Fossil-hunting on the west coast - Saturday 23 October

On the week after the Oropi School AgriGala day, we spent two days and a night (Labour Day Weekend) at our frind John Townsend's farm overlooking Kawhia Harbour, on the west coast. The visit was partly designed around a fossil-hunting expedition which I'd been thinking about for some time. We'd known about the existence of fossil sites near Kawhia for some time, and in fact had made an abortive hunt for some Belemnites a couple of years ago. However, we weren't even sure that we were hunting in the right place, and decided we needed to do our homework a little better before our next attempt. We had subsequently been given a map showing the location of one of the sites by the mother of a boy in Hannah's class (he's mad keen on fossils) and I did some research on the net, coming up with several more fossil locations and detailed maps, so were indeed a little better prepared.

The first photo was taken outside the Townsend house at Kawhia, as we were setting out for Kiritehere beach, just south of the tiny settlement of Marokopa, an hour and a half's drive or so south-east of John's farm.

Here are John and Chloe, clambering over rocks as we make our way to the southern end of the beach on an outgoing tide.

The fossils weren't tricky to find - in fact once we got to the right spot, it was difficult to find a rock which didn't have any! This shot of one of the first decent ones I found, together with my geological hammer, which has been gathering dust - well it would have been if it wasn't in a box - on the storeroom/office shelves. The fossils here are brachiopods - according to the article from the NZ Journal of Geology & Geophysics that I sourced on the net, it could be one of several species, so I can't be more precise.

Gill, Hannah and John, searching at the base of a rather spectacular cliff face ...

... and another find brachipod specimen.

This one from a shell bed!

As the tide went out, more rocks were exposed, but these held more living sea life than fossils.

Chloe, John and Felicity, 'rationalizing' their fossil collection.

The Payne and Townsend children clambering on the rocks.

As the sun started to get lower in the sky, we turned back towards the car. Hannah here is laden with finds. Lesley unfortunately dropped her digital camera in a rock pool which put something of a dampener on proceedings - electronic equipment and seawater don't mix, as I found out with my cell phone a few years ago.

Back at the cars again ... John & Toby Townsend

Then it was back past the beachside village of Marokopa ...

... to Kawhia village, a stop at the fish and chip shop before settling in at The Blue Chook - children welcomed - (note the clucking chicken on the bar counter in the background) for a good feed and a couple of drinks.

Oropi School AgriGala Day - Saturday 15 October

On the first weekend of school term was the Oropi School AgriGala Day, which is a kind of spring fete, with pet shows - judging of best lamb, calf, kid goat display, including call and follow, which is a bit of a laugh with the younger children - largest eel caught, biggest possum shot, pony rides, target shooting with pellet guns, plant sales, candy floss, toffee apples, dads' cake making competitions, hanging basket and flower arranging competitions, spot raffles, auctions of donated goods, etc., and lots of other stalls run by kids and parents. A lot of fun, particularly as the rain held off this year, which was fortunate. Two years ago, I had to help with getting the fire for the hangi (which is food cooked in a pit under a huge bonfire) going at 4.30 in the morning and it was pouring with rain - I will admit that we used a bit of petrol to get the fire going! They also take the opportunity to display childrens' schoolwork in the classrooms, which are open for the first couple of hours. Anyway, on with the pictures ...

The display of hanging baskets, with Hannah's (all her own work) at extreme left, and a mini ferris wheel in the background.

Louise's hanging basket, prepared at home with a little help from Dad, mostly with the design, shown hanging on our verandah after the competition. This won First Prize in the flower arranging section - don't ask why that section, i don't understand either!

Here are Louise (at left) and Camilla (at right) with friend Zoe, watching the calf follow judging.

Hannah on the mini Ferris wheel, with some poor little boy who looks as if he's terrified - I'm not sure whether it's of the ride, or of Hannah.

Irises from our garden on display in Hannah's classroom, designed and arranged by Hannah - again with a little help from Dad.

Classroom Exhibits - Picture by Hannah, after Picasso's Blue Period

Another of Hannah's Picasso-style efforts

Silhouettes of Camilla & Louise.

Friend Callum holding possum that he shot, with dad Kevin & sister Olivia behind him.

Hannah investigating domestic farm animals, including specially bred "black" sheep and alpaca.

... and lastly the pony rides.

Far North Travelogue - Days 7 & 8

Friday was more relaxing. After a lazy start ...

... we headed for Kerikeri, where we spent the morning exploring the picturesque old riverfront store and homestead - now museums - and walking to an old pa (a Maori hill fortification) site nearby.

After arranging our accomodation for the night, we headed west to NgaWha (pronounced na-fa) Springs for soak in some very interesting, and very unusual, hot water mineral springs. The decor was somewhere between Dali and Hundertwasser! About half of the pools, which all had names, were just too hot for me to stay in for more than a few seconds. The water in some was almost black, coloured by a colloidal muddy material, but it didn't feel dirty at all ... very relaxing, and quite different from the usual kiwi "hot pools" experience. Not to be missed if you're ever in this neck of the woods.

On the way back to KeriKeri, we stopped briefly at this old church, built in 1871 on the site of the Battle of Ohaeawai, fought in 1845. Both the church and the graveyard are obviously still being used regularly.

On the Saturday morning we were up early, packed and ready to leave by 9 o'clock, but couldn't leave before the girl;s had visited the playground.

We headed south through the occasional very heavy rain showers, with strong winds that almost blew the van off the road a couple of times, and were in Auckland by lunch time. After a very welcome cuppa and meal at the McCartneys, we headed for home.

Far North Travelogue - Day Six

Thursday morning saw us starting the slow homeward journey, so we packed up at the Pukenui Holiday Park and headed south to Awanui, where we visited a kauri museum/showroom and took the inevitable photo of the girls next to Paikia (of The Whale Rider fame), ...

... and then east towards the Bay of Islands. Our next stop was at the beautiful, sheltered Maitai Bay on the Karikari Peninsula. It's actually two bays, separated by a tiny mini-peninsular along which you can walk and get some great views, and from where I took this shot of Gill and two of the girls on the beach of the south-eastern of the bays. Another place which would be wonderful to spend some time at in the summer, but I'm sure the DOC campground is once again full to the brim in January.

Louise found a dead penguin, Hannah chased several oystercatchers, and Camilla investigated the rock overhangs.

From there we headed down and around the broad sweep of Doubtless Bay to the historic town of Mangonui (quite a different place from Mt Maunganui near Tauranga!). After a spell where Gill had to remove large numbers of very fine prickles from all the girls' feet - probably acquired in a rock cave at Maitai Bay - we walked around the interesting town on the Mangonui Heritage Trail. Hannah investigated the shingle beach left by the outgoing tide.

I got this shot of a stained glass window in St Andrew's Anglican Church at the top of the hill, without actually going inside.

After the walk it was almost lunch time, so we stopped in for fish and chips on the harbourfront ...

... after the obligatory joke photo!

From there we carried on eastwards, stopping wherever it looked interesting, such as this quiet backwater near Totara North (have no idea whether a Totara South even exists) ...

... the huge cabbage trees (ti kouka) at Tauranga Bay (yes, another Tauranga - not nearly as nice as ours, though) ...

... another sheltered cove at Matauri Bay, where we stopped for a second picnic lunch - camembert & crackers ...

... with very coarse, dark sand, almost like shingle, but much prettier and easier to walk on.

We then pressed on to Taupo Bay, where we found a pleasant, completely deserted holiday park which suited us for the night. We had our pick of the cabins, unpacked our suitcases and sleeping bags, and went for a walk on the beach, and investigated the rock pools ...


... before a light rain shower drove us back to our cabin for the evening.

Far North Travelogue - Day Five

OK, it's taking me a while to catch up, but I'll get there in the end. We had a leisurely start on Day 5, heading north once again to take in some of the bits we missed on the previous day. There were several stops on the roadside to take pictures of old Ratana (a Maori Christian sect) churches at Te Kao ...

... and Te Hapua ...

...and another brief stop to photograph a bird on the telephone wires which Gill had seen in exactly the same spot the previous day, and identified later that evening after reference to Heather & Robertson's "Field Guide to the Bird of New Zealand" as a Dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis aka Eastern Broad-billed Roller). I must admit that I rather disbelieved the ID, since the book describes it as a "rare Australian straggler". However, the photo just about proves it must be one!

Then it was on to the northern tip of the peninsular again, where we wound our way down to the spectacular but remote, windy and deserted Kapowairua at the eastern end of Spirits Bay. There's a large DOC (Department of Conservation) camp site here, and I can imagine it must be very nice to stay here in late summer, after the holidaying hordes have retreated south to Auckland. The sea was just way to wild to contemplate swimming, but there's plenty of shallow, calm water in the estuary, if it were a little warmer. From here one can hike along the coast for some distance to the east, but also west to Cape Reinga and then south along the Ninety Mile Beach.

The sand on the main beach was coarse and very colourful.

From here we retraced our steps back to the northern shores of the Parengarenga Harbour, where we investigated the sleepy and rather decrepit settlement of Te Hapua.

As we drove south we explored several of the small, mostly gravel - or as they say here, metal - dead-end roads going off to the east of the main road. This one to the village (not much more than a collection of half a dozen houses, really) of Paua had a sign pointing to "White Sand Adventures", but ended rather disappointingly at this old abandoned warehouse ...

and jetty. One hopes that it's a little more lively during the summer!

Even the swans - which are feral over much of the North Island, but particularly in the Far North - hardly turned to look at us as we drove past.

Eventually we found a road that actually took us all the way to the famed "white sands" of the eastern part of the peninsula, which we'd seen a lot of from a distance. This is Rarawa Beach, just south of Paxton Point, where we found a nice spot sheltered from the wind and spent a couple of hours. Then the rain clouds built up and we hastily packed our belongings, getting to the car just in time before the showers arrived, and headed south once more.

By the time we got back to Pukenui/Houhora, where we were due to spend a second night, the sun had come out again ...

... so we stopped at the main wharf to watch the unloading of a large oyster catch from a barge ...

... and since we had some time to spare decided to make another short excursion to the western side of the peninsular at Hukatere, which is roughly a third of the way up Ninety Mile beach. Spectular scenery ...

... but rather inhospitable, so we didn't spend long there, preferring instead to head back to the car, and home for "tea".