Hiya folks and welcome to another blog from your wonderful host, Nettles. I've had a wonderful couple of weeks, as its been Easter and so 2 weeks off Uni, sorry thats 2 weeks 'working from home'. Although its supposed to be autumn here now, we've been blessed with good weather and we're able to enjoy some of the holiday delights on offer.
Simon joined me at the end of March and we planned a nice break on the Kapiti coast. First we hired a car and drove to Scorching Bay where the Choclate Fish cafe is. Its the place that all the crew from Lord of the Rings used to hang out. We sat outside with our bowl full of tea and lattes and enjoyed the good food on offer.
After a stroll on the beach there and playing around on the rocks like little children, we set off north to the Kapiti coast. We were warned that the traffic might be bad, so we took it easy, it wasnt that bad. We made it to Levin were we had booked to stay in a lovely B&B for a few days. The place was called fantails and was run by a crazy English lady. Actually she was really nice and cooked us lovely organic food from her garden (see picture).
That weekend we were lucky enough to see the Levin balloon festival, there were balloons in the sky everywhere, it was realy wonderful to watch them, they were so peaceful and graceful in the sky. I have a very romantic notion of going for a ride in one someday, but alas, this was not the weekend for romantic escapism.....oh no...much more fun things were in store for us.
After trekking through the Tararua forest park, hiking ridicoulously steep hills (but seeping fantastic views). We trekked through a little woodland on the way back and found these wonderful but poisonous fungi (must find out species name) and decided to take lots of pictures of them because I thought they were pretty. Its a shame I couldn't find any in Manchester to poison my ex with. Anyway.....after an exhausting time we took a lavender spa bath that evening, after watching the dusk take off of hot air balloons, returned home and blew up an organic bottle of champange (opppss).
The next day, we set off again to explore Levin, it was our last day, so we decided to have some fun and head for the gorge. No sooner had we arrived we had booked a quad bike session and a horse ride for the next day. Quad biking was way cool, but unfortunately I didnt take any pitures as I was afraid I would break my camera. I managed to leave my sunglasses with the mad farmer that took us biking around his land, and it turned out it was his brother than ran the horse trekking and he found our car the next morning and left my sunglasses there for me. What a lovely person!!!
The next day we planned to walk the gorge and found a track nearby. First we had to go horse riding which was lots of fun. After that we took a lovely walk along th gorge, through some lovely sub-tropical forest and with lovely dense vegetation. We also spotted lots of birds, including the fantail. The fantails are meant to fly near you (which they do, coming up really close). The Maori believe that they come to tell you a message and help you find your way out of the forest by flying towards the nearest way out.
After a lovely couple of days we headed back to Kapiti coast. We had permits from the Department of Conservation to visit Kapiti marine reserve. Its one of the only (if only) reserves that allows only 50 visitors a day. It has many protected birds, a protected area of sea, and flightless birds that are very unafraid of humans. We were put on a boat, had our bags examined in case we had any stowaway rats or mice - these have been eradicated from the island, making it a safe place for certain plants and animals there that have been re-introduced.
A guide met us on the other side where he took us through the history of the island, how it came to be a reserve and what we might expect to find, mostly a lot of birds, and what kind of sounds they make.
In the 1700s and 1800s Māori settled on the island. Te Rauparaha formed a base here, and his Ngāti Toa tribe regularly sailed in canoes on raiding journeys up to the Whanganui River and down to Marlborough.
The sea nearby was a nursery for whales, and during whaling times 2,000 people were based on the island. Oil was melted from the blubber and shipped to America for use in machinery, pre petroleum. Few whales are seen there now.
The conservation potential of the island was seen as early as 1870. It was reserved as a bird sanctuary in 1897 but it was not until 1987 that the New Zealand Department of Conservation took over the island. In the 1980s and 1990s efforts were made to return the island to a natural state; first sheep and possums were removed. In an action few thought possible for an island of its size, rats were eradicated in 1998.
In 2003 the anonymous Biodiversity Action Group claimed to have released 11 possums on the island. No evidence of the introduced possums has been found. Possums are a real problem in NZ because they do really well in the bush, eat all the endemic birds, eggs, etc and you see poison baits all over the place on the mainland (and wool and possum mixed scarves and gloves in the shops!!!).
We took a path up to the summit, and we did see a lot of birds, robins, fantails, kiwis (but they are nocturnal), takahe, kokako, brown teal, stitchbirds, and tieke (saddleback), miromiro, piwakawaka, ruru, weka (hybrid of North and South Island subspecies, pictured below, they look like chickens but are clever and try and steal your lunch), hihi, and toutouwai. We were lucky enough to get a glimpse of a number of these which was pretty amazing, and they are not shy birds, and if you stay still they will come really close to you, looking for insects that you may have disturbed walking along the paths.
At the summit we took a picture after getting blown around and tried to eat our lunch without it being stolen off the wekas! That was quite fun as they are pretty clever and try and sneak from behind you. The trip down was nice and much easier, the rest of the group were nice and friendly, and I couldn't wait to get back on the mainland for a cup of coffee to warm me up! It was pretty windy that day, and although I was wrapped up warm, needed some rest and respite after so much intense walking over the last couple of days. So we headed back to Wellington, the big dirty city (well not really) and checked back in to Hataitai, ate well in Parade cafe (my new local) and enjoyed the ambience of the City at night.
Simon joined me at the end of March and we planned a nice break on the Kapiti coast. First we hired a car and drove to Scorching Bay where the Choclate Fish cafe is. Its the place that all the crew from Lord of the Rings used to hang out. We sat outside with our bowl full of tea and lattes and enjoyed the good food on offer.
After a stroll on the beach there and playing around on the rocks like little children, we set off north to the Kapiti coast. We were warned that the traffic might be bad, so we took it easy, it wasnt that bad. We made it to Levin were we had booked to stay in a lovely B&B for a few days. The place was called fantails and was run by a crazy English lady. Actually she was really nice and cooked us lovely organic food from her garden (see picture).
That weekend we were lucky enough to see the Levin balloon festival, there were balloons in the sky everywhere, it was realy wonderful to watch them, they were so peaceful and graceful in the sky. I have a very romantic notion of going for a ride in one someday, but alas, this was not the weekend for romantic escapism.....oh no...much more fun things were in store for us.After trekking through the Tararua forest park, hiking ridicoulously steep hills (but seeping fantastic views). We trekked through a little woodland on the way back and found these wonderful but poisonous fungi (must find out species name) and decided to take lots of pictures of them because I thought they were pretty. Its a shame I couldn't find any in Manchester to poison my ex with. Anyway.....after an exhausting time we took a lavender spa bath that evening, after watching the dusk take off of hot air balloons, returned home and blew up an organic bottle of champange (opppss).
The next day, we set off again to explore Levin, it was our last day, so we decided to have some fun and head for the gorge. No sooner had we arrived we had booked a quad bike session and a horse ride for the next day. Quad biking was way cool, but unfortunately I didnt take any pitures as I was afraid I would break my camera. I managed to leave my sunglasses with the mad farmer that took us biking around his land, and it turned out it was his brother than ran the horse trekking and he found our car the next morning and left my sunglasses there for me. What a lovely person!!!
The next day we planned to walk the gorge and found a track nearby. First we had to go horse riding which was lots of fun. After that we took a lovely walk along th gorge, through some lovely sub-tropical forest and with lovely dense vegetation. We also spotted lots of birds, including the fantail. The fantails are meant to fly near you (which they do, coming up really close). The Maori believe that they come to tell you a message and help you find your way out of the forest by flying towards the nearest way out.
After a lovely couple of days we headed back to Kapiti coast. We had permits from the Department of Conservation to visit Kapiti marine reserve. Its one of the only (if only) reserves that allows only 50 visitors a day. It has many protected birds, a protected area of sea, and flightless birds that are very unafraid of humans. We were put on a boat, had our bags examined in case we had any stowaway rats or mice - these have been eradicated from the island, making it a safe place for certain plants and animals there that have been re-introduced.
A guide met us on the other side where he took us through the history of the island, how it came to be a reserve and what we might expect to find, mostly a lot of birds, and what kind of sounds they make.
In the 1700s and 1800s Māori settled on the island. Te Rauparaha formed a base here, and his Ngāti Toa tribe regularly sailed in canoes on raiding journeys up to the Whanganui River and down to Marlborough.
The sea nearby was a nursery for whales, and during whaling times 2,000 people were based on the island. Oil was melted from the blubber and shipped to America for use in machinery, pre petroleum. Few whales are seen there now.
The conservation potential of the island was seen as early as 1870. It was reserved as a bird sanctuary in 1897 but it was not until 1987 that the New Zealand Department of Conservation took over the island. In the 1980s and 1990s efforts were made to return the island to a natural state; first sheep and possums were removed. In an action few thought possible for an island of its size, rats were eradicated in 1998.
In 2003 the anonymous Biodiversity Action Group claimed to have released 11 possums on the island. No evidence of the introduced possums has been found. Possums are a real problem in NZ because they do really well in the bush, eat all the endemic birds, eggs, etc and you see poison baits all over the place on the mainland (and wool and possum mixed scarves and gloves in the shops!!!).
We took a path up to the summit, and we did see a lot of birds, robins, fantails, kiwis (but they are nocturnal), takahe, kokako, brown teal, stitchbirds, and tieke (saddleback), miromiro, piwakawaka, ruru, weka (hybrid of North and South Island subspecies, pictured below, they look like chickens but are clever and try and steal your lunch), hihi, and toutouwai. We were lucky enough to get a glimpse of a number of these which was pretty amazing, and they are not shy birds, and if you stay still they will come really close to you, looking for insects that you may have disturbed walking along the paths.
At the summit we took a picture after getting blown around and tried to eat our lunch without it being stolen off the wekas! That was quite fun as they are pretty clever and try and sneak from behind you. The trip down was nice and much easier, the rest of the group were nice and friendly, and I couldn't wait to get back on the mainland for a cup of coffee to warm me up! It was pretty windy that day, and although I was wrapped up warm, needed some rest and respite after so much intense walking over the last couple of days. So we headed back to Wellington, the big dirty city (well not really) and checked back in to Hataitai, ate well in Parade cafe (my new local) and enjoyed the ambience of the City at night.
