North Island - Trounson Kauri Forest

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Trouson Kauri Forest is beautiful. We had what , so far, has to rate as our favourite campsite. It was gorgeous - surrounded by forest, a river with a swimming hole, lovely and quiet, brilliant pitch by the river, and fantastic amenities. We settled comfortably by the river where Rob proceeded to get bitten by sandflies - they loved him! For once, I was left alone - perhaps it's only mozzies that like me. It was a beautiful day, so I went for a swim in the river - Rob was too much of a pansy and said it was too cold, but it was lovely - very refreshing after a hot drive. We booked an evening walk in the forest with the owner of the site for that night, hoping to see a kiwi.

We set off on our night walk just as it was getting dark and walked for about 2 hours. We saw wetas (creepy looking members of the grasshopper family that look like giant dangly spiders - if you stretched their legs out to measure them they would be about a foot wide - not the kind of thing you want tangled in your hair, especially if it's madly thick and curly like mine!); we saw eels, heard morporks calling, but began to despair of hearing or seeing a kiwi, when suddenly one was right there. She was making a terrible noise walking through the leaves and we stood in wonder and awe watching her walk away into the undergroth. Suddenly a terrble 'screamm'came through the air. We knew it wasn't the usual kiwi call. The scream went on and on really close to us. Our guide thought perhaps a wild dog had got her, so he and Rob carefully went towards the noise. We waited, holding our breath, then they suddenly returned. Two kiwis had been fighting - luckily there was no wild dog and both birds were fine. Rob was excited as he had now seen two birds in one night! Magical.

The next day we went on the same circular walk, only this time in the daylight. It was wonderful seeing the ancient kauri trees and the birdlife was great too. All in all, a truely wonderful few days.

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Photos

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Rob posing in front of a kauri tree

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Me in front of more kauri trees

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One of the giant kauri trees

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Rob - more posing!

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Me cooking dinner from the back of Erica on our campsite

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This was our fantastic pitch on the camping site! Just beautiful - and right next to the river and its swimming hole.

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The river on our campsite

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Me swimming in the river

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Me just going for a dip in the river