04/11/2017 Wake 5.20 am for loo break, the same odd sounding birds are just waking up too, I should try and record them!
Decided to try the WiFi and found it to be working, so started on the upload... I managed to get about 15 images uploaded, in 15 minutes, but then other people must have also started waking up as it struggled to manage even 1 at a time after that. I suspect I need to come up with a new strategy or better sftp software.
I dozed until around 8am again, and then went to hand in the mains adapter. I soke with the manager of the campsite who advised I could get an adapter that performs the same task as the one I had bought (but fits the sockets!), at the pharmacy in Paihia, so I made that my first mission of the day. I did some reorganising inside my tent and sorted out some rubbish and did some accounting, including updating my credit cards to take full balance instead of minimum payment, since I'm only really using them for convenience of payment methods rather than for gaining any actualy credit from them.
I meandered to Paihia and located pharmacy and purchased new adapter, ten headed to Vinnies for a breakfast muffin (yesterday's was good enough and convenient enough). I had a chat with 'Vinnie' who advised that there is nothing to do in Auckland and questioned the merits of me staying there for a few days, and then admitted that's where he was from, and that maybe there was a few things I could achieve there after all.
I checked the ferry timetable for Russel and discovered I had just missed one, so located the supermarket and bought some lunch materials, then boarded the next ferry to Russell.
I had decided to not pay for the $40NZ huor long tour, and first of all found the museum which Vinnie had described to me as being a single room. There was a $10NZD entrance charge, so I hesitated (looking at my finances that morning had made me balk somewhat, even though 1/3 of it was a cash withdrawal and I still had 1/4 of that cash - the day experiences (boating yesterday, and Cape Reingi tomorrow) were about $120NZ each - but I'm sure they are worth it in the long run.
I wandered to the Pompallier mission instead, and discovered it too had an admission fee of around $10NZ, so I wandered back to the tour office to see what the tour entailed - the lady confirmed it was only really going to the places and not going in to any of them, so seeing from the outside, so I decided that would be the strategy that I would adopt.
I spent a while at the Christ Church, as there were quite a few graves from around 1844/1845, which I learned yesterday was caused by troubles after the Maori people had signed a treaty and soon discovered it was a bogus deal (sound familiar anyone?)
After that, I wandered along to the Duke of Marlborough, as it was marked on my map as an essential tourist spot. As I approached it appeared to just be another hotel, however when I got near the entrace it became apparent that it was the first place in all of New Zealand to get a licence to sell alcohol. I decided to go in for a pint, and discovered that they now seem to think that same licence allows them to print money, as it was $11.50NZ for the pint (That's about £7 GBP)!!
Once I finished the pint, I started the walk up to the flagstaff preservation site. My map was not very good, so I had difficulty finding the path up, and once I got about 3/4 up I found a path that looked likely. I took my time enjoying the flora and fauna surrounding me - the plants made my think about going through the botanics back in Glasgow, but here they are growing outside, with all the related bird song and native sounds to go with it!
I reached a junction, which was sign posted for the people going the opposite direction, and discovered that the path I'd been unable to find, was due to the tide being up, so inaccessible. At this moment I heard the bird that keeps waking my up at 5am, so I tried to find a recorder on my phone. By the time I found it, the bird had stopped, and some French girls appeared on the path, wondering about the junction. I helpfully volunteered that one way led to the sea and the other way led to the flag staff, and they decided on the flag staff direction. I stayed on at the junction for a while t see if the bird would start snging again but it didn't, so I went on ahead.
The top of the path arrived and by this time I had caught the girls up again and they were looking at their map trying to decide where to go next. They weren't sure where they were on the map so I helped them out with that, and gained the benefit of having a better map to base my own decisions on. The girls went down to a bay, and I continued up to the flag staff.
The flag staff has quite a violent history, of being taken down by the locals and put back up by the colonials (see photo when it arrives!)
By this point I had decided not to do the sailing or kayaking, and instead to go on the mangrove+waterfalls walk, To this end, I had decided on the 3pm ferry which could take me straight to Waitangi where the path started.
I sat in the sunshine and made some sandwhiches, and some people came to sit beside me on the bench while they waited for their own ferry. They clearly had the same idea as me - the bench in the shade wasn't as good as the one in the sun!
We got talking and I found out that it was someone from Auckland, who had moved back after workiong in London for the last 12 years, and her Aunt who was visitting from Boston, MA. I got given some ideas as to things to do in Auckland, and we continued chatting n the ferry, then parted ways at Waitangi.
Recommendations for Auckland: Gallery park sky tower
They also gave a suggestion for what the bird might be - I can't recall the name, but they think it's a black colour bird with a white chest - that /should/ make it easier to find in a bird book!
I stopped by the campsite to put the food stuff in the fridge, and then set off for the mangrove walk.
During the walk, I bumped in to the Aunt/Neice couple again, who advised me that the gate at the other side closed at 5pm. I decided that I'd go on anyway, as my goal was the waterfalls, and if I got there too late that wasn't as bad as not trying and never knowing!
It was interesting walking over the mangrove boardwalk part, and learning about how the trees help preserve the soil, by having shallow roots that have sprouts/shoots that spread out over a large area.
Back on to 'normal' forest walk and I aw an Asian person which two cameras, one of them had a massive lens, so I commented on that, and he advised me that a bit further along there were some nests that I should look out for.
WIth that in mind, I pressed on, and passed a fairly steady stream of people coming the other way, making me wonder about the closed gate scenario. After a while, I came across the nests. Unfortunately, one of the parent birds looked like it had died by getting acaught in something, and the chicks were not best happy about it.
Around a few more corners, and an Estonian couple asked me if they were heading the right way for the mangroves. I confirmed that they were, and alerted them to the nests being ahead - pay it forwards as they say! We got an OK rapport, due to the fact that I have friends in Estonia, and they were surprised that a tourist in New Zealand that they happened to bump in to, would know anything about their home country. They confirmed that the day trip I'm booked on for tomorrow is well worth the experience, so that's reassuring!
It was after 5pm by this point, but I wasn't too worried, it didn't really seem like a place that would be locked up at night. After some more walking, I could hear the falls - at first I thought it was heavy traffic, but as I got closer it was definitely water falls. Around the next few corners and I was greeted with the falls themselves - both supplemental goals of the day achieved!
In order for the scale of the falls to be more apparent, I decided to take a video, and pretty much immediately got a battery warning on the camera - so much for my confident boat of yesterday - I'll have to charge the camera battery tonight - oh well, I still have two phone charges left in the power pack, so can manage that if I am efficient!
My planned route took me back along the road, but the path ran out at the top of a hill, so I asked at the convenience stores if there was an alternative pedestrian route, to which the answer was that the road was the only way. I somehow survived the part with no pedestrian walkway, and once I got to where there was one, it was clear it is still under construction - but that's a good thing, as it would open up a quick walker route to the falls from Waitangi
I had planned to go straight back to the tent when I got back, but as soon as I saw the sea, I knew that the best thing to do would be to go for a paddle to cool down my feet - best decision ever!
I'm not back at the campsite in the lounge, writing this up, and waiting for the camera battery to finish charging. I'm hoping that I can upload more photos when I get to Auckland - I still haven't worked out how to be able to handle the volume I appear to be generating, I'm pretty sure I took another 130 or so today alone! Any suggestions as to how to be able to back up 700MB a day over the period of a year (That's 250GB!!), please get in touch on Facebook!
Tomorrow the bus leaves at 0725h from the end of the campsite road, so I'm hoping to be able to capture that squacky bird on video, not least because it appears to be acting as a rather fine alarm clock :-D