Rotoroa

Kiddleywinks - Rotoroa

The captain of the ferry who took us to the island Rotoroa called the kids who got on board kiddleywinks.  They were going to Rotoroa on a field trip with their teachers.  This island is yet another island that is accessible from Auckland.
We had planned to take the ferry to the bird sanctuary, Tiritiri Matangi.  But, stupid us neglected to notice on the pamphlet that you have to book in advance.  Drat!  I really wanted to go there.  Maybe next time around.

At any rate we had a marvellous day going to this island.  It is a sanctuary for wildlife.  You cannot take any food. Etc to the island and the only thing on this island is water and a couple of bathrooms. You cannot leave anything behind either.  They are trying to encourage the growth of natural florae as well as to reintroduce gannets which are native to New Zealand and to  promote the proliferation of the kiwi bird.  This kiwi bird looks like a weird chicken.  We could hear the call of the gannet on our hike but it was a recording to induce any gannets nearby to resettle here.

We had yet another amazing hike on this island.  We arrived by ferry at 10:40 and hiked for a couple of hours until we came to a beach called the men's beach.  Nearby was the lady's beach.  Reason for this is this island was run many years ago by the Salvation Army as a rehabilitation for alcoholics.  This was started about a 100 years or more ago, so I guess men and women were segregated at that time.




The panoramic view from any hike there was extraordinary.  I thought Waiheke was special but this far surpassed that.  It was again a beautiful day with a nice breeze.  We were impressed about how hard they worked to keep this island pristine as was Waiheke.  Guess I was looking through rose-coloured glasses.  We saw a man spraying on the paths.   We found out that they use round-up for the paths.  I was not happy, but the. Girls who work there said that there is only 6 of them to maintain the island. C'est la  Vie!.

Sushi for dinner again, it gets really cheap after 6pm.   Larry got stuck in the elevator.  To make the elevator move you have to scan the chip in the room key card, I had gone up stairs with it while Larry went to the store.  When he got in the elevator he asked a man in the elevator to use his card and select our floor.  He misunderstood and selected the wrong floor.  Larry was stuck for about five minutes waiting for,someone else to call the elevator.  Gordon if you see the picture of the sculpture how would they hold these rocks together? They're real rocks at about a forty five degree angle.


Making plans for the next phase of our trip.  Weather doesn't look great.   We might have to rearrange our plans.  Day after tomorrow we will take a bus up to the north for the Bay of Islands.  I have looked forward to this part for months.  Although we have had great weather so far, this is the time when we really need it.

I must admit I am a little homesick. It is probably for our family (especially Annie and Alistair). I miss them terribly.  We check the weather at home regularly, so we'll soldier on here.
Until next time.  Happy trails to you and yours.