Labor day: Claire camps out, and we enjoy the West Coast of the North Island

New Zealand’s Labor Day falls in late October, which is New Zealand's spring. Claire’s Girl Guide troop joined up with troops from throughout the region for a two night camp-out: 600 girls at Tatum Park outside Levin. They had a great time and Claire’s group stayed in the cold pool the longest (not bad for considering they had a non-Kiwi amongst them in Claire).

Ruthie’s play was still running so she stayed in Wellington. John, Eleanor and I, though, joined our friends Grace, Robert and Christine for a walk at Otaki Forks

 and to spend the night at a Bach (Kiwi for simple vacation house) they’d “borrowed’ from some friends at Waitarere Beach. Grace and I had a blast digging for pipi clams with our hands in the surf's edge while Christine showed Eleanor how to make water/sand drizzle castles. Christine and Robert introduced John and me to a new cocktail made from Pims (a British liquor), ginger ale, tonic water, and orange and cucumber slices – yumm!  Which went down well while we cooked the pipis

The next day, John, Eleanor and I caught a short ferry ride over to Kapiti Island, a bird sanctuary and former home base for a powerful although ruthless Māori leader, Te Rauparaha. The most common haka, or challenge, performed by the All Blacks and many other New Zealand sports teams before international matches is "Ka Mate" - composed by Te Rauparaha to celebrate his escape from death in a battle in the early 19th century.  The waters are so rough that they don't have a regular dock, rather, they tow the boats into the water with tractors, as below:

All but a bit of the island is now owed by DOC. After immense work eradicating ferrets, rats, stoats and possums, it is has been a predator-free bird sanctuary for 20 years. Nevertheless, DOC maintains traps throughout the island an checks them pretty regularly.

There’s a modest, but worthwhile visitor display and a ranger for questions, but mostly what one does is walk on the main loop track that takes about 3 hours return, up to the highest point and back while enjoying the rich and pretty friendly bird life. On the walk, we saw a pair of Kaka’s (huge brown parrots) mating up in a tree, kakariki (smaller brilliant green parrots) Takahe, Kereru (NZ pigeon pictured below hanging upside down from a bush sucking nectar from a lower flower) Tui, bell birds, and weka (a flightless bird, also pictured below investigating Eleanor's bear).

We splurged and booked to stay the night on the north end where there remains a small Māori village. Up there we saw many more kakariki, lots of weka, and after dark we saw the shy and rare Kiwi bird (flightless). It took us two hours of looking with a guide. We heard lots of calls, but no sightings until we finally spied one.

The following day, Eleanor and her bear made a little house on the rocky beach and we saw a flock of black swans (pictured below) on a lagoon on the north end and stunning flock of Royal Spoonbills.