out now we are nearly on our way home

At the bandstand in front of the lake there's a wedding. We seem to be colliding with these on a regular basis. 

Then the hot weather demands we have an ice cream  Feijoa and Pear sorbet is tasty if a little strong. 

We now need to have a bit of a relax before heading for the restaurant. 

We get back to the B&B and are greeted by the host demanding we have another Devonshire cream tea. We may not need a meal tonight but we have booked the table. 

After that we have a wander around the garden then head in to town for 7:30. 

The restaurant not only served excellent food, but also had a view over the wind sculpture and the sea. It was a bit too chilly to sit outside where we'd originally booked a table though!

Moving on tomorrow, so packing before bed.

To New Plymouth Before Prince Charles Gets There

Having copied our holiday plans by turning up in Wellington, we hear now that Prince Charles and Camilla are going to follow us up to New Plymouth. They are being good enough to wait until the day after we leave so we can have the place to ourselves for a day or two. 

No need to rush this morning, but we do decide to have breakfast a little earlier as it is a pretty long drive.  The weather is looking very good as we prepare to leave and we almost wish we had another day here so close to the beach.

We spend the first couple of minutes of the drive trying to decide whether we take the inland route or the Surf Highway coast route to New Plymouth. One guidebook says the coast is a must, with views of beaches for most of the drive, whilst a second (the Lonely Planet) informs us that the road stays well inland from the coast with beach views mostly only occurring if you take any of the numerous side roads to the beaches. The shorter road is across farmland but, along with the longer drive, has almost continuous views of Mt Taranaki. It's about 90km to Hawera when we have to make the final decision, so we a leave it for now and concentrate on what's on offer before then. 

Our first stop is at Paipatonga Scenic Reserve with a 10 minute walk through the bush to a lookout 

There is a dune lake on the Horowhenua coastal plain, and apparently the reserve is a rare example of a transition from coastal wetland to dry terrace forest (although not sure exactly what the latter is). There are supposedly wetland birds and waterfowl as well as forest species.  The site is also important historically, the local Maori people extended their village in the 1820s by building one of the two islands that now sits in the middle of the lake.

The route to the lookout takes us across a rather good boardwalk where we hear lots of birds but have great difficulty spotting any of them, except the Fantail.  One sounded like it might be a Shining Cuckoo, but absolutely no sightings! 

Eric enjoys sitting in the dappled sunshine on the boardwalk.

There were wet bits and sedges throughout the undergrowth.

Huh, A bit more between us and the lake than there is at Kenfig, and we don't have a telescope.

Through the binoculars we could see some Canada Geese and Shoveler plus some other unidentifiable ducks (very exciting I'm sure we hear you say).

On returning to the car we disturb a parrot type bird, which we currently think may be the Kakariki. we had seen it fleetingly on pulling into the car park, but not a good enough view to be sure. 

From here we drive on to Manuwhatu Estuary Reserve at Foxton Beach.  This is a Ramsar site, a wetland of International importance. On the way we spot this windmill in Foxton town, which did look a little out of place. there seems to be a thriving Dutch community here.

On reaching Foxton Beach we park the car and take a walk.

Eric tells us we need to turn around and walk the other way.

Along the estuary it's a wide salt marsh and mud flat, with sedge beds, so obviously an ideal spot for birdwatching. 

Some Pukeko.

Eric examines the board for what we might see further afield if we had a telescope!

There are plenty of birds...but it is low tide and they are all pretty distant specks. 

We can see some Bar-tailed Godwit, and possibly some Lesser Knot. 

We also get some good views of Spoonbill again. 

Some more landscape shots across the Reserve. There are people whitebaiting at the estuary mouth.

Across the other side of the estuary (frustratingly) is what is termed Fernbird Flats - no time to check this area though.

A picked clean fish, the Gulls seem to be the main culprits.

Perhaps, finally, a reasonable shot of an Australisian Harrier overhead.

We don't have the luxury of being able to wait for the tide to come in so that we have a better view. Consequently we head north again. 

It's decision time at Hawera - we take the inland route thinking that if we get to the B&B with time to spare we can investigate New Plymouth and take a drive back down the "Surf Highway" as it doesn't get dark until about 9pm, and with such good weather there may be a good sunset on this west coast.

We drive through a town called 'Bulls', 

Apparently good for antiques. Their welcoming sign is a pun, as are several other signs in the town.

Just in case you can't see, the sign reads 

'Herd of Bulls? A Town Like No Udder' 

Even though this is a primary route across the country it is like driving used to be in the sixties, with very little traffic, so you can just motor along at the speed limit which seems to be well adhered to by the locals. 

We pass through Stafford, which has a Glockenspiel clock that plays out a scene from Romeo and Juliet a few times a day.

Not a lot else to be said about the actual route apart from the visually stunning view of what we intially take to be Mt Taranaki (it proves on investigation to be Mt Ruapehu) 

then by distant views of the even more spectacular Mt Egmont (the English colonial name for Taranaki)

That looks like one of those school chemistry lesson volcanoes.

We can't stop taking photos of the mountain as we drive around, getting different aspects at each turn.

Not so distant

From the side

Closer as we pass 

As we near New Plymouth the terrain changes from relativity flat plain to a much hillier landscape and we wonder what sort of views we will get from the B&B. Shouldn't have worried, when we arrive the view from the drive is...the other side of Mt Taranaki.

Is that the magic mountain? 

...with the same view from one bedroom window

From the other it's the coast - it is there, honest!

so the person in charge of the tour arrangements has come up trumps again. 

Front of house - it was moved to this site from somewhere else - in three sections, and completely renovated in the original style (externally and internally)

To add to this the garden at the place is having an open day. It's equivalent to the RHS open garden scheme in the UK. On arrival we have tea and scones on the rear terrace chatting with people who have attended the open day. There's also a blind Golden Lab called Daisy

It's a beautiful garden. 

A Dogwood tree done in layers - they call it the wedding cake tree.

After relaxing for a while we set off into NP to check out a restaurant we have been recommended for tomorrow nights meal, and to make a booking, which is deemed essential. It looks good with views out over the bay. 

Another interesting tower clock is seen.

Eric mans the guns (one of his favourite occupations you may have noticed)

Having booked the restaurant we head on down the coast to the Cape lighthouse. Stopping to ensure the back door of the car was closed, a very nosey calf came to have a look at what we were up to.

An eventful drive as we turn off the main highway towards the coast on a road signposted Historic Cape Lighthouse. Arrive at what looks to be the centre of the universe. cars parked everywhere and people milling about, some making for what appears to be a cafe/restaurant on the first floor of the lighthouse building. 

This is odd as the picture of the lighthouse we were making for looked much more isolated. Turns out that this is actually the Historic Cape Lighthouse (1864), with the Surf Life Saving Club and Boat Club attached. It was decommissioned in 2006. They must be having an event of some sort. 

Although it's a splendid lighthouse it's not the one we wanted to find.

There also don't appear to be any boats in sight on the slipway of the Boat Club.

We consult the map and, surprise suprise, our lighthouse is about 10km further down the coast, so off we go again. This time there is no one there but us and we have a quick snack on crackers and kiwi fruit we find in the boot while we wait the 20 minutes or so before sunset. We are joined by another lady wanting to take photos too.  There are two views to photograph. The first is of the lighthouse with Mt Taranaki in the background, 

The small hills with boulders embedded were created by 'lahars' flowing from Mt. Taranaki during eruptions.

whilst the second is of the waves and the sea, 

and eventually the sunset. 

We wait a while after the sun goes down, hoping it will turn the top of the snow capped mountain pink, but this doesn't quite happen. 

Shows the lighthouse in a good light but...

...the mountain only takes on a violet hue

It's time for bed when we return so no time for catching up with blogging.