Bay of Islands
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2006
1
233
551
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
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Pahia,
New Zealand
Sunday, January 7, 2007
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That morning in Paihia, when I woke up my throat was not sore anymore, but I could feel my chest was heavily encumbered. I decided to stay in bed and have some rest, having a good excuse for doing so.
In the afternoon I still kept to my plans: I walked to Waitangi, to visit the house and grounds and visitors centre there. Waitangi is the place where the first governor of NZ and the Maori tribes signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, placing NZ under the crown of England but guaranteeing the right of the Maori over their land. Over a century and a half later, the treaty is still considered the founding document of NZ.
I then took the forest track to Haruru Falls, a 90 minutes walk passing through varied vegetation. Fern tree and forests mostly, but also mangrove. Mangrove grows on low level mud which is covered by the tides every day. Special vegetation grows there, trees with roots reaching far from the trunk to keep hold in the mud, leaves reducing losses of water, roots shooting upwards above ground level to breathe. Mud crabs, like tiny little shadows everywhere. And a number of birds, as well as fish I could not see but on which the cormorants were feasting.
In two places on the way, a tree would host a colony of cormorants: The chicks making a hell of a noise crying for food, while the parents could be seen in the river waters below, ducking and swimming underwater, coming up to the surface with a fish in the beak, which they would swallow quickly. When they came back to the tree, they would be assaulted by their chicks until these would manage to put their beak all the way down their parent's throat and start feeding from there. Didn't look too enjoyable from the parent's point of view.
I arrived at Haruru falls, a place filled with calm, a bid pond with cliff walls. The walk had been short, but I was quite weak with my half-functional lungs, so I hitched back to Pahia. I had a first lift offer from a guy who was jogging, and I refused it, although it was very nice! Then I jumped on a couple of Israelis at an intersection and asked them to take me. Otherwise tourists never stop to pick-up hitchers.
In the evening I met up with the girls, and we went to their place for a bbq. Back to my hostel, I prepared myself a grog to try soote my throat and lungs, and met lots of people, and I could not sleep so I stayed awake reading and meeting the drunk tenants as they were coming back one after the other from the bars.
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