A nautical day

We got a day pass on the False Creek ferries and enjoyed a harbour cruise to Kitsilano beach.

Great views of the city.

 We hopped off at the Maritime Museum wharf, home to some picturesque wooden boats... 

Then we went into the museum...

...where we learned about the St Roch and its voyages through the North West Passage. We had a tour aboard... 

this is the galley...

... a view looking down onto the deck.

This crow was getting shelfish from the piles.

An almost camouflaged heron.

I think I've seen my first moose!

We found this quaint cafe - had to shoo away one of those crows trying to eat our muffin!

Called in at a few stops on the way back, including Granville Island.

 

The road south

The drive along the Kaikoura coastline was beautiful...

Malcolm treated himself to crayfish at the Lobster Shack...

We were able to change our ferry booking and spent some time in Picton before sailing back to Wellington.

Leaving the Marlborough Sounds for the North Island - it can be seen on the horizon. The crossing takes three and a half hours.

 

Tiritiri Matangi Island

A group of us went over to Tiritiri Matangi Island, a wildlife sanctuary in the Hauraki Gulf. Although it's autumn we had a lovely sunny, warm day. We caught the ferry from Gulf Harbour - it's about 20 minutes from there to Tiri.

The island is covered by native bush, except at the hilltop where there is a lighthouse and the old keepers houses. There's a shop here and an area to eat picnic lunch.

We took the guided tour, along a track from the jetty to the lighthouse area. After lunch we walked another track back to the beach. Along the way there were bird feeding stations and we also saw birds in the bush. Above is a bellbird.

Views across the Hauraki Gulf towards Auckland.

A tui feeding

Malcolm bird spotting

More bellbirds

A hihi

A bellbird singing

Malcolm and Allister on the track

Some of the group relaxing on the beach

A little blue penguin

Our group, plus a young guide

Drinks and dinner on the way home.

 

Exploring Hokianga

 

We drove up the Kauri Coast and visited the giant kauri trees in the Waipoua Forest. This is Te Matua Ngahere, the second largest tree remaining in the forest...

...this is Tane Mahuta, the largest kauri tree. It's hard to show the size of these giants in photos, Tane Mahuta is 18 metres to the first branch and 4.4 metres in diamater. Tane Mahuta is around 2,000 years old and Te Matua Ngahere is between 2,500 and 3,000 years old. There were very few visitors so we walked amongst these giants almost alone.

Next stop, the Hokianga Harbour entrance. Then we drove down to Omapere and Opononi.

The visitor centre and cafe on the waterfront are new since our last visit. We had lunch here, then wandered around the village.

The famous statue commemorating Opo the dolphin, who delighted swimmers by playing with them in 1955. nearby there was a wall with murals depicting Opononi's history.

We continued beside the harbour to Rawene. Luckily, Clendon House - that we'd been wanting to visit for ages - was open and we got a personal history from the guide. fascinating local history from NZ's early days.

Clendon House

To get to the north side of the harbour we took the vehicle ferry from Rawene to Kohukohu. We had coffee at Kohukohu, which is an interesting little settlement.

Cafe

Pou whenua and historic homes at Kohukohu.

Then we drove up into the hills to our airbnb, where

we stayed in a little hippy-style cabin.

Malcolm 'relaxing' after wine o'clock

This is the pond at our airbnb the following morning. A very peaceful spot.

We spent the next morning exploring the north Hokianga.

At Pangaru we came across a memorial to Dame Whina Cooper who led a lands march when in her 80s. (This was in 1975.)

We drove on unsealed roads as far as Mitimiti, a very remote west coast beach. It was almost deserted (just 2 fishermen) and we could see up and down the coast for miles.

On the way back to Kohukohu we explored more little roads. here's our car at Rangi Point, with Opononi on the far shore.

After a picnic lunch at Kohukohu we drove north to Mangamuka Bridge. Then, joining SH1, we turned south and headed home.