Wenderholm to Pakiri Beach

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November 12th 2008

Published: November 12th 2008

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coco94

Our 1st NZ home

Wenderholm Regional Park

13th September 2008

At sunrise I was awoken with the screeching of a Pukeko (see photos) outside the van. These birds are like Moorhens on steroids, we love them, full of character and a brilliant royal blue colour. I dressed, put the kettle on and held my breath at the loos. When I returned Pili was up and we decided to have a little walk around. The grounds of the park were amazing, covered in a light mist with all the plants glistening with morning dew. We heard and saw our first Tui (see photos) from the family of Honeyeaters; unfortunately most of the family are now extinct.

This amazing bird has an other worldly song, very hard to describe except it’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard in the Northern Hemisphere. I’ll try to upload a video. Of course I recognised the song straight away as I heard it on Life of Birds with David Attenborough. Since I was a boy I’d always longed to personally hear these unique birds, I found the whole experience a little overwhelming and became a little emotional.

We spent the next hour walking around with our jaws on the ground. The setting

Wenderholm Marshland at dawn

was awe inspiring with an almost vertical hill to the south, a mangrove swamp and wet land leading down to the beach. Large beautiful trees were covered in a kind of rust coloured lichen on the south side of the trunks (see pics) The bird life was everywhere. We saw Australasian Harriers (similar to our Buzzard) California Quail, White Faced Heron, Paradise Shelduck, New Zealand Pigeon (huge bird), Spurred Winged Plover, and her nest with eggs, Red Crowned Parakeet, Kingfisher and the charismatic Fantail, all within an hour. Sorry mom I may not come home!

We went back to the van and Neal and Louise were up. I forgot to mention our chiller in the van wasn’t working so I phoned JUCY and insisted they pay for repairs and to find me a mechanic who could fix it, this they did but the garage wasn’t open until the next day as today was Sunday. Oh well another day in the park.

In the afternoon we all explored the long windswept beach, again more new species for me to photograph.

In the evening we all decided to walk the 2hr path up the adjacent hill through some very

Still very fresh faced

Wenderholm 1st morning

primeval forest. Half way up the sun was setting fast, I did mention that maybe walking through the forested hill and down the other side with its steep muddy slopes might not be such a good idea, I was ignored, typical. Anyway it all turned out good and we had some laughs in the dark, totally lost. Fortunately I had taken a couple of torches; someone has to think of these things.

14th September 2008

Next day we got to the garage to sort out the chiller, this takes a couple of hours so I just soak up the sun while the rest go shopping for more supplies. I’m not feeling too well again, I have pins and needles in my hands and feet and it’s quite uncomfortable to walk.

With everything fixed we hit the road and head for Leigh for a trip on a glass bottomed boat in the marine reserve the next day. We park up in a campsite right on the Pakiri beach, this will get boring, but yet another bit of paradise. Pili makes a spag bol and I get an early night, I’m feeling very rough.

I lay burning

I startled this Pukeko after he woke me up

up most of the night and I work out what’s wrong with me. I figure that because of my sickness in Tonga, shits, high fever, I’ve lost a lot of salt and the body needs salts to help the nervous system work. I’d sweated away all my salts and I was having a neuralgia type symptom. I got up told Pili my theory and necked a load of salty snacks and a couple of boiled eggs dipped liberally in sea salt. Within a couple of hours the pins and needles in my hands and feet were fading, what a relief.

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