We decided to spend the next day visiting the Wairarapa, one
of the wine growing regions in New Zealand. The Wairarapa is full of rolling
hills and vineyard after vineyard. We made our way through another series of
hairpin turns in the Rimutaka mountains to reach one of the small villages of the
Wairarapa, called Martinborough. Martinborough is a village centered around a
small grassy square, and in all directions, there are vineyards. You can visit
any of these vineyards’ “cellar doors”, but the tastings are quite expensive. I
am not a wine enthusiast, but it confuses me that the vineyards charge so much
for visitors to taste their wine, when tasting a wine and enjoying it seems a
sure way to sell bottles of it. We therefore avoided the cellar doors, and
visited the Martinborough Wine Center in the village, where we were able to
taste several of the rose and white wines that were being featured this month.
Taking a bus tour of the wineries would have cost us several hundred dollars,
and in the end I decided that I would have trouble looking myself in the eye
after spending so much just to allow me to get tipsy on wine. I can buy a few
$10 or $20 bottles of wine and drink them at home if I want to get tipsy (or just
one, to be honest, I’m a cheap date). After our glass of wine’s worth of
tastings, we wandered around the square, visiting stores with very pricey
offerings, and had a leisurely lunch before heading back to Wellington.
The drive was beautifully pastoral, and we considered our
Martinborough excursion an afternoon well spent. The following morning we
resolved to rise early, have breakfast with a colleague on sabbatical from my
workplace, and visit the Karori bird sanctuary prior to our return to Auckland. The Karori bird sanctuary, also known
as Zealandia, is one of two main inland bird sanctuaries in New Zealand. The other bird sanctuaries are small
islands just offshore.
Maintaining an inland bird sanctuary is difficult,
because the rest of New Zealand has been completely inhabited by introduced
pests that must be eliminated from the sanctuary to the extent possible. There
are fences erected around the borders that must be quite high to prevent the
most athletic predators (such as cats) from jumping over,, and must extend
underground to prevent subterranean predators from digging under.. Since the
area is open to the public, it cannot be completely sealed, and sanctuaries
must vigilantly trap vermin and monitor visitors’ bags and clothing. To enter
Karori, you must go through two sets of doors and a park volunteer will check
your bags before allowing you through. It seems hard to believe that people
have unwittingly brought rodents into sanctuaries in their bags, but
unfortunately, it has happened. Bizarrely enough, people have even knowingly brought carnivorous mammals into bird sanctuaries in New Zealand, which is something I
shall try not to think about any further as I might risk losing the faith I
have in humanity.
We spent an idyllic sunny afternoon tiptoeing through the
woods in Karori, a quiet valley tucked into the hills in the northern suburbs
of Wellington. Once you are in the valley, you are surrounded by forest, and
birds flit overhead in the open air. You wouldn’t guess that you are only a
hillside away from New Zealand’s capital city. Being on our own and quiet, we
were able to spot many of the sanctuary dwellers, including the rowdy tui,
squawking kaka, a gliding stormy teal, and a glimpse of a North Island robin
and of kakariki disappearing into the bush. The kaka even divebombed us as we
walked up the trails, which apparently is something they do to entertain
themselves.
I have never been much of a birdwatcher, growing up I was
always more into the cuddly and furry mammals. But there is something to be said
for the thrill of hearing a warble of birdsong or a flutter of wings break the
silence, and tracing it to its source on a branch above you. As we ascended a
trail into the rear part of the sanctuary, we spotted a stitchbird, also called
“hihi”, alighting next to the path. The male stitchbird is about the size of a
fat robin, and has a blaze of bright yellow on his side. We were excited to
find such a rare bird in the wild, so to speak, and we saw several more popping
in and out of a feeder box further up the trail. It was interesting to note
that near the entrance of the park, few of the native birds seemed to venture,
except the damningly complacent takahe (so complacent they were likely easy to
drive to near-extinction, as their preferred pastime is to calmly pick their
way through meadows and underbrush, without much regard to threats surrounding
them). We found Zealandia so delightful that I felt compelled to spend quite a
bit in their gift shop, in the name of supporting endangered species, well,
one must do one’s part.
We flew north after that to Auckland again, to reunite with
our dear daughter, who indeed we had missed, despite her knack for disruption
and inconvenience.
After returning to Auckland, our family members had kindly
organized a party in honor of Lillian’s 1st birthday. On that sunny
Sunday, the Haywards sallied forth to Cornwall Park, the historic park
surrounding One Tree Hill. We staked out a small field near the park entrance
and set up beach chairs, tables, and cloths. There were homemade dishes such as
chicken, salad, croissants, and pikelets. Pikelets are Kiwi mini-pancakes,
slightly sweeter than regular pancakes. As far as I have observed, they seem to
be served with butter and jam or marmalade on top. There was also some kind of
traditional cake served called a Louise cake, which is a flat pastry sort
of thing with several layers, also including jam. Geoffrey and I took Lillian up the hill to see a rock n’ roll cover band
playing ZZ Top at the bandstand (there were a surprising number of families and
elderly people watching this performance), and the older generation played a
lengthy game of bocce around the picnic area. Bruce put on Glenys’ hat with a
ribbon bow and we took turns attempting to bowl for cricket practice (me:
terrible bowling, better hitting). Gary took Lillian for a meandering walk
around the park, and Grandma watched it all from her lawn chair, which
unfortunately she was proscribed from leaving.
The next day brought a new adventure as we packed our beach
things, picked up Andrew and Nikki, and headed south to Mount Maunganui. We
made what is apparently a longstanding traditional stop in a sleepy town along
the motorway called Ngatea. There is a “tea house” there that looks straight
out of the 19-somethings (1950s perhaps?), where we had tea, lattes, and
toasted sandwiches. We wended through the Karangahake gorge, stopping at a scenic picnic spot where we were beset with sandflies along the way. The Mount
eventually rose out of the sea in the distance, a green volcanic hill with
turquoise bays on either side. Although at times it can be cool and windy
there, the Mount often feels like a mini-tropical isle (with sheep). Days on
the Mount are not complete without a Mount circumnavigation, and we made sure
to complete this before the sun set.
