Long Bay Volunteer Conservation Work - New Zealand

Our friend Margaret who emigrated to New Zealand has always been very keen and active in Conservation work and while she was in Scotland was involved in many projects.She has continued this at Long Bay, with her husband Harry,  going weekly to a Conservation group which looks after the nature reserve there. She volunteers alongside a lovely group of people who we had the pleasure of meeting and working with for a day. Their duties include, planting, weeding, tidying up, mulching and generally looking after the reserve. 

Here is Margaret busy weeding, it was quite a cool, grey day but we kept warm with all the work we were doing, so coats were abandoned and t-shirts worn. 

It was amazing how much the weed known as sticky willy was there spreading, clinging and weighing down plants. I get quite a reaction to this weed when it comes into contact with my skin so I needed to keep my arms covered. It still managed to get me though so I had welts on my arms for several days.

The two of us trying to clear the weeds. It is incredible what a hardworking bunch the volunteers are, my legs were aching the next day from all the exercise I got. 

At one point of the day the group stop for a refreshment break, as it was Christmas a special raffle was drawn. Harry, Margaret's husband won "Cutest Volunteer" award, made his day! 

A before and after picture of an area we weeded.

Rangitoto

Just before we left New Zealand we decided to visit the island of Rangitoto, we actually went to the harbour planning to go to another island but thought  Rangitoto sounded more interesting,  as it was created when a volcano erupted. The whole island is made of volcanic rock which is very black and rugged looking, it reminded me of bits of broken toffee,  the way that it heaps and clumps together. It is the youngest volcano in the Auckland volcanic field. 

The island is pest free, with the Department of Conservation putting a lot of effort  into clearing it  of animals that would threaten native species especially birds who are easy prey. These pests such as possums and rats were trapped and traps can still be seen around the island, as the situation is constantly being monitored to ensure it remains clear. 

On the way to the top you can go off to some lava caves. At the first section there were three openings, one just went in a short way and you could easily see the back, one looked blocked by a tree root and the third was very small. Undeterred by its smallness David scurried in, he likes exploring caves and seemed to be gone for ages while I stood outside speaking to other people who came down,  so by the time he reappeared he was met by a small audience. 

We then walked a little bit further,  where you could crawl through another section which actually led to the initial cave, that looked like it was blocked by the tree root. There were two young ladies dithering about going through the tunnel but were happy when I said I would go before them after David. It was a tight squeeze and I ripped my rucksack on the roof of the cave but it was interesting especially squeezing past the tree root. 

It was a steep climb to the summit but the view at the top was amazing with beautiful views over the sea. At the top you stand on the edge of the crater and can look down into it, the crater is full of trees and plants. The day we were there the walk around the crater was blocked off but we could still stand on the viewing platform which overlooks the crater. 

After a short time at the top admiring the view we went back down to the point where the ferry would pick us up.  We were going to explore the Bach houses down there, these are small houses that people had on the coastline, like beach houses. Apparently they got the name Bach houses, as initially it was bachelors who used them. In the past on the island there was quite a community of families who used them but nowadays no-one lives on the island and you are not even allowed to camp on it. When we got to the bottom though there was a Ranger beckoning to us, we went over to him and he told it was too windy for us to be picked up from that area, so they were transporting everyone to another point on the other side of the island. We had to climb onto a carriage thing being towed by a tractor along with other tourists to be taken to the other  wharf. This actually was really good as we got a tour of the island with the tractor driver talking to us and explaining aspects of the island as we drove along.

The view from this more sheltered section of the island was stunning so it was nice sitting there waiting for the ferry. 

The oldest and fattest trees in the land!

On our journey back to Auckland we decided to drive down the west coast as we had driven up on the east coast. Again this was a beautiful drive and led us past two important sites for the Kauri tree. The Kauri tree is New Zealand's largest and most famous native tree but at the moment it is danger from being destroyed by a disease that it can get through its shallow delicate roots. There are signs and areas to wash your shoes before entering Kauri woodland. 

We stopped on our drive to see the largest and fattest Kauri tree. 

Tallest tree, so tall you can't get it all in. It is very impressive to see. 

Fattest tree. 

Russell and Kerikeri

Russell, nowadays is a lovely little town which although it is visited a lot by tourists staying at Paihia has not become too touristy. It is easily reached by two different ferries or you can take a three hour drive around the bay to get there. Back in the day though, it was known as the Hell Hole as it was a whaling harbour full of whalers, prostitutes and known for its wild drinking ways. 

It still has a lot of its old colonial style buildings and it is lovely to walk around. One of the walks from the town leads to a huge sun dial and a flag pole which is significant to the history of New Zealand as a flag was flown from this point after the signing of the treaty between Maoris and the British. The Waitanga Treaty ground, where the agreement was signed  is actually just over the bay on the outskirts of Paihia.

The big sun dial. 

The flag pole was actually cut down lots of times as described in the plaque above. 

This is the policeman's house in Russell 

I just loved this Christmas tree, the effort put into it is fantastic, it was outside a cafe called "Hellhole."

Just north of Paihia is a town called Kerikeri, it has this interesting building called the "Stone Store", it is still a shop which sells old fashioned and traditional items. 

A nearby walk through leafy woodland, intriguing rock forms and following a winding river leads to a dramatic waterfall called the Rainbow Waterfall. In nicer weather you can swim in the pool and even go behind the falling water. It was a long walk but worth the effort and the walk itself is very enjoyable. 

Paihia

Up north on the North Island is an area  called the Bay of Islands, we stayed at a place there called The Retreat which is just outside Paihia. We originally booked in for one night but stayed for four as it was so lovely. It is just outside the town with a beautiful view over the bay, it is so peaceful and calm and yet within five minutes drive you can be in Paihia. It is also handy for many other towns in the area and the couple who are running it were so friendly and gave us a lot of advice on what to do in the area. There are also a lot of coastal walks which you can walk to from the site. 

The view from our window, looking over the bay.

The roads around New Zealand can be very windy! So what should be a short route if you went as the crow flies, is usually a lot longer. The scenery is so lovely though and the roads so quiet that the journeys are enjoyable. 

We went to the  Bay of Islands as it is a good place to go diving. David wanted to dive at the Rainbow Warrior which was the boat owned by Greenpeace that was blown up by the French in Aukland Harbour. This is the only act of terrorism that has ever occurred in New Zealand. The boat was moved from Aukland and taken to the Bay and was deliberately sunk as a wreck site for divers. Another ship was deliberately sunk, which was the HMS Canterbury. As it turned out David couldn't do the Rainbow Warrior as the days of dives, didn't tie in with our time there but he did manage to do the Canterbury and a reef dive, both of which he really enjoyed. 

In the town of the Paihia there was a lovely little church which we decided to look at more closely. I like looking around interesting churches and graveyards and it just so happened that there is a geocache in the graveyard, which to be honest I think is a bit weird, but it kept David happy.

Views of the church inside and out.

Leading off from the graveyard was a  grassy area which had lots of notice boards telling about the history of the Paihia and why that plot of land in particular was of historical interest. In this spot the very first stone house was made in New Zealand by a missionary. Most houses in New Zealand even to this day are wooden, which obviously have a higher risk of fire. The missionary made it out of stone to make it less likey to burn down but ironically that is exactly what it did, all that is left of it now is a few layers of stone in the grass. 

Hundertwasser Toilets - Kawakawa

Years ago Billy  Connelly a famous Scottish comedian did a TV programme on a tour of New Zealand , it was this programme that partly influenced our decision to go there as he visited some very interesting places. One of these places was the Hundertwasser public toilets in Kawakawa.  On our journey up to the Bay of Islands we had to pass this town and decided to pay the toilets a visit. As they are toilets that are in use, we had to split up to see them, with me going into the ladies section and David into the gents. 

Even though there was no one else in the toilets I still felt strange taking out my camera and taking photos but the toilets were beautiful and so different. There were a lot of bottles , bricks and tiles used to create an interesting and unusual design. 

The entrance to the toilets is in the photo below.

Across the road from the toilets is a place called Amazing Spaces, sadly we could only visit part of this as a huge section had been damaged by a landslide. The bits we did walk around were very interesting and colourful. 

Otorohanga Kiwi and Native Bird Sanctuary

Just outside of Waitomo Caves is a town called Otorohanga. In this town is a Kiwi and Native Bird Sanctuary which we decided to visit as we really wanted to see a kiwi. This sanctuary has a nocturnal house in which you are guaranteed to see kiwis, and the really good thing about this sanctuary is that they have different kiwis on show in the morning from the afternoon, so they can have a rest from prying eyes.  We saw two different type of kiwis and they were larger than we thought they would be , it was nice to see them rooting around in the semi-darkness unfortunately you are not allowed to take photos in there. They are really odd looking, just  like big pom-poms with fur like feathers and  really long beak and legs . 

The sanctuary also has other native birds on show and we had a lovely time wandering around looking at them. There were also tuataras there and geckos. 

There is a wood pigeon who likes landing on people's heads , David took it quite calmly, I didn't. It was really quite heavy and you could feel its claws scrabbling about on your head. It kept sliding on my hair, it was friendly enough but stayed on my head for ages. 

Some of the geckos. 

Waitomo Caves

Next on our agenda was Waitomo Caves which is famous for the glow worms which live in its underground caves. The caves have a series of small rivers coursing through them which makes it ideal for the glow worms,  who need a damp environment. The whole town was built around these caves after they were discovered by two men who wondered if they could float down the river on a raft,  going in one cave and coming out another. They did , saw the glow worms and the rest is history, although I must admit it is a very small town, and what is it called , Waitomo Caves, of course. imaginative! 

There are many companies which lead tours down the caves, you can walk  through them, float down them on inner tubes (tubing) or do a combination of things including abseiling. David and I decided to do the Black Labyrinth course with The Blackwater Rafting Company, this meant we would be tubing through the tunnels, in rather fetching wetsuits. There were 7 in our group, me and David, another couple from Germany and a trio from China, a son probably in his twenties but with older parents. 

Once we were all ensconced in our wetsuits, which were already wet and a bit smelly before we put them on we were driven to a river, were we had to practise jumping in backwards clutching our inner tube rings to our bottoms. Well, this is when I started to think, "Oh dear , what am I doing." The first person to go was the youngest of the group, so really it should have been straight forward, but he plunged in with such enthusiasm he bounced back up and flipped onto his tummy. Which actually was really funny to see but didn't fill me with much confidence. Thankfully the rest of the group managed it fine, although a couple of us nearly floated down river instead of  heading to the bank,  but were caught by one of the leaders. 

We really enjoyed doing the tubing but I couldn't get the hang of just floating down the river. Everybody else managed to float down feet first, going with the flow, I either turned totally round so was going backwards or went sidewards. Going sidewards was a bit of a problem as, as you can imagine the tunnels are narrow and I kept getting wedged and when people were behind me I was causing traffic jams. Somehow I ended up at the back of the group, which I think  was deliberate on their part, so I didn't cause a blockage ! 

After a while I thought that maybe I wasn't far enough in the tube and that was why I wasn't floating in the right direction, so I forced myself further into it.  All was fine until we got to a part where we were supposed to hold onto a rope on the wall and get out of the tube before walking to the next bit, well I couldn't, the tube was well and truly wedged on. There I was bobbing about in the water like a cork, with David curled up laughing at my dilemma, to be fair I was curled up too. 

At a few sections of the caves we switched off our torches so we could see the glow worms, it was truly beautiful. In one section we all joined up, with each person holding the feet of the person behind them. As a chain we all floated down the river,  in total darkness apart from the light of the glow worms, it was magical. 

It was great fun and a wonderful experience which I would recommend to anyone who is thinking about doing it. 

That night we were staying in a hotel in the area which is supposed to be haunted, which we didn't know about until later in the evening. The hotel had a rubbish wifi signal so we were on the landing outside of our room trying to get a signal when two other guests came back in from a day out. They 

started speaking to the receptionist saying that they had heard the hotel was haunted. Through the conversation we heard that several areas of the hotel were supposed to be haunted by a few ghosts including rooms 12, 12a and 14. We were staying in room 12, so our ears really tuned in on that! Apparently a Maori princess was visiting an Army officer there and was killed by a soldier on guard duty and she was the ghost who was supposed to haunt these rooms. I have to admit that nothing happened while we were there, or if it did I slept through it. 

There are a lot of trees like these in New Zealand they remind me of Lego trees, which i always  thought were a daft shape.

They like to advertise businesses with big models, we also saw a hearing aid place with a big ear stuck to the building and an opticians with a huge pair of glasses on its roof. 

One of the mountains on North Island it had more snow on it than the ones we saw on South Islamd. 

The haunted hotel below, it was a very old fashioned hotel but the rooms were nice, there was even a bath in the room. It was a hotel with character and that includes the staff, an interesting stay. 

Kiwi bits and bobs.

Name and shame shoplifters.

While we were in Napier which is a lovely town on the North Island,  with a lot of buildings in the style of Art Deco, we had a stroll around the shops. Part of this is the usual window shopping that everyone does when something caught our eye, notices in the windows which named and shamed shop lifters. Maybe I shouldn't say named but there were photos, stills from the CCTV cameras, with them in action and alongside it commentary on what they stole and how much the items were worth. Can you imagine if that happened in Britain, they would probably sue the shop keeper would be against their human rights !

How to keep a Kiwi young.

Margaret, my friend who retired over here, is very young looking, extremely fit and still runs long distances regularly. However, she is amazed at how young looking some of the people are over here. I think I know their secret.
 1. They put sun cream on every day, the ozone layer is thinner over NZ which means they are moisturising every day.
2. The settings for crossing the road are very short, so when it goes on green for walk you basically have to sprint across if you want to reach the other side before it goes red. A little bit of aerobic exercise is good for you after all.


Muggles in Kaikoura

While we were in Kaikoura David was looking for a geocache which was hidden in a hedge. Where the hedges grew it was a little bit like a maze or a walkway, with two hedges running parallel to each other and a gap in between. David went down the gap while I continued down the path a little bit then stopped and turned to look back at him. While I was stood there, two women came through the gap and saw David, so their attention was taken up by him looking very dodgy in the bushes. They then turned to continue my way,which made them jump when they saw me,  as I was just stood there looking at them. I felt I needed to explain what was going on, first of all they didn't believe me, but then the older woman thought  it sounded familiar and got quite excited. So, now both her and David were ferreting in the hedge , while the other woman asked me questions about it. Thankfully it was found , so David and the two ladies were very happy. 

Whale watching in Kaikoura

Now,  before you go getting yourself all excited, I will pre-warn you it did not exactly all go swimmingly, shall we say! Yes, we did go back to Kaikoura on a beautiful, calm, sunny day and in plenty of time to get an afternoon trip but it just so happened they were not doing any trips that day. Never mind, we thought, book a trip for the next day, at this the young girl on her desk pulled a strange face and said, "We are taking bookings but there is a south westerly blowing in, so it may be cancelled." We booked it anyway and as the day progressed the weather got worser and worser, for tea we had a fish supper which we sat in the car and ate at the seal colony. We were joined by a hungry seagull, who kept giving us the eye through the windscreen and in the distance on the rock, through the rain you may just see a seal. 

We got up bright and breezy the next morning, it was a dull day, windy but dry and set off to the whale watching place. As we walked in there were lots of people waiting and on the notice board was a message saying they were waiting to see if the trip would go ahead. Eventually a woman came out, got the groups attention, told us it would be very choppy out at sea and said children under 6 would not be allowed to go or pregnant women, then left us to decide if we still wanted to go. 

Well, we had made the effort and changed our plans to come back so decided to give it a go. Now, people who know me well, will know I get motion sickness but I have actually been not too bad lately and also they were selling anti sea sick pills which I decided to take. We got on the boat with a warning from the captain that if you suffer from sea sickness to sit at the back, but David was determined to sit at the front and said I would be alright. Well, he regretted that. 

Not long after we set off it started, feeling hot, nauseous and then heuching for Britain, as they say. Now and again the boat would stop, so the captain could listen for whales with a special gadget, at these times we were all advised to get out in the fresh air, when the boat is moving you are kept indoors. This in itself was a struggle as the boat was rocking so much but I always did make the effort to go out. 

We had been pre warned that before you are sick you usually feel hot, so to take off layers which I duly did, this though meant when I did venture outside I was freezing. So there I was, heuching, holding on to my sick bag, curled up in an upright foetal position and shivering away when the health and safety officer on board came up and told me " to hold onto the rail while I was being sick as there was a swell." Really, I never noticed! 

We had also been told before we set off,  to focus on a landmark or the horizon as this helps with motion sickness. I tried to do this, but the land I was trying to focus on kept disappearing, as the boat rocked. 

Eventually, thank goodness a whale was spotted,  so off we set. Yes, I did see it and it was nice to see, but because the sea was so choppy and only a little bit of the whale was above the surface of the water, very little was seen. The whale did dive though and I saw the tail come up. Sadly, my hands were full so I took no photos, David got some though. 

I was so glad when we got back on dry land but it didn't stop there, lucky David had me heuching in the car too. 

Our next stop was back at Momorangi Bay where we had started on the South Island in our little cabin. On the way there, we stopped off at Ohau Waterfall, our kayak leader had told us about it, it is a place where seal pups go to practise swimming in the winter months. Although we are here in their Summer months, we decided to walk up to the waterfall as we thought the fresh air and walk would do me good but also it was supposed to be a lovely walk anyway. Well, we were lucky there were three pups playing in the pool and another sleeping close by. 

    N. N.                          

I still felt funny and very tired the next day so we stayed close to the camp. We walked up to the viewpoint which was lovely. David enjoyed the view! 

                                       

The size some of the ferns grow to here is huge! Bigger than some of the trees. 

                                                  

On the walk we saw several traps, these were for possums, stoats and rats which are really wiping out the native bird populations. Apparently the only mammal indigenous to New Zealand is the bat. 

We did make a short drive to Governor's Bay, yeh, you guessed it, there was a geocache there which David found. This is a lovely little bay though and actually has golden sand, many of the beaches on the South Island that we visited had beaches that resembled a gravel car park. 

                                            

The beach had lots of mussels clinging to rocks. 

In the evening we walked up the track at the back of the camp ground on the search for gloworms, we didn't see them on our first walk round but by the time we walked around it again it was darker and they were all twinkling way, was lovely to see.