Sat, Dec 7 - A Miserable Trip to a Magical One!

We went into  breakfast at 7 AM and Carolyn and Arnold were there with everything we’d ordered on the check list they had given us last night.  We had booked a package with them which included the room, breakfast and passage on the Tiritiri Matangi Island day trip boat.  We walked back to our little shopping center and went into the Bakery to pick up a beef and chutney sandwich for lunch on the island and Carolyn gave us a plastic box to put it in as the instructions for landing on the island are very strict and one can’t bring unsealed boxes on shore in case a mouse may have entered one’s lunch bag between night and leaving for the island!

Our Catamaran

We took off, mouse-free,  for the departure pier at Gulf Harbour at the end of the peninsula,  and watched yacht after yacht leave the harbor as it is Saturday morning.  Our large motorized catamaran pulled up to the pier with passengers from Auckland and we climbed aboard for the  quick 15-mnute trip to Tiritiri Matangi Island.  This island was used as a livestock ranch until 1973 when it was taken over as a research station to encourage populations of birds and plants that were rapidly going extinct.  Hundreds of volunteers have  planted native trees and shrubs on the island and conducted breeding programs for various rare species of birds and lizards in this predator-free environment, and forty years later they are having a lot of success.

We landed about 10:30 AM in a light drizzle that soon turned into pretty heavy rain.  There are only a few shelters on the island and the catamaran doesn’t return until 3:15, so when it’s raining, there’s not much you can do except get wet!!  We walked up to the Visitors’ Center and were pretty sodden even with umbrellas.   Fortunately one of the volunteers spotted Bob as a Birder-in-Need and came over to us to say she had just heard a

Kokako calling and would we like to join her in trying to see it?  There were eight unique birds on the island that Bob really wanted to see and that was one and a difficult one to see.  Our volunteer spent about 30 minutes with us dashing about, following the haunting, mournful call of the Kokako when we finally spied this lovely robin-sized bird, all blue grey with a black streak through the eye and bright blue wattles hanging near its bill!  That and the clearing weather raised Bob’s spirits.  Suddenly the surrounding water turned turquoise and the birds became much more active.

Bob on the boardwalk

North Island Robin

We ate our beef and chutney sandwich which was really delicious  and set off on a winding boardwalk trail down to the shore.  The walk was through thick forest with a lot of bird action.  We struggled to see the tiny North Island Robin and then saw the beautiful Saddleback, all glossy black with a chestnut “saddle” on his back and the small yellow, black and white Stitchback, all of which have populations of under 10,000 in the world.  We got to the coast lined with enormous  New Zealand Christmas Trees, Metrosideros excelsa, all green leaves and bright red flowers against the tropical coast.  Really spectacular!  We got back to the pier just as the catamaran was pulling up and returned to Manly and our B&B by 4:30.

NZ Christmas Tree

We walked over to  Jambalaya, a New Orleans restaurant, and had a very good rack of spareribs  and  a pulled pork sandwich for dinner.

View from the  Bayview Manly B&B