Quick Update from the South Pacific

Quite pleased with this photo - brooding skies over Karioitahi Beach where the sand was jet black, never seen anything like it! Apparently it can get hot on the soles of your feet in summer. It goes on for miles north and south and next stop is probably South America. We walked for a while and had plenty of space although there were a few lads racing off road bikes up and down - mind you it was Sunday afternoon. The ice cream man was an elderly chap called Mr Muggeridge who sold cornets out of the back of his pickup.

We managed to get a bit of a mention in the parkrun news from last weekend where I came in second. How did that happen?
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Millwater-parkrun/313265495526151

Keep thinking that we are seeing New Zealand native birds but it's not quite like that.

These little so and so's were quite fun jumping up and down in the air and attacking each other at the Wenderholm reserve up the coast. We then found that they are Californian Quails, which are yet another introduced species - it's a wonder that there are any of the original birds left. Kiwis are fairly common apparently but they only come out at night - which is probably why they've survived this long.

No parkrun in the morning unfortunately - it's ANZAC Day so the whole of Australia and New Zealand is having a lie-in! We'll just have to do our own thing.

Imperial Stout!

This is from Moa Brewery. Got it on a special from the shop down the road - 10% ish so we didn't dare open it just yet. The Moa was a relative of the Ostrich but it was up to 12 foot tall! They became extinct about 500 years ago because they had plenty of meat on them and they were easy to catch - this was well before Captain Cook arrived and the Maoris were the culprits. Bet they must have tasted good - Moa Tikka Masala?

Up towards the Northland

Sporting folks these Kiwis, they're into rugby, cricket and running. But their tennis has suffered a bit in recent years especially in Mauku. Here's the local tennis club, we didn't have to pay to go in but there wasn't much going on anyway. Still it's in a very pleasant spot with two courts gradually being overtaken by weeds on either side of this dinky pavilion. Mauku is also home to St Bride's church. In 1861 during the Maori wars the newly built church was stockaded with split-logs set closely against the walls and rifle slits cut through exterior walls. The church became an important military post with as many as two thousand men being camped there. Women and children from the district were placed in safety on a schooner in the harbour but we haven't found out how long they were ensconced there!

Another church we found was built just 100 years ago in 1915, so it's a bit newer. this is Christ Church in Waiwera which we spotted when we were looking for the Waiwera hot springs! It's on the right hand side of the big finger of land that heads up north of Auckland. Very pleasant beaches and lots to look at in the Wenderholm Regional Park. We'd just done the Millwater Parkrun and I'd come second - seemed to be miles behind the front runner at the turnaround of an out and back course but I nearly caught the winner up in the last few hundred yards - 9 seconds behind at the finish - if only I'd pulled my finger out quicker! It did pour down a lot shortly after I took this photo but we found a pie shop! Kiwi pies are just as good as Aussie pies and I had a beef and onion pie and a chicken and mushroom pie (well I had just been exerting myself!) - Vicky had a quiche!

I mentioned that we'd headed up north of Auckland and I thought we'd made a bit of progress but the top end is over 300K north and the roads get progressively tinier - we really got less than a quarter of the way up - maybe next time.

Quick update - stars, birds and dinner.

Odd to see Orion upside down just now. The stars are all different down here and some of them we never see up north. Haven't seen the Southern Cross yet but we're close to Auckland and there's some light pollution so I haven't really looked yet - the cloudy skies are also a bit in the way. Today has been another typical day, short but heavy showers (the great big water tank is full) interspersed with hot sunny periods. However NZ winter is on it's way and they've had snow down south inland from Christchurch. Added to all this the moon is the wrong way round!

Spotted a furtive Grey Warbler this morning, endemic to New Zealand (which a lot of birds aren't) it's just about the only warbler down here. It moved too quickly for me to take a photo but here's a google-pic of one. We have seen quite a range of birds where we are including Tuis, Pīwakawakas which are a bit like Australian Grey Fantails and a Kereru, which is a great big pigeon which goes 'whoosh-whoosh' as it flies overhead. However thanks to rats, which wiped out a lot of native species many years ago, and the Acclimatisation Society most birds here are European. The Acclimatisation Society existed in the 18th Century and it's goal was to displace native birds with ones from back home such as blackbirds, thrushes and sparrows (never seen so many sparrows since I was 10 years old!) They wanted to hear the dawn chorus like what is was back home - homesick philistines they were!

 Dinner tonight was hoki, kumaru and hubbard squash. The hoki or Blue Grenadier fish is a meaty white fish, kumara is sweet potato and the squash I found at the side of the road. This is a real agricultural area and I'd been out for an extended run for an hour and a half and just coming round the corner back to base one of  these sat in the middle of the road - obviously just fallen off the back of a lorry - well what could I do? Kumaras are a staple round here, people of polynesian origin apparently live on them and they come in various varieties - we had red and white ones tonight. Tasty!!

Into Rural New Zealand

Tonight's beer festival! We've just sampled the Moa beer which is from Blenheim, South Island. This is their bottle conditioned South Pacific IPA which is another example of the Pacific ale that seems to have become established as a new Southern Hemisphere style of beer in the last few years. It's pale but it's definitely not a European style lager - we had a wonderful introduction to this style of beer last year with Stone and Wood's fabulous Pacific Ale from New South Wales Australia. Mac's Brewery have a couple on the table - their Hoprocker is a pilsner but with tons of hops - lovely jubberley! The Tuatara beers - well we have to get started on them now!

And this is why we are thirsty - an early morning jaunt at the parkrun round Hamilton Lake. Hamilton is the fourth largest city in NZ - about half the population of Chester. Nevertheless there were well over 100 runners at this very pleasant gallop round the lake - Vicky had a great run with over 40 behind her - she was 84th in 33.46 and I got 5th in 20.21. These parkruns start at 8 am but even in early April (which is their equivalent of early October) it was warm and muggy by 8.30!

Dropped down out of Hamilton a few miles to meet up with our contact Peter who runs a small (only 900 beasts) cattle station. Lovely views of gentle Clwydian looking hills from his back verandah - he passed on to us Rhian's excess luggage, which didn't make it onto her plane back home with her a few weeks ago, due to a ghastly prohibitive surcharge which was almost the cost of her flight. Cambridge, which is a pleasant country town in a pleasant fertile valley, is  best known for a garage rock band called the Datsuns and for being the birthplace of Sir Mark Todd. Vicky tells me he is New Zealand's premier 3 day eventer! Something to do with horses and medals (5!) at Olympics. I thought jockeys were small  but this guy is as big as me - bet he couldn't have beaten me this morning at the parkrun though!

This was this morning's Farmer's Market in Cambridge - 5 different varieties of Avocado, lots of wierd and wonderful fruit and veg plus black garlic! This is a caramelised garlic that we managed to have a taste of (I was looking for free samples mind you!) I really need to find out how to make this stuff!

Luck of the Irish

Just going down to the shops!

This was a fairly low key 5K road race round the streets of Auckland. We entered the race at O'Hagan's Irish bar by the waterfront and lined up on the road. There didn't seem to be any markers or marshalls but I followed the guys in front and did my best to avoid getting run over at the (unmarshalled) road junctions. they all seemed to be swift young  locals and the winner was 15 minutes something so over 4minutes behind, I wasn't doing too badly. The guy in red just to the left of me got me at the end  - turned out he was a headmaster from Cornwall over for a wedding.


 And here's the beach at Orewa - goes on for quite a way but this is a rainy Autumn day and there weren't too many Kiwi beach babies around. And it was Monday morning!

Beach baby!

NZ Running

 

Tried to shake off jet lag by both of us doing the parkrun at Cornwall Park, a historic park in Auckland. Bit of a hill in it and Vicky went too far down so did more distance than she should have done. I was 21st out of 163 in 21.53 and she was 147th in 39.13. High standards here - there was a 60 year old lady coming in in 23.32. These signposts are from the second Parkrun yesterday at Barry Curtis Park south of Auckland - I got a fourth placing in 20.44 and Vicky tried to volunteer to help, as she has a shin splint niggle, but she was sent round the course in any case, as a tail end Charlie, and she had a pretty good outing anyway.




Galloping round the marina at Auckland O'Hagan's 5K course went right past the superyacht My Serene - owned by a Russian Vodka tycoon this has three helicoper pads, an indoor climbing wall and several swimming pools. Ooh look it's for charter - shall we take it out for a spin? Despite having raced three days before this was my best time of the year over a 5K course coming 17th in 20.22. And this race was actually better value than a parkrun. Parkruns are free to enter whereas O'Hagan's 5K was $7 but this included a beer, and I went for the Emerson's Bookbinder which was light and refreshing and would have cost $9!