Travel Blog

We went somewhere new today - Goat Island Marine Reserve. And, boy, is it ever nice there! There's a Marine Centre run by the University of Aukland, but unfortunately it's open only at weekends. That was just fine because there were great alternatives.

First of all, we headed for the Lookout. It was supposed to be a 45 minute round trip. We got there in about 10 minutes, though it was uphill all the way. Mind you, the trail was gravel roadbase, so it was dry and firm, and so there was no muddy slogging. The northerly view from the lookout is back down towards the marine station and Goat Island (a heavily wooded island just a few hundred metres offshore.) To the south, one could see a rocky coast and the continuation of the trail. We kept right on going, up and down stairs, in and out of very 'jungly' forest, until we reached the end of the trail - Cape Rodney. What a view. I immediately hauled out my paints, while my Beloved watched the gannets fishing just offshore.

Cape Rodney

As soon as I finished my sketch, we headed back to the car and our packed lunch. I was starving, but it was worth it! We sat on a log on the beach and opened up the container. Immediately, we were surrounded by Red-beaked gulls, posturing and calling. Do you think maybe visitors feed them a lot? They were out of luck. We're not into giving birds people food. That didn't seem to dissuade them. At one point, we had a juvenile gull, a one-legged female Mallard, and a male House sparrow all begging. Interesting mix.

Afterwards, I tried another w/c, this time a more traditional one without any pen & ink. Not very successful, but it's the first time I've painted with an entourage of gulls serenading me from just a few feet behind me. And, of course, they'd screech just as I was starting to do something very delicate. I was tempted to shake my paintbrush in their direction, but this was a reserve, so I'm supposed to be nice to the fauna!

Goat Island Marine Reserve

TODAY'S TIDBIT

Schoolbuses here are white, not yellow. They have a big sign on the front, saying 'SCHOOL', and the ones we've seen are all quite new and modern.

The Valley at High Tide

It was a gorgeous day today, sunny and warm. I got to go painting outdoors - in shorts!!! It's the equivalent of February down here, so to be able to play the Kiwi and wear shorts in winter is a big deal. Especially when I'm sitting still. Usually I need all kinds of extra layers to stay warm when I'm painting. This was very nice. I could get to really like this!

TODAY'S TIDBIT

They have 'pumpkin' down here, It looks a bit like a squat hubbard squash, and its flesh is bright orange. It's really tasty as either soup or a dinner vegetable. And it's a great bargain - $2.50 NZD each. Considering a single pumpkin can give you several days' worth of soup and a few veg dishes, it's one of the best buys around. Sorta makes up for the $3.00 leeks. Sorta...

It was sunny today! Oh, joy! Not only does that make things warmer outdoors, but also it means that the house heats up very nicely from passive solar heating. Also, the hills across the way are bathed in sunlight, and the sheep show up as tiny bright white dots against the spring green of the pastures.

The local farmer has his herd of cattle in the bottom lands. Every day, he moves the electric fence over about 25 metres to let the cattle have fresh grass. Unfortunately, since the field is so wet from all the rain, the hooves really chew up the sod, and you can see each day's progress down the field. Hey, maybe I should try to paint that. Maybe tomorrow. For today, it's another sky:

TODAY'S TIDBIT

The climate here is subtropical, so all kinds of plants naturalize on their own. It's not unusual to see Camellias growing on the hillside overlooking the Mahurangi River or Jasmine blanketing every bush within sight. Right now, most shrubs and trees are flowering. Makes everything awfully pretty.

A quiet day here in the antipodes. Went for a longish walk out toward the point and checked out some of the side trails that run from the road up on the ridge down to the ocean on either side of the peninsula. You can go down one, walk the beach at low tide, and head back up the next. Good workout for the legs, and one always sees Oystercatchers on the beach.

TODAY'S TIDBIT

There are no marinas here. All of the boats anchor out. The harbours are fairly shallow with good bottoms. Owners keep small dinghys on the beach and row out to their moorings when they want to go sailing. It makes for a much more natural shoreline, but then again, the open bays are all full of anchored boats.

Wow. That was an ugly few days. But I'm feeling a lot better, so it's time to add another blog item.

I have to comment on another of New Zealand's weird and wonderful birds, this time the Pukeko.

Pukeko

It looks like a big, gawky chicken. You can see them all over the fields, stalking along a bit like herons. They do fly - sort of. Native New Zealand birds didn't need to fly because there were no ground-based predators, no mammals. The Pukeko's current scourge is the Australasion or Swamp Harrier, a relatively recent arrival (mid-1800s).

Well, we'd had quite a bit of rain, mainly in sudden squalls that broke up the sunny periods. For the last day or so, however, we've had RAIN. Probably at least 50 - 75mm or more, driven in heavy sheets by gale+ force winds. Just lovely. As my Beloved woud say, "It's a harbour day."

The field in the valley has become a lake that has spread as the tide came in. I feel sorry for the poor cattle that a farmer put into the field a couple of days ago. They're not swimmimg, but they're close. Their hooves must be sinking quite deep into the turf.

TODAY'S TIDBIT

I have yet to see a kiwi vine anywhere, but there must be some somewhere because there are lots of the fruit in the stores. And they're nice and cheap. There's also a variant called a 'golden kiwi' that costs a bit more. It has a bit of a lemony tang to it and is quite nice. (I still prefer the old fashioned green kiwis.)

Yep, more skies. The last few days have been clear and cold with amazing skies. It's not good for painting outdoors since not only is it pretty nippy, but also there are sudden, ferocious squalls of rain or hail. So I sit by the kitchen window and paint the skies that I can see across the valley. I'm still struggling with the new paper. Today I decided to paint on the back of it, which doesn't have the strong texture.

Unfortunately, with this wet weather, most of the park trails - or 'tracks' as they call them here - are taking a beating. A lot of them meander across sheep pastures, so they're all chewed up and way, way too muddy for hiking. We therefore walk down the road to the beach at the south end of the peninsula. It isn't quite as lovely as the park trails, but many of the bushes and trees are blooming with exotic flowers, and it's a good, hilly workout.

TODAY'S TIDBIT

Have I mentioned about garlic? It's $26.99/kilo!!! And that's not even organic. This hurts, especially since I left 90 plants in the garden when we sold the house. I sure hope the new owner realizes what a treasure she has.

The skies were quite amazing today, so I had to try again.

There's a bit of a cold snap on right now (highs of about 12C) with a forecast of possible heavy showers and hail. That's probably what was responsible for the fantaxtic clouds. After I tried dahsing off some skies - very reminiscent of doing quick life drawing poses - I had to get outside to experience the weather first-hand. Except for the usual gale force winds, it wasn't too bad, and the rain even held off until I was coming back down the driveway.

TODAY'S TIDBIT

I had another 'Northern' moment today. The forecast was for windes shifting to the south, so I automatically thought, "Oh good, at least it will warm up!". But NO. Of course not. Down under, that a polar wind, so things really will be cooling down.

Quiet day today. Rainy and grey. I didn't do much except make a big batch of chicken stock. There's a really good butcher in Warkworth, and when I asked if they had necks and backs for soup stock, he said he had whole carcasses and brought out a big bag of bones from which they'd removed their cuts. There was quite a bit of meat still on the bones. Brilliant! Tomorrow we'll have chicken soup, but I'll also freeze up the clear liquid in 2-cup measures so that I can make pumpkin (squash) and other potages in the days to come. Wonderful for lunches on rainy days.

TODAY'S TIDBIT

It takes a bit of getting used to the time difference. We're eleven hours ahead of the UK. (When its 6 pm here, it's 7 am in the UK.). And we're five hours behind BC, but tomorrow. (When it's 6 pm here, it's 11 pm yesterday in BC.). When we flew down, we lost a day, but we'll gain it back when we fly home. Fun, eh?