Kayak to Lane Cove

Chantelle, a friend called Ty and I all spent last Saturday kayaking out to Lane Cove in the Whangaroa Harbour.
As you can see from the pictures the place is pristine. We had been to the wharf at Totara North before for a fish and had watched boats heading out. It was great to follow in their wakes and see what lay around each corner.

It was Chantelle's first kayak journey and she did very well. We worked out from Google Earth that we must have paddled at least 12km. Conditions were good, apart from a head wind on both the way out and the way back (how does that work then?).

Lane Cove is an arm of Whangaroa where DOC have built a hut so that people can stay overnight. No food, cookers or electric ... just a roof over your head and some bunks. I will certainly be figuring a way to get out there again for an overnighter. Ty is more experienced at the kayaking and he trots out to offshore islands to camp. He had a little rod on his boat and he even managed to catch a snapper as we were moving along.

We got out for a stretch at Lane Cove and climbed up a steep path to the lookout high above. basically on top of the rocks you can see in one picture. The view from the top was stunning and panoramic. I have included just the seaward view.

We went home happy, if a little stiff in places. The boys had separated up to various friends to allow us a bit of quality "us" time. Hopefully we will do it again some time soon.

Bush walk 1

 

 

 

 

Went for a 7 hour bush walk yesterday with Stephan the trapper.

Another belting day out. Good conversation, plenty of new plants and animals to look at. Stephan wa working as we walked round the 200 acre block of bush, checking and resetting traps that had caught a couple of hedgehogs and a rat. The block has been trapped for several years to reduce predator numbers so that kiwi, other native birds and animals can live unmolested.

For those who are interested, the black olive looking fruit is from a tree called the taraire. The white daisy like flowers are from Kirk's tree daisy, the butterfly on the ragwort is a small copper. The smiling bloke is Stephan. A man who enjoys his work!

We got back to his house in time for a refreshing dip and then we were called out to do a search and rescue for an 87 year old neighbour who had not come back from his bush walk. The police had scrambled a team from Whangarei by chopper. The local SAR team assembled from all over the Far North. Meanwhile the ragtaggle team of local police and neighbours did an initial sweep through the bush close to his abandoned quad bike. We were about to go back to HQ, when Ruth spotted the guy wandering up a track out of the bush. He looked a bit bemused to see nigh on 40 people gathered in his back garden! All's well that ends well.

Bush walk

 

 

 

 

Plants

 

 

 

 

Lots of plants on Motorua.
It has been farmland for most of the time that Europeans have been in the area, with the area under native plants gradually being reduced. With the advent of the shareholder idea, a conscious decision was made to plant large areas with native plants and to bring back some of the original fauna.
I was very lucky to have a guided tour of the Ponga trach with Carol Ralph on our last day on the island. She is very knowledgeable and taught me many new plants. She had helped to steer the valley from grassland to developing forest. It is difficult to convey the forest in pictures and even harder using words. I found the walk and talk very inspirational, because I am trying to do something similar, though on a smaller scale with our land. I also want to involve a group of College students with a restoration project this year.
So thanks Carol and all the other enthusiasts on Motorua, keep up the great work.

The pictures show a Nikau Palm, the shade house where the native plants are grown. Then a plant that I have not identified yet - it has a large seed pod full of itching powder hairs and red kideney shaped seeds. Anyone know what it is?
Finally, the gun emplacement at the eastern end of the island. The army were here in WWII defending the bay from potential invaders. They left behind some large concrete structures that are slowly being eaten away by the forces of nature.

Swimming

 

 

 

 

The boys did much swimming. Not all of it was documented, but I like this sequence of Paddy jumping off the wharf.
Eric was keen too. The boys spent their days in a round of swimming, eating, talking loudly, playing swing-ball, lounging about and then back to swimming again.
Chantelle and I read heaps.
I found a really good book that had been left by someone. It was called "Three cups of tea" by Greg Mortenson. It tells the true story of how this US climber visited K2 in Pakistan and promised he would return to the remote mountain village to build a school. This he did with great persistence and economy. He is a very charismatic man who continues to do the humanitarian thing of helping people whilst the leadership of his country persists in thinking they can impose their ideology on the Moslem world down the barrel of a gun. Get the book out of your library if you can.

Fishing

 

 

 

 

You know how much we like fishing!
Every night we went out to cast out lines. We caught mostly snapper that were too small to take back and eat. By law they have to be 27cm long. The penalties for breaking this are severe. Besides which it is not good for the future to eat all the small ones.
We ate some sort of fish every day. Pan fied snapper was best.
Chantelle caught the biggest fish - a trevally. Squid on large hooks was the preferred bait. Using small hooks caught too many undersize snapper. Pilchard was not good bait. Spinning was useless, not a single take.

More birds

 

 

 

 

Picasa seems to have some glitch and wants another picture of Paddy being a dork rather than a dead penguin, so trying again in this one.
Also there is a kakariki (red-croned parakeet) hidden in the trees. They are a nationally rare bird that are looked after in the predator free island. This bird lives free in the back garden of CJ's house. It came to see us when he called.
No prizes for identifying NZ's national bird the kiwi. This is a male apparently on account of his short bill. Eric took his picture at night using a flash camera. I deleted the dozens of attempts i made at getting a picture. They were very confiding birds. They came out to feed shortly after dark in the paddocks and grass fields very close to our cottage.
The eggs are also kiwi, in an abandoned nest burrow, that had been dug out of a hillside. We could not believe how big they were!

Moturoa Birds

 

 

 

 

Lots of birds on Moturoa.
It is managed as a wildlife refuge. We took lots of pics and here are some of them:
Baby white-fronted tern with red billed gull on the wharf.
Banded rail which stalked around our cottage, coming right up to the back door sometimes.
Dead blue penguin with colour rings on its right wing, washed up on Picnic Beach.
Fantail (piwakawaka) on fence by the orchard.

Moturoa Island

 

 

 

 

We are just back from our 5 day retreat on Moturoa. It was a retreat from computers, phone, garden, house work. No cars, no shops! Lots of water, boats and birds. Very relaxing! More pictures on the way and will be added before this post.

Kaitaia Walkway

 

 

 

On Saturday we finally completed the Kaitaia Walkway from start to finish!
We have attacked this bush walk a number of times from the Kaitaia end, but had never got very far.
Now that the boys are older and have done more walking with me and the ATC, it wa stime to nail this one. Chantelle very kindly agreed to drive us to the start and to pick us up at the end.

It was a pretty easy walk - 4 hours, well marked, fairly even gradient and just the odd boggy patch. We met some angry wasps who gave Eric and Amos a few stings. Paddy struggled at the end with his shoes and went barefoot. We saw a lot of pig sign and heard some crashing in the undergrowth deep in the bush that might have been porcine.

Around Kaitaia