The East Cape Lighthouse

We made it!



This is the view from the lighthouse toward Gisborne.

The Pinnacles

While touring Coromandel Peninsula with my folks we saw the Pinnacles from the far side and I found them quite intriguing. So, in celebration of being in New Zealand for one year, we tramped to the Pinnacles! This was our first real tramp in NZ, and while it is considered an "easy-medium" hike, I gave it a solid 6.2 on The Kauai Tunnels Pig Track Scale (1 being a walk to the fridge, 10 being the hike to the tunnels on Kauai, guaranteed to make you cry and swear and wish you were giving birth, unmedicated, to a 12 pound, OP baby instead).

You can read the full, detailed description of the Pinnacles tramp here, and I recommend you do. We didn't manage to take any pictures of the stone steps that went on forever, which is too bad because they truly were impressive and I was very grateful they were there because without them that hike might have been an 11 on the KTPT Scale.

P's favorite part of the tramp were these swing bridges.

The hike takes you into the bush on a track that was created for loggers. There hasn't been any logging in that area for at least 30 years so the vegetation is thick and lush and you feel like you really are out in the middle of nowhere, except this power line follows you everywhere you go and interferes with all of your pictures:



A fun part of tramping in NZ are the huts. We were going to stay at a campsite along the way as the huts require reservations made well in advance in the summer, but as luck would have it we were able to get in. This is the hut:

The hut has 80 bunks, a full kitchen, a BBQ, nice eating areas, clean toilets (but not the flush kind), and cold showers. Here is where we slept:

I was a little sad that we were going to stay in the hut when I found out that a local high school tramping club would also be staying in the hut with us, but then it started to rain:

and I was once again happy to be in the hut! The high school kids were great, by the way, and I actually enjoyed all their giggling and silliness (Should I wear the pink stripe shirt with this, or the yellow one? Has anyone seen my cherry blitz lip gloss?!).

In the morning we headed up to the Pinnacles along a very groomed trail with 561 wooden steps. Note the cloud obscuring the view of the peak.


What you can't see in these pictures is the ocean, but I tell you it is there and this was a beautiful sunrise!

Towards the top the stairs end and you have to scramble up the rocks the rest of the way with help from an occasional metal ladder/staircase.

Nearing the top, we entered the cloud, and this was our view from the peak:

Click on the picture below for a video of the windy wind:



We took the Billy Goat track back and descended some of the most intensely steep stairs I've ever encountered (30 minutes my ass!). It was a great hike and now we're all looking forward to more trampin' and scroggin! (scroggin is trail mix.)

Leaping off place of spirits

This is the final set of pictures from when my folks were here. I have saved the best for last.

Cape Reinga is the northernmost point (that you can easily travel to by car) on the North Island. Despite the long drive along the Aupori peninsula, Cape Reinga has become a popular tourist destination attracting 150,00 visitors each year.


Known as Te Rerenga Wairua, Leaping-Off Place of Spirits, or Te Reinga, The Underworld, in Maori, this cape is one of the most sacred Maori places in New Zealand. As the names suggest it is from this place that the spirits leave this world and make their way back to their ancestral home, Hawaiki.

Tradition says that the souls of the dead travel overland to this cape where they reach Te Aka, an 800 year old Pohutukawa tree that is the root to the spirit world. The spirits descend the tree and on entering the sea they cross through a large clump of seaweed called the Motatau or Maurianuku, which is the door to the underworld. The spirits swim underwater to the largest of the Three Kings Islands, Manawatawi, which translates to Last Breath. Here the spirits surface and, after a farewell look at the land of the living and a last lament for the loved ones left behind, descend again and continue their journey to Hawaiki.

If you look closely you might be able to make out the pohutukawa tree at the waters edge. It is right of the rocky hill in the center of the picture. For being 800 years old it is not very big.

At Cape Reinga the South Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea and mighty waves are made as the two forces join.

(Photo Credit)

When we first went to Cape Reinga, I stood where those people are standing and, looking down, realized one of my favorite places on the planet is this sandy alcove:

(Again, you might be able to make out Te Aka on the far side of the rocky hill.)

Everywhere you look in New Zealand it is beautiful. I hesitate to repeat trips as there are so many places I still want to see here, but I will happily make the long drive (7 hours if you drive straight through, which misses the point, really) to stand in this place and watch the oceans meet.

Not everyone finds this places as mesmerizing as I do. William Puckey, a missionary that is believed to have been the first European to travel overland to Cape Reinga had this to say about it in 1832:

“The place has a most barren appearance with sea-fowl screaming and the sea roaring and rushing against dismal black rocks. It would suggest to the reflecting mind that it must have been the dreary aspect of the place which led the Maori to choose this spot as his hell”

To each, his own, I say. You'll just have to decide for yourself when you come visit! For the more adventurous I suggest we approach it on foot via the Cape Reinga Coastal Walkway!

From the point looking south, toward 90 mile beach.

Recent Adventures

Tawhitokino

On the busiest beach day of the year we went to the beach. We had to fight 12 other people for a nice spot at this 1400 meter long beach, but the crowds and the steep uphill-downhill hike to get there was worth it!

Mathorak

B's good friend has come to visit us - Yippee! They are now off to the Bay of Islands where they have chartered a sailboat which B will skipper. Geez, my honey's cool! I'll have to start calling him Skipper B now!


B's good friend was recently in the Philippines and gave me this picture from his travels. I love this picture! The water buffalo is a Bubalus bubalis carabanesis, more commonly known as a carabao. I was lucky enough to meet a few carabao when we went to the Philippines, and I'm looking forward to taking one on a tour with me next time! I believe the sweet set up above is bicycle powered, like a rickshaw. I can probably talk B into this. And P will look so cute riding on top (where she can be as goofy as she wants...)!

Goofy Phase/Goofy Face

P has officially entered the dreaded "I only pose for goofy photographs" phase.

Cheeseball.

On the summit of Rangitoto.

Ok, here she is actually just proving she has finally mastered the skill of making a blade of grass squeal as you blow on it between your hands.

Rangitoto

I've been wanting to climb to the top of Rangitoto island for awhile now, but it was H&A who finally got P and me out there last week.


P took this photo. The good thing about goofy phases is that they can bring out the goofy in others. I have a whole series of fun pictures of H&A now!



One of the best things about Auckland is the clean air and the lack of inversion. Evidently we picked the only hazy day to climb to this volcano. This picture is looking from the summit to Islington Bay. The picture below is from Islington Bay looking toward the summit of Rangitoto.




And now I must get back to Scary Movies with P! More fun adventures to follow!

Tiritiri Matangi

***Before finishing the writing on this post I broke my hand, so it starts out wordy then dwindles to near nothing - here's hoping the pictures are worth a thousand words!***

Saturday we took the ferry to Tiritiri Matangi island, an open scientific reserve/bird sanctuary. We were lucky enough to have as our guide a local scientist and professor that has been working on the restoration of this island for the last 30 years.

Tiritiri Matangi ("a place tossed by the wind"or "looking to the wind" or perhaps "wind tossing about") was originally settled by the Maori several hundred years ago, and after much fighting it ended up being owned by the government which leased the land for farming until the 1970's.

The island had very little vegetation after 100 + years of slash and burn farming and ranching, and since becoming a reserve has had almost 300,000 native trees and plants replanted by volunteers. They have also successfully released many rare and endangered native birds (and tuatara) on the island thus making Tiritiri one of the most successful conservation projects in the world (so says the website).

We walked along this beach:
where we played with these rays at the waters edge:We then hiked through the old growth forest - love these ferns!
And then through the replanted forests and took many exciting bird photographs like this:
Go ahead- just try to find the bird! Like I mentioned before we are great bird feeders, but not die hard bird watchers. For truly impressive pictures of the birds on Tiritiri click here.

We popped out on the far side of the island where we ooooohed and aaaaaahed at the lovely view:
Then B sang The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music:
as we walked to the lighthouse which used to be the brightest one in the Southern Hemisphere:
Where we posed for a token family lighthouse picture:
And a picture just for my mom (further proof I still exist. Look ma - two hands!)
Then we ate lunch with Greg the Takahe, an endangered bird from the fjords of the South Island. Greg must be short for Gregarious as he was hand raised and enjoys being around people and stealing lunches (we were told to not feed Greg). I loved watching Greg, one of only 230 living Takahes on the planet, run around the eaters. He was a lot bigger than I was expecting:
On the way back to the ferry we sat at this watering station enjoying the view and the bird calls:
Bird enthusiasts can become Supporters of Tiritiri and are then allowed to stay at the bunkhouse on the island for a small fee. The dawn chorus is supposed to be glorious!