Tuesday 21st to Sunday 26th August – Visiting the home of the All Blacks

Tuesday 21^st August – Chris returns to the South Island

I dropped Chris at Pukekohe rail station before heading to the gym and then off to my afternoon SPCA shift. Whilst we don’t get the time or the opportunity to wander amongst the animals at the centre because we’re so busy taking calls, there is sometimes the chance of seeing some different residents grazing on the grass area outside like this cute pygmy goat in his woolly jumper.
 

Wednesday 22^nd August – Hunua Volunteering

The forecast was looking decidedly dodgy, so much so that I had double-checked that today’s session hadn’t been cancelled. But no, a little rain wasn’t enough to put us off and with the promise of a Birthday feast after we’d done our work there was a reasonable turn out.  We did some more track maintenance and got away with fair weather for the most part. When the rain really started pummelling down Willem and I headed back to the hut arriving about 1.15pm. The rain suddenly got a lot worse. We were glad we’d made a move but felt sorry for those still out in the downpours, so got busy making fresh pots of coffee for the returning drowned rats.

That's not cloud.... that's torrential rain

A tad wet underfoot in the Hunuas

These pictures don’t really do it justice.  We congratulated Kerry and Jenny on being another year older, ate our fill and beat a hasty retreat.

Friday 24^th August – Shag monitoring at Waitawa Regional Park

So, here’s another thing I’ve put my hat in the ring for.  There are issues with the population of Pied Shags over at Waitawa Park, in that they keep getting caught and injured by fishing line from the increasing popularity of fishing there.  No one has been monitoring the number of birds present in the population, so it isn’t known whether this is having a dramatic effect on them or not. That’s where I come in.  I’d offered to help start a count and had arranged to meet a ranger called Mags at 10am for her to show me the tree that they roost in and for us to do the first count together. The only problem…. Mags forgot me! Having waited at the ranger’s office for twenty minutes I got hold of her on the phone to find that she was at another park in the area, planting trees with another volunteer.

It's lambing season in NZ - spring is in the air!

These cattle at Duder didn't know what to make of me!

A freshly planted shrub by my own fair hand...

Long story short, I ended up doing a full day’s volunteering. Planting trees at Duder for the morning before doing a spot of orphaned lamb feeding at lunch time.

ahhhh, orphaned lamb feeding time

Would you believe me if I said there are at least 16 pied shags in this tree? Hard to spot aren't they?!

Eventually, we made it back to Waitawa to do the counting, but not until about 3pm! It turns out that counting moving birds, nests, and chicks, in a large tree with many intersecting branches is not easy! I will have to devise a system to try and get a reliable count to make the effort worthwhile.

Saturday 25^th August – All Blacks Versus Wallabies at Eden Park

An epic on the ‘must-do whilst living in NZ’ list – see the All Blacks play at their home ground, Eden Park, in Auckland, and who better to be playing against than the Wallabies?  With the aim of lowering the temptation for people to drink/drive, your return train fare to the game is included with your match ticket. So, we hopped on a train from Papakura and met up with Filip, a colleague of Simon’s, once we reached Kingsland, the nearest stop to Eden Park. We hit the local bars, had a couple of pre-match beers and soaked up the atmosphere with some other rugby fans, before making our way into the Stadium via the merch store. Filip said that it was tradition to get a gift for people’s Eden Park initiation, so he very kindly bought me an AB scarf and we were set!

Striped up ready for the match!

We went to find our seats before the second half of the Black ferns versus the Aussie girls kicked off. Women’s rugby here is finally getting improved billing so I wanted to be amongst the supporting crowd. I was absolutely delighted when we found our seats, as they were labelled ‘restricted viewing’ so I wasn’t expecting to have a full view of the pitch. Well, we could only imagine that they are obligated to put that on the tickets because a tiny piece of the All Blacks dug out was between us and the grass! Look at where we were, the view was incredible. A big shout out to Angie Yeatman who helped me make our seat selection from the remaining seats available all those weeks ago.

The panoramic view from our seats - awesome!

Look at that clear perspex dugout restricting our view....

The second half of the women’s match was brutal. They were throwing themselves on top of each other and fists were flying. It was scary! But the Black Ferns stormed to victory, 45-17, securing them the Laurie O’Reilly trophy, presented by Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. Simon went down to see if he could get Jacinda to pose for a selfie or give us a wave:

Oi! Jacinda! Over here!! (she did wave but I didn't time the picture right)

Then it was time for the All Blacks and Wallabies to come out for National Anthems and our first live Haka. It was very stirring and emotional in a fully sold out stadium.

The All Blacks line up for the National Anthem - the first verse is sung in Maori followed by the English version. Below: the Haka with additional chanting from a guy in the next row!

The Wallabies get a line-out - check out our favourite segwayed cameraman!

Time for kick off. The first half was relatively even. Like the last few games we have watched the ABs play, they don’t always come on that strong at the start of a match. But after half time, they tend to come out fighting and that’s exactly what they did today – slamming the Wallabies 40-12 with Beauden Barrett getting four of the tries. Too easy…. Maybe it’s the Brit in me, but I wonder if the fact that they are almost certain to win every single match they play might take something away from the excitement of being a fan? I’m sure they must lose sometimes, right?!

Now that's a big trophy

Then it was time for trophies, and the awarding of a 100^th cap for Owen Franks.  The rain arrived to force everyone to leave the stadium and we strolled out with the masses to find a local bar whilst the traffic died down. 

Filip had parked near the stadium and very kindly offered to give us a lift back to our car in Papakura. A long and very enjoyable day out. We will have to return to see the All Blacks playing at home again. It was awesome.

Sunday 26^th August - Simon’s Mum’s 70^th Birthday

We had a very quiet day following our social outing yesterday, but it would be remiss of me not to mention Ann’s 70^th Birthday. And to highlight that this is the kind of occasion you sadly end up missing when you move to the other side of the planet. You haven’t got the time or the money to be back in England for every big event and even with the modern convenience of video calls, it’s never going to be anywhere near the same as being able to be there in person.

Friday 17th to Monday 20th August – A weekend with the Edwards

Friday 17^th August – Chris arrives

Having already had a very social week, it wasn’t going to stop there! After the boys had left for work I gave the place a quick going over and I was off to Auckland airport to pick Chris up for her weekend stay at Chez Newdey, Pukekohe. The flight up from Nelson had been a little hairy by the sounds of things, mostly due to some massive thunderstorms that had rolled through this morning.

Chris had arranged for us to have lunch, so we headed to a restaurant called Melba in Manukau City to meet up with Stacey, who is an ex-colleague of Chris’s and was my co-role player when we went in to help with some training at Si’s work! After a very nice ladies’ lunch Chris and I headed back to the house before going to pick up some treat-type groceries for the weekend.

 

The workers got home, and we headed straight over to Huihana and Steve’s for a darts and Mexican food night along with plenty of other Continuous employees.  

This may not look much like a darts game but retrieving stray darts from behind the oche is an important part - though I think getting someone to stand on your foot to help may be counted as cheating?!

Keru the dog got most of the attention during the evening

Some had started drinking at 4pm straight after the end of work and became the worse for wear early on. I was designated driver and by 1230ish the Edwards and I were done and headed home. Si decided to stay over to continue into the early hours.

 

Saturday 18^th August – First round of the Bledisloe Cup

Si was dropped off about 9am having had very little sleep so we all went for a much needed brunch in Pukekohe.

The Edwards gave us a tour, showing us their plush ex-house in Puke (pronounced ‘pooky’ not pewkie) and we popped into the Gillies’ house for a cup of tea.  The Edwards went to see some more pals for coffee during the afternoon whilst Si and I chilled out.

Simon and Lulu 'watching' the rugby

After such a social day we had the option of heading out again for the evening to see the rugby at a bar but we all felt exhausted, so opted for some homemade Chinese food for dinner after which we played five crowns and a looong game of Trivial Pursuit (mostly because the set contained Kiwi-based questions AND dated from 1983!!). But it kept us awake, in the most part, to stay up for the rugby.  The Bledisloe cup is the yearly rugby union head to head between Australia and New Zealand. The first test was being played in Sydney and with Sky having the rights to the live match we had to wait for the replay on terrestrial telly at 1130pm.  Some of us were struggling to maintain our interest especially after a scruffy first-half performance from both teams (right). 

Thankfully the All Blacks pulled through in the second half to win 38-13 and we were all straight to bed.

Sunday 19^th August

The Edwards had arrangements for the day to play archery and have lunch with their old neighbours, so Simon and I had a regular relaxed day with a Sunday roast in Tuakau again – nice!

Monday 20^th August – Ultimate bird geek day

I dropped Simon and Nick off for work at continuous so that Chris had a car for the day so I was really early to arrive at Bird rescue. I was surprised when the regular worker, Rex, was also early so I went inside and got to see an amazing patient – a Northern Giant petrel.  Almost black all over and with an extra ‘nostril’ riding on top of its beak like a jet plane intake, it was the largest bird I have ever seen close-up (except for an emu I guess!). Unfortunately, it was a very poorly bird and that was why Rex was there early – to drive it straight to the vets in an effort to save it. As soon as he left I was employed elsewhere – some ducklings had made a break from their weekend enclosure and were on the run around the paddock.  Lyn gave me instruction and, just like a shepherd and her poorly trained sheepdog, we just about managed to herd them back to safety!

Then it was on to the usual morning’s duties. It is starting to get busier in the hospital as spring approaches with many more ducklings and kererus (New Zealand pigeon) as patients. It’s getting rarer to be able to finish on time at noon. I stayed to finish the caged birds off today and sweep the floors, so it was 110pm by the time I was done.

Not a problem for me today. With plans in Auckland that evening I was staying north for the day as there would be no point in going all the way home to come back through the traffic again later. So, after my late finish at bird rescue it was time to decide whether to drive a further 45-minutes’ north west to visit the gannet colony at Muriwai Beach. It may not have been the sunniest of days, but it was too good an opportunity to miss.  I drove the scenic route through the Waitakere Ranges. With all of the tracks closed to protect the areas Kauri trees, I had to make do with stopping at the view points next to the road.

View over the Waitakeres and, below, view back towards the City and Rangitoto volcanic island

Muriwai Surf break

I reached Muriwai and it became clear that New Zealand had gone and amazed me again. The gannet colony is easily accessible with car parks right by the coastline and two boardwalks that take you right up to the edge of the cliffs. You can literally lean over the railings above the birds:

 

They didn’t seem bothered by me and the other tourists, they were too busy building their nests:

A bit of history for you – my grandmother gave me a bird identification book when I was very young due to my interest in all things avian. The cover included the image of a gannet and from then on I was hooked and used to enjoy drawing them.  They are such striking birds. The perfect black lines leading from the corner of their eyes makes them look almost like they’re wearing eyeliner. This contrasts beautifully with the creamy yellow of their heads and the brilliant white of the rest of their feathers. Absolutely stunning.

I also loved the regimented spacing between the birds – there must be clear rules regarding the amount of personal space allowed for each pair before they would be intruding upon a neighbour’s territory. Look how uniform it is:

I would have happily stayed for hours to watch them, but some blustery wet weather helped to move me on and remind me that I had plans back in Auckland. But it was well worth the trip and now that I know the timetable for when the chicks are due to hatch I will be trying to get back to see them later this year. 

Back on the road, I had agreed to meet Chris in Newmarket as she could get the train there easily, there would be plenty of places to eat and then we would be reasonably close to our evening presentation. We timed it perfectly. I found a car park just as Chris was reaching Newmarket and we almost bumped into each other on the street. We found a lovely tapas bar which made some delicious food for us. We then made our way to the Red Lecture Theatre at the Institute of Technology in Mount Albert. It was time for some more birds! The Great Kokako Story – celebrating 21 years on Tiritiri Matangi (TTM) was something that I’d heard of through my connections in Hunua. Having only heard and not yet seen a kokako in the wild why would I not want to find out more? And especially now that I have my invite to go to Tiritiri in person. I was grateful that Chris had agreed to stay on an extra couple of nights in Auckland to accompany me.  We got there way too early, not realising that there was a buffet and drinks supplied for the first hour of the session. Neither of us could touch a single piece of food! I bumped into some fellow Hunua volunteers who had been at the conference last week with me. Cue jokes of ‘we’ve got to stop hanging about the same places’ etc. (Okay, so not ‘jokes’ so much). Our conversation was suddenly halted…. By a brass band of all things. I didn’t see, or in fact hear that one coming. Chris and I decided to go into the lecture theatre around that time to find our seats. Not a coincidence. Their choice of musical accompaniment was somewhat drab and depressing-sounding.

Start time rolled around and we enjoyed five speakers telling us some of the interesting details and characteristics of the kokako population on the island and the methods behind the successful repopulation. Along with some photographs to show us the delights of the island. The future of the population was discussed. They are in the fortunate position to be considering what the maximum population of kokako might be on TTM – there must be a point at which the population numbers would reach saturation due to the limited availability of habitat and food. They have already re-located some of their stock to other sanctuaries on the mainland but what does this population limit mean for the management of kokako on the island in future? I guess I might find out more next month!

The night finished a little early, which was a relief for us after a long day. It gave us the time to get home and see the boys before calling it a night.