On the 28th we decided to hike to Cape Kidnappers to see the Gannet colony. Cape Kidnappers is 10 km out on a point by the ocean, and you can either pay $33 NZD to ride out there on the back of a tractor or you can walk it. Well, we’re on a budget, so we walked the 10 km out and 10 km back. At the end of the day, my feet were bloody killing me.

Because the hike was along the beach it was dependent on tides, so we had to wait until 3 horus after high tide at 1:30 pm to head out. Hence we spent the morning RPing and lounging around the hostel. It took us a little more than 2 hours to walk the 10 kms (it was flat, as the walk was along a beach). There were gannets and terns and gulls nesting down by the beach toward the end, and we could see all of the above and shearwaters diving for fish far off the coast through our binoculars. The mainland gannet colony was at the top of a tall grassy hill that had sheep grazing on it. The DOC lets you walk right up the edge of the nesting colong - I was surprised because it actually seemed to bother the birds, they became aggressive when people got too close (not that people seemed to notice this). It was neat to see them so close though. They were still building nests and/or incubating their eggs, we didn’t get to see any chicks.

We walked the 10 km back from 5-7pm. We were very tired by the end and my feet and legs were sore. We came back to the hostel and I cooked a yummy dinner. We stayed in Stables Lodge again - we were surrounded by Germans!! Actually we have been the entire trip, there are a ton of Germans on holiday in NZ right now.

It rained during the night in Napier, but was sunny when we got up. Unfortunately it was raining again when we got over the west side of the mountains. The drive was ok - I zoned out for a lot of it. We had a Rook (European corvid/crow thing, introduced species) fly over the car somewhere near Dannevirke.

We stopped at Horowhenua Wetland Reserve and went on the short walk, but didn’t see anything new. A more interesting stop was Nga Manu Nature Reserve. There was a $10 admission fee, and we got to see HUGE NZ eels as they were fed by the keeper person (they were fed leftover mouse butts from the lizard cages, lizards seem to like the heads). They were NZ long- and shortfinn eels, and they breed somewhere in the South Pacific and migrate to NZ to live. When they’re ready to breed they migrate back, but only a few of them choose to go. They can get really big - some were about 2 meters long! They guy let us pet one, it was really smooth before it started exuding slime (they do that so they can cross land). The reserve had a lot of birds as well - we got to see Blue Duck (not wild), which was a lot darker than the bird book shows it (we’ve decided the bird book is not that astounding). They also had Kea and Kaka - a Kaka landed on my HEAD!! It hopped onto Vanessa’s, too. There was a nocturnal hosue with kiwi, morepork (an owl), tuataras, and geckos. We got to see a Mute Swan (introduced) in the pond and a Dunnock (introduced) in the Kea house.

We headed to Paraparaumu where we spent the night at Barnacles Seaside Inn. It was pretty cozy and the reception lady was really nice. We had Fish and Chips for dinner and it rained hard all night.

Unfortunately our ferry to Kapiti this morning was cancelled due to rough seas. Since we were up early we took our packs to Moana Lodge in Plimmerton and got a tour of the hostel. We then drove to the i-site in Wellington and got directions to the Karori Reserve a “mainland island” above Wellington that’s surrounded by a predator-proof fence.

The reserve was $10 admission. We wandered about from ~10am to 1pm looking for Weka, but with no luck. It rained on us a bit and we saw a few good brids - nothing new though.

Afterwards we returned the rental car - no scratches or anything!! Just lots of dirt and bird poop. It’s a big stress relief that the thing is gone, I don’t have to worry about not having insurance on it or about my navigator getting cranky with me over my conservative driving. We’ll have to lug all our stuff around now of course… but we’ll be staying in one place longer from now on.

Omega Rentals dropped us off in central Wellington (nice of them!) where we hunted down some asian food for lunch. We shopped around but didn’t buy anything, and took the train back to Plimmerton ($6).

The guy at the desk at the hostel (John) was really nice - he’s trying to get us on a boat to Kapiti tomorrow, weather depending. And if we can’t go he’ll send us up to a nearby estuary so we can watch birdies!! This place is awesome.

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