Tag: geology

Onwards: Day 5 Mangroves and Bushfire

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Sunrise – looking a bit smoky – Australian Bushfires?

A crack of noon start to our onwards journey. Still not sure of our plan except that we are heading towards Wairere Boulders.  Shall we go on the ferry to Kohukohu and around or up to Kaikohe and along?  We decided to go to Rawene for coffee and some groceries, do the mangrove walk and then make a decision. Procrastination is strong but we are on holiday after all!

The coffee in ‘1 Parnell’ is good and we had another look around the artworks but didn’t buy anything. Tempted. A bit of WIFI access gave us chance to check the best route and we opted to go to Kaikohe thinking that it might be a good space to stop for lunch and get more supplies. 

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But first the mangrove walk. The mangroves (Manawa) are an essential part of the marine and coastal eco-system. When the logging industry came to Rawene and the Hokianga, some of that ecosystem was compromised by the mills and trade.  Since the mills have closed down the mangroves have started to reclaim the land on which the mill was built.  Some of the hauling mechanisms remain but most of the wood has rotted and sunk into the mud. According to the information boards, sulphur dioxide still oozes from the treated wood that lies buried in the mud. But nature has an amazing propensity to regenerate and it is good to walk along the boardwalk through the forest and see the new growth. 

Curious fact: between 1914 to 1948 Dr George McCall Smith developed a unique health-system for the Hokianga – he developed ‘pain-free childbirth‘ and women from all over came to Rawene to have their children!

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Saltwort

I am always amazed by the cleverness of plants to survive. The mangroves expel the salt from the seawater from the upper part of their leaves which have soft hairs underneath to trap the moisture so they don’t dry out. You can clearly see the salt crystals on the leaves and if you brush the leaves with your fingertips and then lick them you can taste the salt.

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Onwards then to Kaikohe: “Hub of the North” is the proud proclamation on the sign as you enter the town. It really didn’t feel like a hub mid-afternoon midweek. Nothing much was open and the place seemed pretty quiet. This fish and chip shop’s advertising may be just holding onto past glory a little tenuously! We managed to get some homemade samosas and mango lassi from a wee dairy which we saved until we found a spot to enjoy them in Okaihau. They were delicious. 

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Still award winners?

Okaihau, ( I love the meaning and the story behind the name of this place) provided us a place to eat our samosas and then have a wander. It is a wee place with a proud colonial and Māori history going by what we read on the information boards. There were a few shops and a couple of cafes though the cafe where we wanted to get takeaway coffee in our refill cups, refused to let us use them. Said they had a policy that only their takeaway cups could be used. We decided that was a policy we couldn’t support and left. Weird in this day and age where the majority of cafes now offer a discount if you have your own cup!

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It was half an hour round to Wairere Boulders but just a few kms out from Horeke, we were stopped by a firetruck.  On the way round we had smelled smoke and the air seemed hazy. We had assumed that it was the haze and smoke from the Australian bushfires reaching Northland. We had already seen photos from Kirikiriroa and Taranaki of haze and discoloured sun.  But as we turned a bend in the road we could see the smoke on the hillside and helicopters buzzing backwards and forwards dumping water. 

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No way on, road closed to Horeke for at least the next few hours so back the way we went to Ohaikau and the longer metalled road round. 

We arrived at Wairere Boulders – very well signposted and were welcomed by young Magnus who very politely and articulately explained the way the walks went, how much it all was and booked us into the campsite. 

All we can say about this place is just “WOW”! From the moment you walk into the valley, you see these huge house-sized boulders. Lying higgledy-piggledy where they came to rest. 

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This is one boulder!

The erosion on them is like that on limestone; lapiaz, karst, solution pits, karren, fluting but these boulders are not limestone they are basalt.  I won’t start to try to explain here the process involved in their formation – read more here , and here and here

We did the main loop and then the spurs off to the swimming hole and the lookouts but decided to leave the ‘Magic Rock” until the next day.  From the lookout you can see right down the valley and the enormity of the mayhem of boulders. Like a massive boulder choke in a cave the boulders are balanced around, on and under each other.

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Looking down the valley from the Lookout
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You can see the fluting on the right-hand side of this boulder. When the erosion happened, the left hand side of this boulder would have been the top.

The walk takes you in, around and through the maze of boulders so that it is more than a walk, it is an adventure, an obstacle course. I loved the way that the signs showing us the way through are bold, artistic and brightly painted. There are also signs for all the different trees and shrubs with their names in the red Māori and in English. Information about the kauri and their connection with the boulders are in ‘lift up’ boards and if you look carefully there are some hidden beasties around the place as well as fairy houses. 

The campsite had filled up by the time we got back but it is a beautiful peaceful place and we soon settled in for the night! Usual routine – dinner, reading, cards. 

To the right…

NZ

Having  gone left yesterday, today we went right. The plan was to go all the way to Waipapa Lighthouse and then work our way back but we were distracted by the Lost Gypsy Gallery which at first glance seemed to fit the bill to be in Owaka – rusty old bits of bicycle fashioned together and a ramshackle caravan. 
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However, we were soon mesmerised by the quirky, ingenuity of the ‘lost gypsy’.  A hundertwasser style coffee shelter with coloured glass bottles embedded in bench seats and  walls along with a myriad cornucopia of cogs, wheels, old tools, coins and anything else I recognised from my dad’s collection of tins in his shed.  The ‘temptation’ button tempted us (and everyone else who went past!) and our transgressing was rewarded by being sprayed with water.
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Inside the old caravan is packed with an amazing array of inventive engineering using aforementioned bits and bobs of everyday life. All those things my Dad hoarded because they might come in useful; springs, wires, string, bolts,  nails, cogs, wheels artfully blended with shells and driftwood with snippets of cartoons, interesting newspaper cuttings, pithy sayings and political satire thrown in for good measure.  Press a button and a wee train runs around a shelf above your head activating lights, jingles and other stuff. Kaleidoscopes,  light boxes, mechanical trompe d’oeil – the more you looked, the more you saw.  We spent a happy half an hour exploring the caravan and were so intrigued by it all that we decided to pay the princely sum of $5 each to enter the ‘Theatre’. 
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The ‘Theatre’ houses larger scale inventions,  some simple and some intricate but all made of things we would normally throw away; old telephones, bicycle wheels, bits of transistor radios,  television tubes, dolls, buckets, bells,  hairdryers,  whistles…..  The pièce de résistance was the piano, each key activated a different set of noises or actions. We must have spent a full half an hour ‘playing’ and identifying which key did what in this amazing theatre of light, sound and action.  Probably the best 5$ I have ever spent.
Back on the road we amended our plans.
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The day hinged on getting to Cathedral Cove for low tide so we decided to go straight to Slope Point and miss out Waipapa.  The rain fell for much of the car ride but cleared by the time we got to the most southerly point of South Island. Here the trees and grass appear to grow horizontally so strong is the prevailing wind!  It was a bracing walk to the point which is marked with signposts indicating the distance to the two poles.   Below the waves crashed on to the rocks the white foam exploding out of the blueness of the water on impact.  Mesmerising.
Onwards now to Curio Bay where 160 million year old trees lay petrified in the rock. Mud and ashflow from volcanoes felled the forest and buried the trees, the ocean levels rose and all were covered. Dropping sea levels exposed the rock and the action of the waves has gradually eroded the softer rock around the trees so trunks and stumps are clearly visible. 
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I love walking around rock pools anyway but Curio Bay is special. Once you get down onto the bay and look from ground level you can see the extent of the tree stumps and easily visualise the forest – tall, leafy trees where now there are only stumps.  Where there might have been lush undergrowth there are now rock pools rich with life – easy pickings for the gulls, oyster catchers and shags that stalk the beach.
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Seaweed is an incredible plant, isnt it?  There is a narrow channel there which is full of huge ochre coloured seaweed. clamped to the rock at one end its long ‘tails’ are free to snake backwards and forwards as the waves pulse in and out.  It is other worldly and the ‘heads’ atached to the rock made me think of the ‘ood’ from Dr Who!  
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Yellow eyed penguin nesting sites are roped off to protect them but it is sad that some people ignore the signs.  We spotted a group clustered up on the rocks close to the shrubs and dunes and realised that they were following a penguin.  Nigel managed to get a great video with his new camera on zoom of the penguin hopping away but that was the closest we got.
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Last stop of the day was Cathedral Cave. You will get wet, she said. How wet will depend on how well you judge the waves. We got wet! The huge caves are formed by erosion from the waves beating against the cliff.  Cathedral Cave is unusual in that there are two parallel caves which join at the back and form a horseshoe.  Apparently, years ago they were easy to access at low tide but the sand level shifts over the years and currently it is lower so the sea is always around the entrance. 
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Along with tourists from all over the world we hopped on rocks, dodged the waves and dashed between them to get into the cave without getting too wet.  By now the sky was blue and the sun was out so the views out of the majestic archway were impressive.  We wandered around for ten minutes or so before getting cold and heading out. 
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To Aonghas’ great amusement, Chris was caught by the back splash of a wave on the rock against which she was leaning and was drenched from head to toe!   Before setting out on the steep track through the bush back up to the car park Gus persuaded me to go for a swim.  Well, it has to be done, doesn’t it? Who can resist sun dappled, crashing waves?  Not me!


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