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Published: November 13th 2008
1st light Cape Reinga
We filmed the complete sunrise, then had breakfastSunday 21st September (half an island done!)
We set the alarm on Pili’s phone for 6:00am to catch and film the sunrise, WOW it was really worth facing the cold of the morning. This was Pili’s first full sunrise, she’ll never forget it either, stood on the very northern point of New Zealand and capturing it all on film, it was a great moment to share together.
Invigorated by the magic we had just witnessed we set out for an hours walk along the headland to get a better view of the beaches from above, all before breakfast. We worked up quite a sweat, not realising quite how steep some of the path was.
When we returned to the van I made us breakfast and we met our neighbours in the adjacent van. Matt and Mel were from Stourbridge and Walsall, what a small World!! We found that we were all heading the same direction, (obviously as we’d ran out of land), and concluded that we should travel together, first heading for the GIANT sand-dunes and try our hand at Dune Surfing. When we arrived the guy who rents out the Dune Board had decided to have a
day off, BAR STEWARD! We concluded, we’re here so we might as well scale the dunes and get a view. The dunes are practically vertical and approx 80-100ft high. The techniques for climbing these monsters is one step forward, gasp, seizure and slide three steps back. As the designated cameraman, I initially stayed at the bottom filming Pili, Matt & Melanie’s ascent. When finally they reached the top they just disappeared, leaving me like a lemon stood in the middle of a desert, thanks guys!! I tightened my camera bag on to my back and started the climb. As if this wasn’t a challenge in itself, I was hampered by my increasingly heavy camera bag sliding across my shoulders, around my neck cutting off my air supply, YEAH, I’m having fun now! When I reached the top, the guys had returned from trying to get a glimpse of the coast line. Matt then suggested that we all take turns and run of the top of the dunes, leaping into the void to see how far we could go. What a great idea, I thought; I was still trying to get sand from behind my eyeball and coughing up perfectly formed
little sand-castles.
Again I was designated camera man (see pics) I was quite sure what I was about to film was Matt and Mel, in tandem receiving self inflicted spinal injures. I had vision of myself and Pili carrying a couple of paralysed nutters out of the desert on our backs. Thankfully I was wrong and I was persuaded to have a go myself, in for a penny and all that. I didn’t give myself too much time to think about it, I just ran at the edge of the dune and launched myself. What a laugh, I fell approx 30ft and slumped into the sand. I actually went further than all the others, probably due to my aerodynamic physique . Of course you then have to scale the slope again, shit!!! We all played at this for about 15mins when a young German couple climbed to the top with sand boards. They’d been to the local farmer and hired them. Pili being at her most forward asked if we could have a go with the boards, they happily agreed as long as we returned the boards back to the top of the dunes. At this point I made
Pili climbing Sand Dunes
I'm a dead man for uploading this shot
SMILE! my decent to film Pili from the bottom. The speed acquired with the boards was impressive, taking about 5-7 seconds to reach the bottom. It’s all on film including a spectacular crash from the young German guy. We were pretty knackered by know so we made our way back to the car park and had some bread and honey and a well deserved beer. What a magnificent morning.
The plan for the afternoon was to visit the famous ‘Waipoua Kauri Tree Forest’. The Kauri tree was once found all over New Zealand and being the second largest tree on the planet after the Red Wood of North America. We didn’t quite get as far as we thought we would so we park up at Rawene (meaning ‘the rising and setting of the sun’ so a local Maori told us) after a long and winding route to the ferry crossing. On the way to the ferry we did lose our way a little. We came across a country lane rammed with cars and people, I mean hundreds. I stopped and asked what the advent was, expecting a festival/music event. I was told with much enthusiasm that it was a pig
hunt!!!! We were out of there without any further ado, Rednecks with guns, Yee Haa. Later in the town we were told that they don’t use guns so much to kill the feral pigs, the usual practise is to leap Rambo style onto the poor hog and slaughter it with a knife. It’s a right of passage apparently for the young-uns. It was all little to surreal for my liking, were we in a remake of ‘The Deliverance’? When we reached the ferry the van in front of us belong to our nutter friends, Neal & Louise. They immediately started to compare places and sights they’d experienced compared to ours, what’s with these people, they were seriously trying to compete with us. With a straight face I told them about the pig hunt and that they’d missed out, they were not amused, ha ha. I think I hit a raw nerve with Neil because he is NOT allowed to eat meat since Louise is a vegetarian. I could see Neil straddling a porker with a blade in his teeth and a bottle of ketchup in his hands…(poor bugger)
When we arrived at Rawene we all decided we should go
and meet some locals and have a pint or two and take the piss ruthlessly out of ‘the nutters’. We found the local Masonic Club and were welcomed in by the handful of locals in there. A couple of beers and a of game of pool with a local guy and we headed back to Matt & Mel’s van for a Spag Bol made by Melanie’s fair hands, very good it was too. Pili then crashed (too much red wine) and I stayed with the guys until 1am putting the World to rights)
We started early this morning; we headed on down to the Kauri forest. I was particularly interested in seeing the 1200yrs old Kauri tree ‘Tane Mahuta’ which means ‘God of the Forest’. The forest was very impressing, very primeval. The ‘God of the Forest’ was massive, we felt like bugs next to it.
We then went to another section of the forest to see the ‘Te Matua Ngahere’ (Father of the Forest) which is the 2nd largest tree in New Zealand and even wider, some 16-17 metres, amazing!! In the car park on our return we noticed Neal & Louise’s van again; we made a
hasty retreat much to Matt & Mel’s amusement.
Next stop ‘Trounson Kauri Forest’ this was famous for its glow worms and Brown Kiwis. This is the stuff I’d been waiting for. When we arrived it was raining a little, so we made coffee and sat in the van waiting for the rain to stop and watched a family of Californian Quails feeding on the grass verge.
Guess who turned up, this is getting annoying and a little creepy; they told us they were going to go on a guided tour through the forest, suckers. No way I am going to pay for a tour to see wildlife, I’m a naturalist, I’ll find my own bloody beasties. I told the guys we should come back after dark and I’d take them into the woods to find the critters. Our priority was to find somewhere nice and free to park the night. I suggested we get some local knowledge from a pub (any excuse) The landlady in the first pub we came to told us to park down at the Maunganui Bluff, we might even see some seals, perfect! When we arrived at the bluff, guess who was there, BOOOORRRRRRING!!!!
They were leaving thank God. We parked up by the toilet block and I cooked us a Chicken Tikka Masala much to the delight of everyone.
At 10pm we all wrapped up warm and on my suggestion we headed down to the beach. I though we might have a chance of seeing a Kiwi, they sometime forage on the beaches at night for sand-hoppers. We walked for about 20minutes but no luck. It was now time to head for the forest.
A 15 minute drive only stopping to watch some possums crossing the road we arrived at our destination. Armed with our torches we ventured into the pitch black woodland. Within 10 metres we came across a small stream. Sat in the clear water was a Large Finned Freshwater Eel. The eel was at least a metre long and a thick as my arm, what a truly magnificent animal. It was quite undisturbed by our presence as I captured him on film.
Another 20 minutes walk and I came across an up-rooted tree covered in what looked like fairy lights. Of course we’d found the Glow Worms. Actually they are not worms but in fact a fly
larva or maggots if you like. The glowing end of them is produced from a gas they release. It’s not quite as romantic: Farting Glow Maggots and Glow Worms. This was a magical sight to behold, like something out of a Disney film. On photographing them I noticed among the colony were several large Wetas. These are large and very ancient cricket type insect. (See pic) The fossil record goes back a few hundred millions years for the beasties, what a night we were having.
We walked around the whole forest path, taking about two hours. We didn’t see any Kiwi, which was a shame, we did here them all around us though, the screeching males and the low humming from the females. A very eerie sound track for a perfect night time adventure.
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