Today is December 7^th and we are planning a trip back to the western sea shore. I have been really sick for the past few days and have had little to no energy. Friday the 5^th we didn’t even leave the condo. I went from the bed to the couch and back again. I’m feeling better now and want to get the blog up to date. In spite of my lack of energy we have been getting out.

1-Dec

We drove to the west coast where we are going again today. We went to a small park called Cascade where they are these great big endangered trees. The Kauri trees. They are endangered because there is a fungus that is being transferred by soil erosion and hikers. We had to brush our hiking boots and then spray a disinfectant on them. It is a very cool place. You drive up to the park and you are in Hobbit land. Rolling grassing hills with an occasional tree then you start the hike and you would think that you entered a jungle. It’s a very diverse ecosystem. The Kauri trees are amazing.

 

Kauri tree

It was very jungle like.

After the trek through the Cascade park we drove to Bethells Beach. The west coast beaches are not the kind of beaches where I would want to take a swim. The surf is quite heaving and the currents very strong but they sure are beautiful.

After a hour on the beach we headed inland a bit to Bethells dune lake. This is a very strange place. There is a big break in the hills that are the backdrop of Bethells beach. Over thousands of years the wind has blown sand inland through the break and the hills form a bit of a bowl so the sand has built up into some very large dunes. The dunes blocked off a little river to form a lake. We parked the car, walked ¼ mile towards the lake you come out of bush to a huge dune. The “hike” is up over the dune. Very cool. There is a hike around the lake and we did an out and back on that.

We have just started up the dunes heading for the lake and we found and rescued this guy who had been trapped out there for days.  🙂  The real idea was to give some perspective on the size of these dunes.

We are getting closer to the lake which you can see in the distance.

This was very odd.  So between the grass and the dune is the little river that the dunes blocked off which form the lake.  Very neat and tidy.  Here there are dune and her there is grass.  And yes there is a guy down there mowing the grass.  If you have an answer for that let us know.

We are now on the trail around the lake and looking back at the dunes.

Me getting artsy with the camera.

3-Dec

Yesterday and today were Auckland days.  Since I am feeling better about driving on the left, I felt like I was ready to tackle the city.  We walk around down town and out onto the wharf.  The wharf was very cool.  New Zealand is a big sailing country and has always been a major contender in the Americas cup sail boat race.  There were some REALLY nice racing boats at moorings and one of the old cup boats on display.  I loved it.  Auckland is a nice, clean city.  I was amazed at how quiet it was for a big city.  They must have some noise ordinances or something.  No beeping horns, a little construction noise but surprising quiet.

The University of Aucklands clock tower.  The university has a beautiful campus.

One of the racing boats.

I believe this is the same boat out on the water later that day.

This is one of the Americas cup boats on display.  It was the largest boat to compete since the late 1800’s.

A side bar.  We were told NOT to ride a bicycle in New Zealand.  And I think that was good advice.  Drivers do not like them.  We even saw a TV new segment on the subject and they interviewed driver.  They are NOT cyclist friendly.  Down at the wharf we saw this “Christmas” tree.  Maybe this is what they do with the bikes of cyclists that don’t make it.  🙂

We also took a 15 minute ferry ride over to Devonport and hiked up Mount Victoria.  There was great view of the city from there.

4-Dec

This was a special day.  We got up early, in spite of the fact that I was not feeling well and drove for about 3 hours to the town of Waitomo to visit the glow worm caves.  If you’ve never heard of them, read on they are really cool.  They are actually not worms at all but the larva of some sort of fly.  But as our guide said, “You can’t very well get people to come to the glow maggot caves.”  🙂  They are 1 to 2 inches in length and only the very tail end of their body glows a pale green.   The glow attracts insects into the many glue ladened silk threads they drop from the cave ceiling.  When an insect gets caught in the glue, the worm just reels up the thread and has dinner.  They are just beautiful.  For what it’s worth we visited the same cave that David Attenborough (my hero) visited when he filmed them in the “Life on Earth” series.  I have to say that one of the main reasons I wanted to come to New Zealand is that I have always loved nature and nature TV shows.  And New Zealand and Australia have such unique life.  I have seen these creatures and ecosystems for years on TV and am now able to see them in person.  Like the gannets and the glow worms.  This is very special trip for me.

Without a VERY expensive camera or a very long exposure you can’t get a good picture of them so the tour company provides them.  So the pictures below are not mine.

These are the glue laden silk threads.

We were in a raft like this, but of course the lights were out.  Yes, it was a bit tight but worth it.

It’s like lying on your back on a grassy noel at night looking at the stars.

We also visited a second cave.  This one had the remains of a Moa bird.  You may be able to make out its skull in the lower left and a broken femur in the top right.  Because of the broken femur they believe it probably fell into the cave.  Moa were large flightless birds much like ostriches, that lived in New Zealand up until just a thousand years ago.  Some of these birds were over 10 feet tall.  They were hunted to extinction.

It was a long but very rewarding day.

5 & 6 Dec

There is little to tell for these two day.  My cold was getting progressively worse so we pretty much hung around the apartment.  One or two little trips to shop but nothing very exciting.  Oh Barb bought an iTouch Air.  That was one of our side trips.