Sunny afternoon

The heavy rain continued overnight and as we drove towards Opononi this morning, we came across many flooded fields, rivers having burst their banks and flooded roads.

Whilst the majority of the group went sand dune boarding, we went to The Landing Café for brunch – excellent scrambled eggs on toast with mushroom on the side, smoothies and flat whites. We’d skipped the team breakfast again this morning – a small price to pay for more sleep time.

The woman at the i-SITE (these are tourist information places) reckons that the rain has now stopped, and the forecast’s for 100% humidity.

Travelling through the Waipoua Forest, we stopped to take a look at a large Kauri tree. We had to clean and spray our shoes on the way in and on the way back. This is to stop spreading the dieback disease which is killing the trees.

The next stop was at the Kauri Walks, not far away – a series of walks to go and see various old Kauri trees such as the second or seventh largest Kauri trees in New Zealand. With the timeframe we had, we constricted ourselves to the Four Sisters, a group of four Kauri trees rooted together. The walk through the forest was lovely with the green popping out from the rain and I can confirm that the lady at the i-SITE wasn’t kidding. Humidity is high.

Just as we left, the rain started again. Later than the last few days so we took that as a sign that things are improving. Our timings for New Zealand were good, summer going into autumn. But this definitely feels like autumn going into winter.

Dargaville, where we had our lunch stop, is the kumara capital of New Zealand. From my time in the Kerikeri library yesterday, I now know that kumara is the Maori world for sweet potatoes. That’s its claim to fame. It produces two-thirds of the country’s sweet potatoes. Apart from that, there isn’t much else especially since the demise of the Kauri timber and gum exports. We’d planned to skip lunch (that’s why we had brunch) and were aiming for the Dargaville Museum.

It’s an award winning museum – allegedly – and a pretty good regional museum. There’s supposed to be a gumdigging display, Maori and musical instruments and a model railway. The museum also has the masts of the Rainbow Warrior. That name brought back many memories – mainly of demonstrations outside the French Embassy in London in the mid-90’s. But of course, it wasn’t to be. The museum is out of town. We could have been dropped off there, but it was a 38 mins walk back to the meeting point and our lunch stop was one hour.

Andy went off the explore the waterfront, and I took to the streets in search of historic buildings. We did see the masts from a distance, so that’s something. The rain had eased off by then and was replaced by a scorching sun. The North Face waterproof trousers we’ve been wearing for days were instantly uncomfortable.

Back on the bus, we drove on to Orewa where we’re setting camp right by the beach. We celebrated our arrival with a leap of joy; it hadn’t rained for two hours. Our cabin is literally as far as it could be from the group. It has a bathroom, a kitchen, a bedroom, a lounge and an outdoor terrace. We had an early dinner as some people were keen to go swimming. Andy and I walked along the beach; we’re only about 40 mins from Auckland so this is a commuting town, and the campsite definitely has a lot of permanent holiday caravans. The beach is quite mucky – lots of seaweed remains, probably from the bad weather we’ve had.

Back at the cabin, we wrote our diaries (we’re a little behind) and watched the end of the film we started yesterday.

Random musings and observations:

• It’s a Kiwi thing to walk around without shoes on. Wherever you are. On the road, in towns, everywhere
• There are lots of classic cars about. These are not just to show off at the weekend, people drive them all the time
• There are 30 million possums in New Zealand (human population: four millions). They are hated with a passion, mostly due to the huge impact they have on the ecosystems. The damage to native plants and forests can be seen all too clearly in many areas. Possums ignore old leaves and select the best new growth. In some areas they have eaten whole canopies of rata, totara, titoki, kowhai and kohekohe
• Letterboxes. These are generally at the end of drives, on the main roads. There seems to be a lot of work involved in making your letterbox as quirky or individual as possible
• We have seen more moos then baas so far, and plenty of beehives – manuka honey being a big thing here (and as an export)
• There are boards by the side of the road with pie charts. These can tell you the daily risk of fire, flooding or facial eczema – going for low to extremely likely. An arrow indicates the risk level for the day. Is that someone’s job? Daily?