Aotea Square 3

Aotea Square 2

Aotea Square 1

Floating above the flax

Goose-neck barnacles

We found these pelagic goose-neck barnacles clinging to a fragment of pipe at the waterline on Bethell's Beach. A commenter had kindly identified them for me when I posted a picture of another variety in 2009.



They were alarmingly active, waving around in a tortured fashion with little tentacles emerging from the shells every so often.


Apparently the foot (or neck?) is edible and tastes of crab claws but I wasn't tempted.

Trapdoor

A barnacle, looking suspiciously like something from the Starship Enterprise.

Tramlines

Tiritiri Matangi 2

Tiritiri Matangi 1

Back in Auckland, we took a boat over to Tiritiri Matangi where we ticked off a good number of rare birds. Some of the re-introduced birds are now thriving to such an extent that they need to be moved onto other pest-free islands and reserves so that Tiritiri doesn't become overpopulated.

Clockwise from top left - takahe (only about 200 of these birds in the world), round-leafed fern, stitchbird (hihi) in flax, bellbird (korimako), seed pods, brown quail, nesting black oystercatcher, native pigeon (kereru). (click on the picture for a closer look...)

Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens

The last point on our whistlestop tour of Northland was the Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens. As we'd rounded the Kaipara Harbour, we caught glimpses of the amazing sculpture collection of Alan Gibbs at The Farm.

Unfortunately it wasn't (and hardly ever is) open for visitors so we made do with the kilometre-long sculpture trail at the garden centre round the corner where we enjoyed the art and planting immensely.

Regrettably even those pieces weren't affordable so I'll be DIYing having been inspired by some of the more down-to-earth pieces.

Cafe Eutopia

Cafe Eutopia - the penultimate stop on our raod trip - can be found in Kaiwaka - also home to my favourite cheese shop. It was constructed from ferrocement and the design is really quite eccentric but very welcoming. Best of all, the vegetarian food is delicious - I had no idea a tofu toastie could taste so good.

Tane Mahuta - Lord of the Forest

This is Tane Mahuta, NZ's largest known living kauri tree. It's 1500 years old and over 50 metres tall.



It's hard to understand quite how big it is from these pictures but here's a shot of the crown of the tree - each branch is as big as a common or garden tree.



And here's a not-so-lucky kauri tree, turned into a staircase at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom in Kaitaia.



Most of the kauri wood which is used for woodturning and carving nowadays - including the staircase - comes from swamp kauri, big logs found in farmer's paddocks and excavated.

Opononi 2

Opononi 1

Rawene

Kohukohu 3

Kohukohu 2

Kohukohu 1

Hokianga Harbour

I see seashells...

Rarawa Beach

Sailing Ship

Postcard from Cape Reinga

The Tasman meets the Pacific

Te Werahi Beach, Cape Reinga

Ninety Mile Beach 2

Ninety Mile Beach 1

The sand dunes at Te Paki stream - would you believe that Ian bodyboarded down one of them?

Mangonui

Could this be the most picturesque Four Square supermarket in New Zealand?

Russell

Due to my total lack of activity over Christmas, there's been no escapades or adventures to report. So there's nothing for it but to pick up where I left off in mid-December with some more shots of our trip around Northland. We'll be continuing up the east coast and returning down the west coast.

This is Russell, our overnight stop in the Bay of Islands. Russell was NZ's first capital and known as the hellhole of the Pacific because of the wild behaviour of the whalers and other early settlers. So it's apt that NZ's oldest church should be found there.

White Rabbits!

Happy 2011!