Glow worm adventure

Prior to coming to New Zealand, I signed up for the New Zealand Groupon, hoping to find good deals on food. No specials came within our price range but, after I had booked and paid for our three special New Zealand experiences, (Hole in the Rock, Ninety Mile Beach tour and Auckland Hop on, Hop off trip) I got an e mail about a glow worm kayak trip up a river for sixty five New Zealand dollars instead of a hundred so I bought two vouchers. They were not valid until after the 12th January so we booked our slot for the 14th. By this time we were no longer in adventure-explore mode but rather family mode so it was a bit out of our comfort zone to travel half an hour and think of paddling upstream. The last time we had attempted kayaking six years ago on the Able Tasman, we battled to keep up with younger members of the group and now we were both six years older. Moreover the day started with rain pouring down and more forecast for the evening.
It was with a certain amount of trepidation, therefore, that we got in the car, armed with rain jackets, warm clothes and my son's go-pro, and made our way to Lake District Adventures in Horahora Rd.

We were kitted out with essential gear and joined the other couple in our group.

It was just before seven when we got into the kayaks.

We paid for extra back supports (the black things strapped on)

With the go-pro attached to the top of my head, it was difficult to take photos.

The current wasn't as strong as we had feared and the journey up stream was very pleasant.  At the half way point we got out to stretch our legs and wait for dark. Our guide, Lofty, produced a hot fruity spicy drink and some nibbles. He invited us to take a leak in the trees but I wan't feeling inclined to, especially after he had pointed out a possum.

While we waited he told us some very interesting things about glow worms. They are not worms but the maggots of  a winged flying insect with thin wings like a dragon fly but smaller. Their bio-luminescence is designed to attract insects which are their prey. He also pointed out native New Zealand trees and told us interesting facts about them.

When it was sufficiently dark, we drifted downstream through the gorge which was well populated with glow worms.  We were told to keep down the noise because it could disturb the insects. (In caves it is just the opposite and visitors are encouraged to make a noise because food is scarce in the back areas of caves and noise might mean extra prey coming in.)  We drifted in near silence by moonlight. It was an awesome experience.
It was too dark for the go-pro but I have these photos with kind permission from Lake District Adventures.

We got back to base after ten and it was close to half past eleven by the time we got back to Hamilton. Despite our apprehensions, it was another wonderful adventure and another illustration of God's wonderful creation.

This was our last adventure in New Zealand before we had to say good bye, pack up everything and undertake the long journey back home. It is the last post for this trip. I have another blog which I have neglected for a while. It is called Coffee in the Rain and is more spiritual and sometimes literary in nature. If any of my blog followers would like to follow that one, please let me know.

Wagener and Cape Reinga

We arrived yesterday at Wagener Holiday Park after a quick stop at Pack n Save to replenish our food supplies. We had asked for a harbour view site and this was our view this morning.

As we had noticed with other holiday parks, the walls of the kitchen, bathrooms and  laundry are beautifully painted.

We had arranged a tour to Cape Reinga through the Camp office. We were taken to the meeting point on Ninety Mile Beach by Kate from the office. She told us about the wild horses and wild pigs in the forest. In this area they had a problem with sand dunes creeping and decimating grazing land. They stabilised them by firstly planting marram grass which has runners and deep roots, then sowing lupins on top of the grass to enrich the nitrogen in the soil and then planting pine trees which can be used for gum poles. We met our transport on the beach.

First view of Ninety Mine Beach

Our vehicle was an all-terrain 4x4 truck/bus conversion.

 Just as well because we rode 70 of the 94 kms on the beach!

We passed Matapia Island where white herons rest (not nest). The white feathers were washed up on the beach and collected by the Mauri as treasures. The chief got to wear the feathers woven into his cloak. Nobody else could wear them.

Along the beach we were hailed by a ranger. He asked our driver to take a badly sun-burned hiker to Kaitai. This is normal practice. The 90 Mile Beach Hike is very popular, especially among young people ( Although we did hear about a 73 year old woman who managed it.). It takes a fit person 3 days and others 5 days to complete the hike, sleeping among the bushes at night.

At Te Paki Stream, we left the beach and rode along the stream to tall sand dunes.

 There the more adventurous of our party surfed down them on a surf board. Our team was at the top when another tour bus arrived and they were climbing up while our team were coming down.

Our driver, Selwyn, is a Mauri from the area, his father from the Te Aupuri tribe and his mother from the adjoining one. He told us anecdotes about his childhood, how he and his siblings (all 14 of them) used to gather muscles and other shellfish for food, how the brothers all played rugby, and all about his family homesteads. He kept our interest throughout the morning and afternoon. When Brian asked him if he followed sport and rugby in particular, he said "religiously". They had an interesting discussion.

Cape Reinga itself is a spiritual place and out of respect, people don’t eat there. So we veered off to Tapotupotu Bay where a picnic lunch was laid out for us. Lovely fresh rolls, sausage, cheese, chips, muesli bars, biscuits as much as we liked. We could also help ourselves to juice or tea or coffee with boiling water from thermos flasks.

Finally we made it to Cape Reinga, past the most northern inhabitants, where the power lines stop. We had forty five minutes to walk to the light house and back. Like Cape Point, it was a very steep walk, the return journey being worse than the trip down.

We saw the turbulence where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean…

The Maria van Diemen Cape,

The sacred Te Renrenga Wairua where there is a tree, the roots of which make a network of steps and the Mauri myth/tradition tells how the recently departed spirits throw themselves down into the ocean there to be re-united with their loved ones in the mythical land of Hawaiki.

In actual fact, Cape Reinga is not the most northerly point of New Zealand. North Cape is. It is closed however because some rare lizards and other rare species live there and the government wants to protect them.

We drove back southwards along state highway 1, stopping at Te Kao, the community area of Selwyn’s people. We stopped at a little shop owned by his family for very welcome ice cream.

Our next stop was Rarawa Beach where I took off my hiking boots and walked in the waves, after Selwyn had driven the truck/bus right to the water's edge. It is a place where school kids often have leadership camps at the end of their junior school years.

Finally we were dropped back at Houhora harbour, a two minute walk back to our camp. This was certainly one of the highlights of our Northland exploration.

After many sunny days, we had a downpour this evening. Hope the tent will get dry for packing up tomorrow, when we travel to Whangerei on our way back slowly to our family.

Sunday in Hamilton

As it was Sunday, we joined our family at church this morning. Our rental car has been resting here in Hamilton for a couple of days so we took it off to the Gateway Church for an outing and also because we wanted to buy another car charger for our cell phones. (The one I bought in South Africa didn't work.)

 We were warmly welcomed into the church and the kids and parents got bar-coded for Kid's Church.

In the entrance was a very effective chalk drawing of the three wise men.

My six year old grandson decided to stroke the camels, smearing some of the chalk lines before one of the welcome stewards stopped him.

The church reminded us a lot of our home church, Rosebank Union. It is a well attended church with enthusiastic but sincere worship and friendly people. After the service we got chatting to somebody called Jamie who told us he was a Member of Parliament and welcomed us to New Zealand on behalf of the Prime Minister.

After lunch we went to a Christmas Tree Farm to get the tree the family had pre-booked.

In a tree quite close to ours was a little nest with two small cream and brown eggs.

The tree was cut for us while we waited and we bought a stand that secures the tree as well as providing a reservoir of water.

At Kmart we got to scan our own purchases and use our world currency card for the first time, not without a little trepidation.
We also found out that trollies are called trundlers in New Zealand.

Tomorrow we head off to Auckland for three days to do a sightseeing bus tour. We are taking a little tent, camping chairs, a blow up mattress and a few odds and ends for our trip to Northland after that. The adventure begins.

A Damp December Day

Rain has been on and off for a couple of days but today, 1st December, it decided it was definitely on.
We are warm and dry in our large tent in the garden. Talk about glamping!

Because it was so wet, the family decided to spend the morning at the Hamilton Museum - particularly the kids science section, Bright Sparks.

We played tunes on the pipes of different lengths, played 3D noughts and crosses game, interacted with the farm display where one could pull knitted vegetables out of the "ground" and load them into a wheelbarrow, got to operate grain machines and more.

The kids could dress up as cows and learn about the digestion of a cow.

My favourite was a ferro-fluid controlled by two adjustable magnets.

I also enjoyed the machine which could draw, controlled by pendulum-type movements of horizontal and vertical weights.

We whiled away the rainy morning and came back for a yummy lunch.

The longest day

We left on Tuesday. At two pm we squashed our luggage into our daughter’s car and left for the Gautrain bus station at Damelin. I still had a Gautrain card from my PE trip and we had bought another one from the Caltex garage the day before. Lo and behold, I did not have enough funds in mine. (I had twelve rand and I thought that was enough but the bus fare seems to have gone up to eighteen rand.) However, the driver was very accommodating and we did get driven to the Sandton Gautrain station. The handle of Brian’s bag ripped off in the loading process.

Because we had booked on line, the bag drop was quick and painless and we had plenty of time to waste so we had cappuccino and a giant muffin at Mugg and Bean while I watched the loading of food onto a Kenyan Airways plane.

First the catering truck manoeuvred close to the plane

Then it was raised by an enormous hydraulic system and repositioned right up against the door. 

Then the waste and trash from the previous flight was moved out of the plane into the truck and finally the new food unit was wheeled into the plane.

The flight was cramped and sleepless. We left at eight and landed in Sydney at 6.30am which was 15.30 Australian time. We had enough time for cappuccinos at McDonalds (after I had treated myself to a shower.) The ordering process was high tech and I cancelled my order four times before I got it right on their touch screens and their delivery system was technologically advanced (or was it? Remember the pneumatic tube delivery system some businesses used to use for receipts in the sixties and seventies?)

It was raining in Sydney. In fact, according to the news, it was the heaviest rain they had had in three years, causing flooding. Only one run way was still operational, which delayed our take-off and caused a lot of trepidation as we took off into the leaden, glowering clouds. The turbulence was the worst we’d ever had and left us feeling distinctly queasy. The flight attendant gave us ginger ale (to settle the stomach) and it seemed to help.

We were almost an hour behind schedule in Auckland. The customs and passport processes were much easier than we had feared, especially as we were taking goods for other people in our bags. We landed at close to one am on Thursday morning, New Zealand time. The  plan was to collect the rented car we had booked at five, but when we phoned the shuttle service half an hour before, they had no knowledge of our booking. We are now waiting until business hours at eight to phone them and sort out the problem. (Hopefully)  We still have another twelve or fourteen hours left of the day which makes it         a  v e r y   l o n g  day.

Waiting

Only 6 more days then we are heading off to New Zealand via Singapore.   I'm hoping to keep this blog as a journal.

We will be away for two months - never been away from home this long before.   We are trying to plan and think of all eventualities.   I have heard when going on an overseas journey you should take half the number of clothes you think you are going to need and twice as much money.   I think I have been very consrvative in my clothes packing:  wearing denims and hiking boots and carrying all weather jacket, taking 2 three quarter pants, two pairs of shorts, two dresses, 8 tops including one long sleeved, a light jersey to match the dresses, a pair of slops and smarter sandles and the jacket's inner fleece.   Then, of course, pyjamas, underwear and swimming stuff. I look forward to revisiting this list in two months time and seeing where I was wise and where I was foolish.

We have organised a motorhome swop with a couple who live in the Netherlands but bought a motorhome in New Zealand and keep it stored there so much of our holiday will be like a motorhome holiday.   Of course, the reason we are going so far away from home is that our eldest son, David, his wife, Gayle and new baby Nathan live there.   This might be the only time we can afford to go - we're using money from my husband's pension payout so we are trying to make it worthwhile by spending two months and getting to see what everybody assures me is a a beautiful country.

Two weeks today we will be in Singapore, spending two nights there to try to do the jet lag in two stages.  I am not looking forward to the jet lag.   We leave at 1pm and arrive in Singapore at what our bodies think is midnight, but is actually 7am in the morning.   My plan is to try to sleep as much as possible on the plane but my sleep does not come to order although it is true I can fall asleep more easily in the afternoon than at night.   Here's hoping.