To the Kauri Forests at Waipou

Forecast for the day was variable and so it was decided that we would visit the West coast and the Kauri forests today instead of on the way back to Auckland tomorrow. 

Breakfast included fruit number 26, a Golden Kiwi fruit. Obviously a derivative of the usual Kiwi fruit but it has distinctly different taste, and possibly a little sweeter. The fruit itself has no hairs and has a more pointed shape at the stem end. We have drafted an email to Waitrose to request they start stocking them by the time we return, suggesting Cowbridge as a store for the trial run. Our host indicated that they are also developing a red one, so I guess we will have sampled one of those before too long. 

Starting a little later than we intended we took the ferry across to Paihia and then headed across the North Island to the Tasman Sea coast where the oldest Kauri trees are found.

This drive takes you across farmland which has a very British look to it from a distance. Some even with fields and reens looking very much like the Gwent Levels.  It's only when you get up close that the different plants indicate the origins being a land mass that has been separate from the rest of the world for many millions of years - fern trees, cycads, cabbage trees and cordylines are native here. This was in someone's garden, I think it has been imported from Torquay!  

The shapes of the hills too are based on eroding volcanoes rather than glacial activity.  Mind you, reading through a Wild Flowers of New Zealand last night it seems that quite a lot of their flora is introduced and looked very familiar. Those Victorians have a lot to answer for. There were quite a few endemic orchids but we haven't seen any of these in the flesh.

Reach the Kauri forests.

Eric finds a vine to swing on. 

Visit one of the most ancient Kauri trees in Waipou, Tane Mahuta - Lord of the Forest. 

The trunk girth is 13.8m and the canopy of the tree has lots of other plants growing within it, like the ferns and cordylines. There are boardwalks to reach it, only about 5min from the road, as they are having a problem with Kauri dieback.  

Eric finds a good viewpoint to see Tane Mahuta.

Drive on a little further to see the Four Sisters and The Father of the Forest - Te Matua Ngahere, which has a girth of 16.41m - flipping huge!  Not as tall as the last one but a lot more difficult to get your arms around.

The top

The bottom. You can match them up by the knobbles.

The four sisters are growing next to each other and their trunks are thinner, but all very tall. 

 I'm sure you can match the tops and bottoms up to have an idea of their enormity.

As we parked up to visit these the car park is free but they ask for $2 for security as the car park has a history of break-ins!  

Because of the Kauri dieback we have to disinfect our shoes as we enter the forest walk - reminiscent of Foot and Mouth precautions.

This forest is a magical place. There were very few people about and the rainforest is more like tropical than temperate. It was quite windy today and where some trees had fallen against others they were making a creaking noise that was quite spooky.  

Look at the size of those sedges!

Some small ferns.

Some interesting moss

Lovely looking lichens.

Some temperate tree ferns and an explorer's hat.

Some fallen sliced up Kauri tree - what a beautiful colour.

OK, enough with all the vegetation now.

Returned to the car, which still had all it's wheels.

On our way back we stop at Hokianga Harbour area. The area is quite remote and very peaceful. The sand dunes here are quite big and open (unlike some near home).

There were some short walks walks from here and some longer ones! 

Note the time estimated for the last walk...       5 days! 

Once again quite a few land plots for sale and some very large houses being built with somewhat spectacular views.  

We keep seeing what we think is a Australian Harrier, they're as common here as Buzzards across farmland at home, but we have yet to take an acceptable photo. The roads are narrow and bendy with very few opportunities to stop (big ditches at side of road), and when we have managed to stop they seem to disappear just out of view. We did pass some marshland where there were dozens of Pied Stilt, an Egret and a few Mallard.  A bit of a 'burnt-out' photo I'm afraid.

Along the road past Koikehe and into the land with forest behind, we saw a number of goat skins draped across the farmland fencing - was this some kind of ritual? Or a warning to keep off the land? 

Found out later that goats are a real problem here (a bit like the ones at Lynton and Lynmouth) eating the forest vegetation to extinction, so are killed as pests.

 

A recommended side trip by David and Brad to Rawene brought us the small village and the Boatshed Cafe.

 

- you should know us by now, there ususally has to be coffee or tea and cake involved somewhere.  This was an enormous slice of coconut and chocolate cake with some fruit, mint and a Nastursium flower on the side as well as cream.  

We didn't manage to spot what bird had walked across the cream, but it had left clear footprints that tasted deliciously of raspberry! The Nastursium flower was very tasty too.  I have to add that we did share this and not have one each. The sun was out again and we sat outside on the patio above the water - a very pleasant interlude.

Eric guarding our table number until the cake comes. 

There are quite a few Historic Houses around here, and apparently we could have used our National Trust card to get in free (if we'd packed them, which we didn't).  Fortunately, or unfortunately for us the ones close to where we were going were only open Sat and Sun in October, and this was a Friday. Would have needed another side trip to KeriKeri to find an open one. no time for that on this trip so will have to come back again!

Got lost on the way back to Russell because on the way to the Kauri forest we'd taken a short cut given to us by David, but hadn't noticed where it came out the other side. This made it difficult to find on the way back. But we found our way eventually.  

Back in the village we had another look for the Blue Penguins along the road to the Pompelier Mission, but no luck. Later see a sign in the village saying that the Blue Penguins have gone; the fish they eat survive on plankton and the plankton is disappearing because of pollution, so the fish have gone and nothing for the Penguins to survive on. I guess they might be around in some places as David had told us roughly where to see them but had said they are nesting at the moment. So perhaps it's just that they're scarcer than they used to be.  

Dinner on the waterfront as the sun goes down, managing to obtain the last available window seat.  

Food was good, if a little on the expensive side.  A (tiny) appetiser of cured fish - Kupokaka (or something like that anyway, plus the Spanish word for a particular way of curing fish?).  Although we had said one of us was a vegetarian, we watched as the realisation dawned on the waiter's face that I might not eat fish either (as you would expect if you are a vegetarian). He said he would arrange for something else and came back about 10min later with a blue cheese appetiser - of course being the very awkward vegetarian that I am I had to say I don't like blue cheese either - the non-vegetarian ate it instead! However, the Risotto was very tasty and the steak with duck fat chips was enjoyed by the meat eater. 

And so to bed for our last night in The Bay of Islands. Definitely somewhere to return to, so relaxing and lots more to see and do.

Russell and the Bay of Islands

Forgot to mention that we saw a Weka in the garden yesterday evening. Looks a little bit like a Kiwi but not Kiwi. 

The weather forecast for the day was for rain later in the evening so we decided that we would do the historic town walk and Long Beach trail first, and book on an early afternoon dolphin watching cruise. 

Set off after another wicked breakfast of layered ricotta cheese pancakes with banana and grapes followed by toast and Feijo jelly (a kind of guava) and other home made preserves. Obviously muesli, yogurt and fruit to start.

The B&B from the front. The bottom right-hand window is ours. 

The waterfront across the road from the house.

Our first point of call in town was the Church which is the oldest in New Zealand - after seeing the oldest in North America at Tadoussac we are contemplating collecting them. 

Will need some research I guess, as we stumbled upon the first two. The church still bears the marks of the Maori wars, with visible bullet holes. We had had a short introduction to the wars and the history of the colonisation on our walk last night whilst waiting for dusk at the top of Flagstaff Hill. This was where the first Union Flag had been raised in 1840 after the Treaty of Waitangi, but the flagstaff was cut down by the Maori people four times over the next few years. It was all because of various misunderstandings of what the treaty actually meant. Can't imagine the English being anything but utterly decent chaps in claiming the land, they'd never do anything underhand. Probably a bit like the promises that have been made to Scotland just before the referendum. I wonder what Alex Salmond would choose to cut down. 

After the church we visit the museum to pick up the trail leaflet.  The places of interest are numbered in the booklet with some text telling you about what you're looking at. Along the waterfront to see the Pompelier Missionary building;

Not only oldest church but and oldest everything else too - Hotel;

Customs House;

Outside the Custom's House this fig tree had the look of something really ancient but in fact was only planted in the 1870s.

 

Eric finds a suitable perch.

Pretty old I guess, but has nothing on the old growth Kauri which are many thousands of years - more on those later when we get to the Kauri forests. 

Also apparently the oldest gas station, although we somehow managed to miss this. 

Further into town to view the settlers' cottages. This is just one of them, there was a whole row in this style.

Some have very steep drives.

Further along we came across this rather strange device. 

Eric was a bit worried about the fate of barking dogs given their proposal to patent this alternative to the electric dog collar, which have been outlawed. They are still working on portability issues!

Out past the old army camp ground and along the path to Long Beach where we saw some possible future accommodation options...

Long Beach is on the other side of the headland to Russell village, and where the swell comes in for some reasonable surf (although not this morning). Would you believe it- we are in another Tsunami Warning Zone, but on the other side of the Pacific this time. 

On to Queen Elizabeth view point (she came here in 1963 but not to do any surfing, as far as the history books show anyway). 

There was another amazing fig tree on the beach - this time in canopy size. We sat on the bench underneath for a while before having to move because it was raining figs!

Some good views of New Zealand Dottrell on the beach, in breeding plumage.

Of course going down also means going up, and it was very very steep!  So steep you can't even see the road we came up over the brow.

Eric stops at the top of the steep hill to catch his breath.

Returning over the headland to the B&B we spot some more real estate to purchase, 

and head back down the other side of the hill again, with a view of the village from above

First one hill...

...then another to descend before we can have a well deserved cuppa prior to setting off to the wharf to catch the cruise boat. 

Some children fishing on the wharf caught a large fish, but it was so big it pulled the hand line out of her fingers, it was a Kau, apparently very good smoked.  

The boat came in from Paihai and was quick to load and embark.  Not far out we turned into the Long Beach area where we had been earlier, and there were the dolphins.  A pod with both adults and babies. 

There was a slight swell running but nothing too drastic in the bay. People who had been hoping to swim with the dolphins were disappointed as it's not allowed if they have babies with them (I would have thought it was a bit on the parky side anyway). 

Picking up speed as we went out through the Islands we had to move seats as the spray was coming over the side (we were on the second deck!).  As we cleared the Islands and made our way to 'The Hole in the Rock' the waves were now much larger.  They closed off the top deck, told everyone to sit down, keep hold of their children (it's the equivalent of half term here) and either move to the middle of the boat or inside as we were going to be tossed about a bit.  He wasn't joking.  Apparently it had calmed down a it from the morning boat trip, when they had a 2 to 3 metre swell, but it was still quite big.  Too dangerous to actually go through the hole in rock as they usually do. 

Saw some Petrel and Australasian Gannet (below), but no Penquins. 

The sun had come out in fits and starts but as we headed back it looked as if the cloud had come down. 

By the time we trod off the ship back in Russell it had started raining.  Ducked into a waterfront restaurant for an early dinner hoping rain will have eased by the time we'd finished eating. It had... But then bucketed down again about 4min from our accommodation - enough time to get quite wet.  

Needed a night in to catch up with the blog as we'd had trouble connecting to the internet the night before. By the time the sun was going down the rain had stopped again.

Sunset from the balcony 

The house was built in about 1900 and belonged to the Anglican pastor for Russell.  The floor and structural beams are of local Kauri and many of the components were salvaged from shipwreck and demolition timbers. The floor supports rested on whale vertebrae. When our hosts renovated the place they found some of these were still in situ and one of these now sits in the dining room.

 It's been a guest house since 1925, although has had many alterations and additions since then.