Days 85 - 87 Waipoua Kauri forest continued
Trip Start
Nov 29, 2007
1
54
70
Trip End
Mar 27, 2008
Orewa,
New Zealand
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Along the way, we made a slight detour to see the four sisters which are a graceful stand of four tall Kauri trees, clumped together. They are nowhere near as huge as the tree we have just looked at but they are impressive and (we thought) worth seeing. It was only a ten minute walk to Te Matua Ngahere which presides over a clearing surrounded by mature trees that look like matchsticks in comparison. This tree definitely has the wow factor, the trunk is 5m in diameter and to see it for ourselves was something else. The trunk is absolutely huge, you can't help but just stare at it. Again, you can't get that close to it as there is a large fence around. I wonder how big the roots are to support something this huge - it is amazing. We were both so impressed, it was quite humbling in a way to look at this ancient but still living tree. We headed back to our van after taking some photo's of it. It was starting to cloud over. We have both enjoyed our walk in the forest this sunny morning and we are so glad that we have made this detour to see it.
It started to rain just as we got to the car park, good timing for a change. We then headed down south with the intention of getting as close to Auckland as we can so our journey to Rotorua won't be as long. Dean is feeling quite poorly with his cold and it was a long drive for him all the way to Orewa. I was quite surprised we actually got that far, it looked a long way on the map and he did well.
Dean needs to recover and recuperate so we booked into the top 10 holiday park for two nights and I went off to try and find an open pharmacy for some sudafed while Dean had a kip. We are about a twenty minute walk from town along a coastal track. We have a river-front campsite, it is an estuary and the sandy beach is just to our left. It seems a nice campsite, it is huge and they proper cram you in. The sites are all numbered and very close together leaving little room for manouvre. It is a nice little seaside town with lots of restaurants, a few bars and plenty of shops. There are two large pharmacies but unfortunately they both closed an hour ago, today is Sunday. So I bought him a bottle of brandy instead and wandered back.
Dean was feeling a bit better after a sleep and was happy enough with the brandy. We had a meal and sat outside drinking that evening, it's certainly a lot warmer here and no bitey creatures - just lots of ducks. The ducks are hilarious, there are loads of them and as soon as you rustle a carrier bag, they appear from nowhere. I've never known such tame ducks, we fed them some bread and they were even hopping all over our feet. This is where Dean discovered (wearing his flip-flops) that ducks actually have little claws on their webbed feet. Then, they laid down around the van for ages to see if we would feed them anything else. We didn't and they eventually waddled off down to the water. We both slept really well that evening after our night in the forest, we were ready for it.
Much recovered the next day, we were awoken early by somebody drilling and making a right racket at 8.30am. There are a lot of static units here and two blokes were working on one of them, making a lot of noise with their power tools. Dean went and complained about it, I don't think it is unreasonable to complain about being woken up at 8.30am when you're on holiday. They did, and their reply was "well, the day has started." The staff here are not particularly helpful or caring towards their guests.
We went for a walk around the town and the estuary that afternoon and we decided to make hot-dogs for tea, using the cooker in our van. We haven't used it much, instead choosing to use the kitchen facilities but we are miles away from them here on our site. We fried them up in the pan and all the ducks appeared from nowhere, and were quacking around our feet. There must have been twenty of them, we were tripping over them to move around. Dean was cooking and they kept jumping on his feet and pecking his legs, it was so funny. Surely ducks don't like sausage and onions? We made a huge hot dog each and sat eating it while the ducks walked in between us, looking at us. They were more like begging dogs, they don't know they're ducks, this lot.
We discovered an injured duck on the grass behind our site, the poor thing couldn't walk but it wouldn't let us go near it. It tried to move using it's wings everytime we went too close and it was obviously in pain so we threw it some bread soked with water within pecking distance and left it alone. I went to the office to find out if they have an RSPCA or something similair but it was closed for the evening and I couldn't find any numbers in our Lonely Planet.
The next morning we were leaving for Rotorua and the poor bird was by now obviously dying. It had rained in the night and it was soaked and didn't even attempt to move when we went near it, just gave a pitiful quack. I felt sorry for the poor thing and went to the office to report it. The woman on reception didn't seem to care much but did find a local number for the SPCA, although would not take responsibility for it herself. I asked here to give me the number anyway and I rung them myself from my mobile. Uncaring towards their guests and their ducks, Orewa Top 10 holiday park gets a thumbs down from us.
