Journey To The Top

Catch-up

We left Tokerau and the beautiful Karikari Peninsula heading north once again, north on our way to the very tip of the North Island. I'm sure every Kiwi has a pilgrimage to Cape Reinga on their 'must do once in a lifetime' bucket list. I know it's certainly on many overseas visitor's list going by the amount of tour buses, rental cars and campers we pass on the road.

The trip to the top for most people usually involves travelling part of the journey along 90 Mile Beach (which, despite the name, is only 55 miles long) but of course with the 5th-wheeler on the back this wasn't going to be an option for us. Although having experienced the beach and the access points later in our visit, we decided we could quite easily take the rig along the sand. We had a quiet chuckle imagining the looks on people's faces as we sailed by (literally if it was high tide!). 

We'd decided to drive to the top, stay in the DOC campground near Cape Reinga for a few days and then explore more slowly on our way back down the 100km long Aupouri Peninsula-the finger of land that forms the top of the North Island.

Of course this didn't mean we weren't able to stop along the way so I could add a few more church photos to my collection; the first one just outside Kaitaia; St Josephs Anglican Maori Church built in 1887.

The Seven Day Adventist Church at Te Kao has seen better days but I've included it here because I wanted to tell you a funny story about taking this photo. Well it is funny now, but at the time it wasn't, it was the most scariest thing I've experience on this journey of ours.

David had pulled up just off the road edge in front of a couple of rural houses. The church was on the other side of the road so I got out, crossed the road and took a few photos and then made my way back over the road and behind the rig to walk up to the front and my passenger door. As I walked around the back of the van this large barking, snarling, teeth bared mongrel of a dog burst out the open gate of one of the houses, charging straight for me.

I have never moved so fast in all my life, I took off down the side of the rig yelling for all I was worth and hoping David would see or hear me and do something, though I'm not sure what. As I reached my door I yanked it open but I was travelling too fast to leap inside so I kept running, pulling the door wide open and jumping behind it. I then shoved the door back & forward a few times like a shield, shouting and screaming at the dog.

By now a guy had also come charging out his gate shouting at the dog (which took not one bit of notice). David's looking at me through the gap in the door like, 'what the hell are you doing, crazy woman?', not having seen or heard anything until I wrenched the door open. Thank God the dog must have thought where did she go and stopped in his tracks and started sniffing around the rear tyre of the ute and then disappeared behind the ute and out onto the road. I leap into the ute and slammed the door and David quickly pulled out. I didn't look back but I can tell you the heart & adrenaline were pumping for many miles afterwards. Now instead of David calling out watch for traffic when I get out to take photos, he's taken to saying check for dogs too!

We stopped again just a couple of miles up the road when I saw one of my 'must have' churches ahead of us, the distinctive Ratana church at Te Kao. I've had this church on my list for a very long time and it was great to actually see it in the flesh. And this time I had a good look around before I opened the door.

Further on we had another exciting but much tamer encounter, an emu! An emu just walking along the fence line through a scrubby paddock beside the highway. Emu farming was a new enterprise back in the 1990s but difficulties in getting the birds slaughtered soon caused a decline in the industry. During that time some birds had escaped their fenced enclosures, others were kept as domestic pets and it has also been rumoured that some farmers released their birds to roam wild.

Sightings of random emus has been reported in many areas around Northland & the Far North and in fact this was my 3rd sighting of a bird. I'd seen one near Kawakawa and another near Tauranga Bay and although they didn't look fenced in, I couldn't be sure as it was a fleeting glance as we drove past. This one though was the closest I'd seen and in an area where it could wander at large so it definitely wasn't a captive bird.

As we drew closer to the top of  peninsula, the landscape opened up; big skies, rolling farmland intermingled with swathes of native scrub and bush, dune lakes, wetland swamps and out on the edges huge golden sand dunes. 

Five kilometres before we reach the top we turned right down a narrow dusty gravel road...

....that drops down through the manuka scrub into Tapotupotu Bay and the DOC campsite we'll be staying at for the next few days.

At the bottom we're greeted by small sandy bay and a lovely golden sand beach tucked in between two headlands...

...and two camping areas- I call them corrals- one for campervans and the other for tents.

I can understand the tent corral, this DOC Camp is on the 48km Te Paki Coastal Walk and at the start of the 3000km Te Araroa Trail so tenters need some space of their own...

...but I have no idea why the powers that be would want to corral all the campervans & motorhomes together because...

...carry on around the corner and there is a huge amount of open space to camp, right on the edge of the estuary.

Which is where we set up...

...and two or three other clever clogs! I thought it was Kiwis that followed along like sheep. In fact I think it's because foreign tourists are sometimes unsure of what to do and where to go and don't want to do anything wrong so follow the leader.

There was plenty to see parked on the side of the estuary, the tide range was so great we were able to watch the lagoon fill and empty with each tide, bird watch out the back window and watch boaties come and go...

...including this group of guys who had a lot of fishing gear set up on their jet skis. In fact they were doing some filming for a TV programme one guy told David as his drone whizzed about around the estuary.

We saw them later in the afternoon when we visit Cape Reinga, far out at sea. We watched them skirt around the outside of the islands off Cape van Diemen and then pass around Cape Reinga as they headed back to Tapotupotu Bay, again way out so as to miss the turbulent waters below us where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. You can see to tiny splashes of white, centre right in the first photo, they were just tiny dots and we would have missed them had we not known they were out there.

The camp, estuary, stream and mangrove margins were ideal for bird watching- here are a few of the usual suspects; clockwise- A Eurasian Skylark, an epic struggle between a male Sparrow & a Grasshopper, not a bird but just about as big, a Giant Bush Dragonfly, a female Ring-necked Pheasant, a Black Shag and a Welcome Swallow.

This rather plain but dainty little lily was flowering along the edges of the tracks, and through all the thick grasses, it's not a native and I've not seen it before. 

I was up early every morning to search out two specific and very secretive birds. The sunrises weren't quite as spectacular as I had been capturing but still lovely as the suited the subdued surroundings.

I had managed to spot two Banded Rail/Mioweka from the kitchen window, they were across a wide expanse of exposed sand feeding amongst the mangrove air roots along the edge of the stream that fed out to sea at low tide.

They were very quick to disappear into the mangroves and tussock behind at the slightest movement from our side of the estuary though.

Click photo to enlarge- two Banded Rail centre

I did manage to sneak up on them once but only took a fleeting photo as one of them flashed past. I didn't mind though. After my very first sighting and taking a couple of good photos at Whangaparoa's Shakespear Park, then another sighting at Sandspit, this was my third sighting up north so I was just pleased to see them once again.

I knew there were Fernbirds/Matata about when I heard their distinctive clicking calls as I was walking along the boardwalk and over the bridge near our campsite. 

Often heard but rarely seen, Fernbirds aren't quite as shy as the Banded Rail but they are just about as impossible to find because they move fast, skulking through the dense vegetation at ground level and seldom poking their head out of the greenery. 

'You looking for me?'

But they are nosy and if you sit quietly in the middle of their territory watching for the slightest of movements in the reeds or thick scrub around you they'll often poke their head out or jump on to an open branch nearby to check you out. But as quick as a flash they'll be gone again. 

If they have a mate nearby or feel threatened they can also call briefly from the top of a nearby bush, but they'll disappear just as quickly to appear again not much further on, atop the next bush. 

We explored along the boardwalk and track (part of the Te Paki Coastal Walk) up into the bush over the hill on the other side of the estuary a short distance...

...and then along a 4WD track that followed the Tapotupotu Stream deeper into the valley behind the camp. It would be great kayaking quietly up this backwater, we flushed a number of different birds but the dense undergrowth made it hard to spot them.

Each day, as the tide went out I also watched from the window a pair of beautiful steely grey Reef Herons/Matuku Moana stalking prey along the receding waterline. They were very wary too and I only got a little closer to them by putting a bush between them and me and then quietly sneaking up on them using the bush as cover.

Looking like stealth bombers, with wings flattened out to keep their profile low and to help them see fish in the shadow, they carefully paced up and down the water's edge...

...until they spotted a hapless fish which, with lightening fast speed, they caught and swallowed.

Even though I suspect the reef herons were a pair, one of them did not like the other to be within sight and they both did not like the local White-faced Heron/Matuku feeding or flying by either. The dominant Reef Heron spent a lot of his time chasing the other one away and they both chased any nearby gulls and the White-faced Heron away. He just flew up to his favourite tree stump and laughed at them.

Totaranui- Bird Paradise

Real-time

This must surely be the grandest entrance to a DOC Camp in all of New Zealand. This is Totaranui at the northern end of the Abel Tasman National Park and the Abel Tasman Great Walk. The trees, alternate London Plane & Macrocarpa, were planted in 1856 by the first European settler & landowner, Williams Gibbs. He wanted an imposing entrance for visitors arriving by sea (the only means of access back then), and he sure got it, albeit many years after his passing. 

Gibbs established a farm of over 7000 acres here at Totaranui and supplied Nelson with milk & dairy products. He also built two holiday cottages which he rented out to holidaymakers. Even back then this little pocket of coastline was a popular holiday destination. Sadly the Macrocarpa looked to have succumbed to disease or old age as there were only large stumps in their spots! Ngatara, the farm homestead (see the link in the next paragraph for photos) is now owned by the Crown and used for school camps.

If you don't arrive by boat or on foot, Totaranui is accessed via a 12km narrow winding gravel road from Pohara in Golden Bay. And it's where we have been parked up for the last week. We've driven the road before but just as a day trip in the ute, this time we brought the 5th-wheeler along for the ride.

The road was fine, it's up and over a small range and not as bad as some we've been on. Just a couple of sharp switchbacks and a little narrow in places but with lots of areas to pull over if you meet other vehicles or need to let others pass. We timed it to cross over late morning when most of the traffic would have been ahead of us and any day-trippers would still be enjoying their visit.

The DOC campground is a very popular destination for holidaymakers and at the height of the summer season there can be over 1000 people in camp. It's a huge place with over 23 large bays for camping, each bay can hold anything from 10-20 campsites; fire pits (bring your own firewood) and picnic tables are a central point where campers can gather. There also fresh water available in every bay, a refuse collection area nearby and a dump station for campers (not day trippers as it's very expensive to empty septic tanks this far out).

Each bay is bordered by bush and some have the estuary as a backdrop, they stretch right along the beach although there is no camping on the ocean side of the road. There are numerous ablution blocks dotted about with flushing toilets, cold showers and more impressively, laundry tubs with hand mangles!

We have our bay to ourselves and at the most there have only been 8-12 vans in each night. If I didn't know any better I'd think we were here by ourselves. Most have headed to the end of the camp beside the estuary where they can access the boat ramp and do some easy whitebaiting in the numerous streams that flow from the estuary.

We arrived in the sunshine and had a couple of lovely days before the heavens once again opened up and it rained solid for nearly three days. Luckily we have been able to access the internet through the big wet.  Netspeed has been a Godsend, although even with the big booster Yagi aerial pointing all the way across the bay to Nelson, it's been mostly borderline and often we have only been able to connect to read but not contribute.

Just like Kaiteriteri, Totaranui also has the same beautiful golden sand; this is looking south into the Park and towards Awaroa...

...and north to the end of the bay... 

 ...where the huge estuary empties into the ocean twice a day. 

This is just a tiny section of the estuary and at high tide it's at least thigh deep.

The bird life is prolific with, unusually, the most common sighting being of the Kereru/NZ Wood Pigeon.

I'm sure there's at least a few hundred birds around the camp; any casual glance into the surrounding bush, under the tree canopy or up to any bare trees produces three or four birds glancing down as they rest during the day. 

This one was perched precariously in a small bush; wings spread, sunning itself in the warm afternoon sun. 

I counted at least 20 birds feeding in a patch of tree lucerne which they have nearly stripped bare. 

They squabble, flap, bash and bumble about through the soft vegetation with most staying put as I pass by. It's such a treat to see them at such close quarters.

Sadly this bird with the odd coloured feathers is not well, it has a wound on it's neck which may have been punctured by a branch as it landed to feed.

While Kereru and Tui swoosh and soar about above us, down on the ground Weka and Pukeko roam throughout the camp. Here a Western Weka stretches and spreads it's wings as it soaks up the warm sunshine (I know how you feel mate!). I had to laugh the other night, I forgot to turn the water pump off and when I visited the little room at some unGodly hour the pump swung into action along with what seemed like the whole population of weka screeching out their alarm calls at the noise.

I have been surprised by the lack of chicks on the ground for both the weka and pukeko although I did manage to spy these two chicks with their parent hidden in some tussock. It's either a little too early or they are being kept out of harm's way- I've seen weka stalk and attach pukeko chicks and I know pukeko kill ducklings so they'd likely kill weka chicks too. 

And looked who else popped up- a regular visitor at Kaiteriteri- a male California Quail with his partner. I've only spotted the two birds although I've heard a few calling but there are nowhere near the numbers we saw at Kaiteri.

It's not only the humans who are whitebaiting in the estuary...

...this Kotuku/White Heron is a regular visitor snatching at the small fry swimming up the channels...

...that weave their way through the Jointed Wire Rush.

Along with a pukeko who was also grabbing at the whitebait swimming past in the clear water.

While walking around the edge of the estuary I disturbed a weka digging for and munching on tiny crabs. 

I'd noticed a track through the estuary when I was looking at the google map of the area so yesterday afternoon I went exploring. The 'track' was on an embankment with a fast flowing stream on one side and a swamp on the other and I had to fight my way through so much gorse it wasn't funny. It left the road back near the entrance to the park and reached right out into the estuary coming to an end not too far from the north end of the campground and just across the reeds from where we are parked. The deep stream and high tide stopped me from heading home this way. 

I was very excited to find some deer prints in the sand about three quarters of the way along and could see where they'd walked down to a bush and munched the ends off it. There was also a wide swathe of bent reeds through the swamp where I think they may have made a quick exit. 

But best of all I saw five highly secretive Fernbirds/Matata, one carrying nesting material. More like a mouse than a bird, Matata creep silently through the undergrowth very rarely making an appearance above. I heard them 'clicking' long before I spotted the first one, but then one made a dash across the sand from a bush on the embankment down into the reeds, looking very much like a mouse with a feathered tail. I sat quietly for about 20 minutes before this one made an appearance from out of a gorse bush. It soon flitted across and down into the reeds too.

 Totaranui, what a great place to bird watch!