A Few More Birds of Aotearoa

Aotearoa/New Zealand's avian populations are much diminished since European colonists introduced mammals like the possum, skoat, rat, and feral cat (to be fair, some experts say Maori explorers brought a species of rats to the islands 800+ years ago).  These animals have proliferated wildly - having no natural predators of their own - and decimated bird species that often nest on the ground or whose behaviors otherwise make them vulnerable to threats with which they did not evolve.

Nonetheless, the birds we did see were beautiful and many had beautiful songs and wide vocabularies.  The endemic Tui was especially fun to watch and listen to.  Here's a few more bird photos from Aotearoa. 


 

Tui, on the berry hunt

Face Off!  Black-backed gull vs. Pied shag

Variable oystercatcher

Variable oystercatcher ... nice eyeliner!

Miromiro/Tomtit with lunch

White-faced heron with epiphyte

Tui in morning song

"You go your way, I'll go mine" - Pied stilts

Pukeko with Easter lilies

Kelp gull (I think ... gulls are so damn hard to identify!)

New Zealand (Sacred) kingfisher - Face-off or begging session? I don't know.

Tempting the Volcano Gods of Taupō

In Memoriam.  As I've written in some of the blogs, I was in New Zealand 42 years ago with friend Jim Fiero; Aotearoa was the last chapter our yearlong around-the-world trip.  We shared some amazing experiences and, in many ways, grew as people through those shared times.  It is with great sadness that I learned yesterday of Jim's death last night, the end of a long health-related struggle. 

Lake Taupō (pronounced like "toe paw"), Aotearoa's largest lake (though for you Midwesterners, only 1/100th the size of Lake Michigan), sits in the center of the North Island's central volcanic plateau ... a volcanic region that's still active, I might add.  Indeed, Lake Taupō is the caldera that remains from a series of grand eruptions 1800 years ago, and periodic reports of gas bubbles and volcanic rocks floating in the lake can be found.  The whole region is rich in steam geysers, natural hot water pools, and geothermal energy production and experiences frequent earthquakes.

We stayed in an amazing Home Exchange whose owners - Peter and Helene - are retired art dealers. Big time!  The house, which had an expansive view of the lake, was filled with the work of mostly Kiwi artists, and a wonderful assortment of well-placed sculptures populated the beautifully landscaped property.  We shared the house with the owners, enjoyed talking about and drinking local wines, had a few meals together, and even watched some pro tennis matches with them.

As you'll see in the photos below, we had some cool experiences in and around Taupō, including kayaking to some beautiful Maori rock carvings and touring of a Maori cultural center in nearby Rotorua and its active geyser field,

View of Lake Taupō from our "home," with some sculptures in view

Sunrise above Lake Taupō

Framed by this beautiful Maori rock carving; not old, but created by some young Maori men training to be master carvers

On our way back from seeing the carving, we got hit by a hard rain, but blessed with some beautiful rainbows!  Not only that, but we found out later that a 4.2 magnitude earthquake had rattled the region while we were on the water!

These Maori carvings on poles greeted us at Te Puia. a cultural center with training programs, a Kiwi conservation program, and a geyser field. 

At Te Puia, young Maori men learn and practice wood carving ...

... as well as stone carving

Te Puia's geysers were impressive ... you can watch one erupt here

The Waikato River flows north from Lake Taupō into a ravine carved into hard volcanic rock.  The water then crashes over Huka Falls at a rate of 220,000 liters per second ... yes, PER SECOND!  You can watch it here.

We're home now, but more stories yet to tell ...

 

 

 

In The Middle of Nowhere, a Slice of Paradise

In the center of the North Island, in an area ringed by volcanoes and just hours from the "playground" of Lake Taupo, we found Kakahi.  This rural hamlet was built on hope, hope that the gold rush would bring a train line and prosperity with it. It once had two stores, a bakery, a post office, and a population of 600, but like many such places, the promised railroad never came. 

But what a sweet, quiet place.  Its one remaining business is the general store (photo below) that serves as the post office, liquor outlet, pharmacy, and hardware purveyor.  It's run by an 80 year old fellow whose father emigrated from India and started the store, then bought out his competitor when the local population and business declined.

We stayed on a farm recently purchased by a Kiwi couple who had just moved back from Australia, where they had lived and worked for 30 years.  Our "cottage" had been the leather works for the previous owner who made saddles. The bedroom was separate from the living and kitchen area, with a room in between that served as a yoga studio.  The toilet and outdoor shower were around the back.

It was definitely a "black sky" kind of area; the stars and Milky Way were sparkling (as seen in our middle-of-the-night trips to the bathroom!). As you'll see below, we used Kakahi as a base to do some great hikes, one in an old podocarp forest (podocarps are trees with a form of cone, but not like our pines) and one in National Park at the foot of Mt. Tongariro (many people come to the area to do the 19km Tongariro Alpine Crossing ... we didn't!).

Hope you get a hint of this special place from these photos...

The views on the farm, like this one, were enchanting

The outdoor shower "stall"

"Plush" outdoor furniture for relaxing mornings

Stunning sunsets

When clouds cleared, great views of Mt. Tongariro, as well as its companions Ngauruhoe (actually a secondary cone of Tangariro) and Ruapehu

Kakahi's general - and all things - store

Some beautiful countryside

One of the many, many "pongas" or tree ferns on our hike, this one maybe 40 feet high

On our hike in a dense podocarp forest near Kakahi

Pool reflections

On our hike in National Park

Tongariro watched over us ... it's a majestic mountain which sports a cable car and ski slopes.  We had planned to take the cable car up to the top to hike, but strong winds shut it down that day.

The destination of our hike, this picture-perfect waterfall

In the Shadow of Volcano Taranaki

As with many indigenous peoples, certainly in the Pacific Northwest, the Māori who first came to Aotearoa/New Zealand a thousand years ago developed stories about the region's many volcanoes.  These stories helped to explain their behaviors, like eruptions and lava flows, as well as the relationships between the Māori people and the land. 

We spent about 10 days on the Taranaki peninsula - the first part in Whanganui, described in my last post - that juts out into the Tasman Sea on the west coast of the North Island.  It's named for the conical Mt. Taranaki that defines this landscape and is notable for being quite distant from the cluster of volcanoes at the island's center., which is explained by this Maori story.

Mt. Taranaki from our AirBnB in New Plymouth, a renovated sheep-shearing shed on a working farm.

A Kate Dougherty painting of our "neighbors"

We drove north from Whanganui along a coastline noted for its surfing beaching and over to New Plymouth on the volcano's north slope. Were surprised and puzzled by   American flags flying all over town ... what was THAT all about? Were they appreciative of our support for Ukraine or what?? Nothing as political as all that; rather, we landed in New Plymouth for the annual "AmeriCARna" festival, a gather of American muscle cars of the 50s, 60s, and 70s and their owners from all across the country.  It was great fun seeing all these hot cars from our youth!

In addition to the cars, we explored the local art galleries (check out this cool exhibit), road ebikes along the city's waterfront, and just enjoyed a bit of country living.

Hundreds of American muscle cars and thousands of admirers.

Can you name the make, model, and year?

On our bike ride, Kate became part of a public art installation

The bike- and walkway along New Plymouth's shoreline ... it can get a little wet!

Installation at a New Plymouth gallery

Our AirBnB ... can you believe it used to be a sheep-shearing shed??