Fri, Dec 6 - Heading Back South

We had breakfast with Carol at nine and chatted for quite a while, finally tearing ourselves away from her lovely hospitality at 10:30.

Hokianga Harbour

We headed west through rolling pasture land and suddenly came upon a wide estuary of Hokianga Harbour. The country’s pretty narrow at this point and it only took us a hour to get to the west coast! We saw a turnoff for a scenic overview and fortunately took it, walking up onto a headland overlooking the vast dune field on the north side of the river mouth and the little fishing villages to the east.   It was beautiful and warm and we could have walked on the trails for hours, but time was passing, so we set off south.

Tane Mahuta

We wanted to see Tane Mahuta, the largest Kauri tree, and after a bit we entered a large old forest area full of huge tree ferns and dense trees.  We stopped at the Tane Mahuta turn-off and walked a short ways to this wonderful amazingly fat old tree, about 2000 years old.   It’s not very tall compared to redwoods, but has an immense, perfectly round and straight grey trunk with stubby fat, epiphyte-covered branches emerging from the top.  We sat for a while and admired it.  Back at our car we saw a little van selling “America” hotdogs and got one covered with grilled onions, tomato sauce (ketchup) and spicy mustard from a charming lady and split it for lunch.

We continued 21 miles through this lovely forest before emerging into more pasture land full of cows and very clean, newly-sheared sheep.  We drove due east for 50 miles before merging with Highway 1 once again.

Waipu Beach

Pair of Variable Oystercatchers

 We detoured north for 20 miles to return to Waipu Beach where we had tried to find the Fairy Terns a few days ago.  We walked way out onto a sand bar trying to see the terns on the far side but couldn’t accurately observe them.  We did see lots of beautiful NZ Variable Oystercatchers pairing off and simulating nesting behavior on a soon-to-be-flooded sandbar.

By this time it was getting late and we started back to our next B&B with is located  just north of Auckland on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.  We got to the Bayview Manly B&B about six and checked into our room with a nice basket of snacks and a bottle of wine!  We booked a package that includes a boat ride tomorrow to Tiritiri Matangi Island, a famous location where many very endangered species of birds live in a predator-free environment.

We cleaned up and set off for a little shopping center next door that consists of several restaurants, a liquor store and an ATM, all of life’s necessities!  We had been told that the restaurants were all BYOB, and so stopped at the liquor store for a couple of bottles of beer to go with our Indian food.  When we got to the Indian Village Restaurant, we were told that they did sell alcohol, but would accept outside wine but couldn’t allow outside beer!!   We ordered and Bob went back to the liquor store and exchanged the beer for a very nice bottle of “Bone Dry Riesling” which went very well with our lamb in spinach sauce and chicken with sesame seeds.

Back to the room for a little TV, then sleep.