Friday 28 October 2016

There and back again - Hobbiton


  • Now who's a good nerd?
  • Me! Me!
So no way around it, is there?
One MUST go to Hobbiton....
And so we did.

First look at Hobbiton

When we decided to visit New Zealand, the main draw for us were its impressive and diverse landscapes. That happen to feature prominently in the Lord of the Rings movies (and many, many others).

One of many hobbit holes

During our time here we will visit several of these landscapes, but we also went to Hobbiton. This is no landscape, but a fictional village: the actual movie set of the Hobbit village. Kept and maintained as it was during filming. Of course the owners are making a fortune doing tours of it, and it is pretty touristy, but also so much fun!

The Party Tree and Sam's house

We booked our tour online, and waited at the Shire's Rest (I know!) for our guide. Everyone gets into a big coach, and we drive onto the farm where the actual set is. During that short drive they show a short video telling a bit about the logistics of filming, and our driver pointed a few things out in the landscape. And then we are there, out of the coach we walked into the village through Gandalfs Cutting.

Bag End

It really is nice, seeing the whole village appear around you, even when it is quite full of tourists. The little hobbit holes all around, all the detail that went into making it look like a live village, and those particular features (the party tree, Bag End, the Green Dragon Inn, etc.) that look so familiar due to the movies. Needless to say we loved it. 

Green Dragon, bridge and the Mill

And they really do make an effort to keep it top notch. All the flowers and gardens are meticulously kept, smoke comes out of the chimneys and they re-leaf (new verb!) the one artificial tree every few years. 
After a walk around the little lanes of Hobbiton, shooting all the obligatory photos, marvelling at the different holes, and learning new trivia facts from our guide, we headed down to the Green Dragon for a drink. 

Inside the Green Dragon

During filming this was just a façade (Hobbiton was an exterior set), but for the tourist tours they built the inside of the Green Dragon as well. The inn is pretty much identical to the one in the movies, and again, it's well done. We sat down to enjoy our beers (ginger beer and stout) in front of the fire. Before long it was time to leave the Shire, and go back to the real world.

Back to the real world

Sunday 23 October 2016

90 Mile Beach - Cape Reigna

When we left Auckland, we went north. Our first stop was Whangarei, to dive at the Poor Knights Islands, after which we headed to the Bay of Islands. After spending a day and a night in Paihia, and visiting Russell, we drove east.

South end of 90 Mile Beach

We stayed in our best hostel yet (we absolutely loved Endless Summer Lodge), and the next day we headed to Cape Reigna. That's is the northernmost place we will get in New Zealand. The actual northernmost point is at the Surville Cliffs a few miles to the east, but we liked the cape well enough.

Looking south from the cape

Most people who go to Cape Reigna drive north over 90 Mile Beach, but we thought driving our rental car up the beach was a bit too risky, so we took the sealed road. Basically 90 Mile Beach is the west coast of a thin sliver of land that stretches all the way north. The sealed road goes along the middle of it. Unlike most of New Zealand's roads, this one is quite straight.  

Cape Reigna lighthouse 

Our first stop was the lighthouse at Cape Reigna. Because this is where the Tasman Sea and Indian Ocean meet, the waves break in the middle of the blue. Quite spectacular to watch. 
After the Cape, we stopped at nearby Tapotupotu Bay to have lunch. A very crunchy lunch, since the wind was blowing a lot of sand in it! I can't remember a sand filled lunch from my childhood, like so many people have had at a summer beach, but now I can finally relate. 

Te Paki sand dunes in the middle of green vegetation

On our way south we made another few stops, the Te Paki dunes being the most impressive. 
What feels to us as typical of New Zealand, are the sudden changes in landscape. Like at Te Paki: the green vegetation stops suddenly at the bottom of the sand dunes, where a little stream flows. No 'in between'.
But the Te Paki dunes are huge! That's why many people sand board here, we forgot to take some boards from the hostel, so we just exhausted ourselfs running up (sort of) and down them. 

Te Paki sand dunes, with the sand boarders


Windswept West - Auckland

The last day we spent in Auckland, we actually didn't stay in Auckland. We went to the Western beaches with friends. A good choice!
After a long brunch to catch up, we first drove up Mt. Eden to have a good view of Ackland. Then we headed west.

Rocky outcrops and stormy seas

Our first stop was Muriwai: a gorgeous beach. But the beach wasn't the main attraction, that was the gannet colony. We saw hundreds of them! Just centimetres apart, they nest on the rocky outcrops. They land right on top of their mate, since there's virtually no room in between then nests. A boardwalk allows for good views ( and sniffs) of the colony. The air above is very busy too, sometimes an arriving gannet almost hits you in the head.

A spacious spot near the boardwalk

After the gannets, it was time for beers and snacks, before heading out to the next beach. After driving down a long and winding road, we parked the car, to walk the last bit. We were amazed how green everything was, no hint that we were approaching a beach until we stood on the black volcanic sand.

Karekare beach south view

We had arrived at Karekare beach. We ware just amazed by the feel of the place. We knew there were other people here, but is still felt desolate, pure and wild.
And a bit of trivia: this is where scenes of the famous movie The Piano were filmed. Don't miss this one if you're in Auckland.

Karekare beach north view

After a walk on Karekare beach we headed for today's final beach: rugged Piha beach. This beach is known for its strong and unpredictable rip currents. So dangerous are they, that a reality tv show Piha Rescue, airs the frequent rescues the lifeguards here do.

Lion Rock at Piha beach

Once down, we clambered over the rocks to the second bay, where we watched the sunset over The Gap. Due to an optical illusion it seems that the water level outside is way higher than at the beach side. Every time a wave rolls in, it looks as if the bay is going to flood. Luckily it didn't. After sunset we went back for a quick dinner and our last night in Auckland.

Sunset at the Gap

Wednesday 19 October 2016

Cold kaleidoscope - Poor Knight Islands

We've arrived in New Zealand almost a week ago, so it's time to actual start doing something. We decided to do some diving, and the Poor Knights Island Marine reserve, seemed like the place to do so. This is one of the top dive sites in the world. Again. I wonder how often we've heard that classification now? But still, one not to missed! 
The East Australian Current (that's the one the turtles ride in Finding Nemo!) brings tropical visitors and warm water to this specific area, making it 2 degrees warmer than on shore, though still way to cold for my liking.

Biggest natural arch in the Southern Hemisphere

We went to the only dive shop in Tutukaka, and booked a dive tour for the following day. We then tried to book a bed, and found out that the affordable holiday park was fully booked. And it turned out that the way over budget hotel was fully booked as well. Oops. So we ended up near Whangarei, half an hour away, but in a lovely little hostel! 
We had an early rise the next day, did our usual fitting session and found our boat. The boat ride took about an hour. On our way there we saw huge flocks of Buller's shearwater. They were roosting on the sea surface. 

Amazing array of soft corals

Our first dive site was Splendid Arch. On our boat were 8 divers, a guide (and a skipper). A group of 4 went with the guide, and 2 buddy pairs (including us) went unguided, to spread out a bit. We got a good briefing of the site.  Our first aim was to swim over an underwater ledge, and into the confinement of the arch. Once in, it got a bit darker and we started exploring the left hand wall. This wall had loads of gorgeously coloured soft corals, nudibranches, and we spotted a small yellow moray eel looking out of it all. 

Jason's nudibranch

Then is was time to cross over to the right hand side, and explore that side while heading out of the arch. The first thing we saw was a massive scorpion fish, lying on a ledge. This was by far the biggest one I've ever seen, measuring approximately 60cm! 
Just when we were done filming and admiring him, we spotted two big crayfish. One of them had his antenna broken off, but the other one looked still in one piece. It's really amazing to see them blending in with their surroundings.

Crayfish in hiding 
   
We also spotted another one of those yellow moray eels, completely entwined in one on the rock features. We then headed out of the cave/arch into the kelp forest in front of it. Here we saw many more pelagic fish, and so, so many sea urchins, but after a good fifteen minutes I decided I was cold enough to get out of the water. Even though I had 3 layers on me (a thermal, a 7mm wetsuit and a 7mm hoodie) staying in 15'C water just isn't for me... 

Sea urchin, see the little fish next to it?

When everyone was back at the boat, we went to the second dive site: Magic Wall. We had lunch there, while listening to the seals calling: quite like a cow with a cold... Our skipper told us a bit more about the islands. Because of its isolation and lack of natural predators most of the animals grow a lot bigger. Think centipedes eating geckos, instead of the other way around. Or crickets the size of your head.... But also those huge scorpionfish! And fearless fish.
After lunch it was time to plunge, oh my, that was cold! Because it was overcast, we hadn't really gotten to warm in between dives, so the second dive felt even colder. After swimming past one of the seals, who didn't care about our attempts to coax him into the water, we submerged again.  
We navigated through the kelp until we got to the wall. And it looked even more colourful that the first site! Loads of macro stuff. Little hopper fish, amazingly bright patches of corals and anemones, and fish fights... 

The garden in front of the wall. 

Unfortunately I had some problems with my ears, so we decided not to go much deeper. We missed out on the big moray eels, but we  both spend 10 minutes just staring at our own patch of 20 by 20 cm of the wall, amazed at how much happens at such a small area. We swam back to the kelp garden at the bay, being surrounded by thousands of jelly fish... We had a good look around there, and then got out of the water. It was really time to put on some dry, warm clothes. 
P.S. Due to the lack of light most of our photos and video didn't come out very well, but you can watch a short video here. 

Isolated bunch of kelp




Thursday 6 October 2016

Wildlife or not - Monkey Mia

At Australia's west coast, we went to Shark Bay. This area is known for its superb and approachable wild life. Monkey Mia, at the north of the peninsula, is famous for the dolphin encounters. 
On our way there, we stopped to look at ancient life forms, called stromatolites. These are what kickstarted life on Earth as we know it. And they still exist! To the untrained eye (like mine) they look just like rocks, but these are actually organisms, consisting of several strands of clustered bacteria. I think it's pretty cool to have seen them.


Stromatolites

We then went on to Monkey Mia, basically the name of the resort. The Monkey Mia Reserve is a little area, surrounding the resort. You can't acces the resort without entering the reserve, thus you'll always have to pay the extra acces fee.
We parked our campervan at the campground, went to the beach. On the beach were several pelicans, seemingly undisturbed by the humans around them. We had fun watching them (as you can read in this previous post). Just off the beach, we saw several dolphins foraging in the water, pretty amazing.

Pelican ruffling its feathers

The next morning we went to the beach for the 'Dolphin Experience'. This is what everyone comes for. Wild dolphins being hand fed by people. According to all the brochures is has been the natural behaviour of the dolphins to visit this spot for years. Now the reason the dolphins started coming to this spot was actually human behaviour: fisherman throwing them leftover catch. I wouldn't classify that at 'naturally showed up', but to each his own. The Department of Parks & Wildlife decided to regulate dolphin encounters through the Dolphin Experience.
I'm still not sure whether I like it. 

Dolphin waiting for a handout

Based on the information DoPW give, they try to do it in a way that is least disruptive to natural behaviour do the dolphins. They feed only 5 selected individuals, the other dolphins never get handouts to minimise contact. They give no more than 10% of their daily intake, forcing them to continue hunting. The interaction is 20 minutes so mothers go back to calves, all spectators must stay out of the water, no touching, etc.
But feeding wild animals, fully capable of fending for themselves... 

Pelican trying to snatch a handout

But then again, before DoPW stepped in, the human-dolphin interaction went wild, calves starved due to neglect (a death rate as high as 90%!) and several dolphins attacks occurred. At least it is regulated now. And on the day we went, it took a full 2 hours for the first dolphin to show up. So they don't seem too dependent on the handouts. The  funniest thing at the whole experience though was watching the pelican trying to wiggle himself in between dolphin and fish bucket. He got more attention then any dolphin I saw. 

Shell Beach

After lazing another day at the beach, and a boat tour (which wasn't that good, but we did to see dugongs!) it was time to move on. Driving off the peninsula we made a final stop at Shell Beach.
In the sunshine it looked as bright white as any tropical beach. But a closer look reveals it isn't sand, but millions and trillions of tiny cockles. These live in the super saline water, where most life doesn't survive. (A sand bank allows the tide to go in, but not to go out, the water vaporises, and the remaining water becomes ever salter.) As the cockles die, they wash up, and form this beach.

Shell Beach 


Sunday 2 October 2016

Look but don't touch - Rottnest Island

And that's pretty hard sometimes! Rottnest Island is full of wildlife, and most of the animals have no real fear of humans. Specially the local marsupials display an unsettling lack of fear. These cute quokka's make it really hard to not to just pick 'em up and cuddle.
Even though the first Dutchman didn't feel the same, they thought they found an island teeming with enormous rats, hence the name: Rottnest.

Quokka

But it's not just the wildlife that makes Rottnest a really good daytrip, the views are spectacular too. The turquoise and coral blue waters are like nothing we have in Europe. While cycling round the island (a full circuit is about 30km), you go from one spectacular bay to the next. We headed out via the south shore.

Looking towards Perth

Snorkelling is another way to enjoy the landscape, and several bays have special snorkel routes laid out, including under water markers. Very cool idea. But we felt that even though it was a lovely sunny day, the water was just a bit too cold for snorkelling.

One of the amazing bays

Like the rest of Australia, there are many, many birds at Rottsnest. Here, you mostly see ravens, and they aren't shy either! But fortunately they're not  aggressive at all. They're quite likeable actually.

Australian Raven

Another bird that you encounter quite often in south west Australia is a little brown pigeon: the Laughing Dove. We saw them on Rottnest too. It's not endemic to Australia, but was introduced from sub-sahara Africa in the late 1890s and has seemed to settle in nicely. 


Laughing dove

We decided to have lunch at the western end of the island, Cape Vlamingh. Like many tourists do. But it is a nice spot for lunch.
This is where the Indian Ocean really starts, and there's quite a surf. In season you can spot nesting ospreys (we didn't) and passing humpbacks (we did). There's also a nice boardwalk, from which you can reall appreciate the waves and little coves. Under and next to this boardwalk were dozens of King's Skinks. We had seen a few during our ride, but not nearly as many as here.

Kings Skink

Before heading back to the ferry via the island's northern shore, we stopped at Cathedral Rocks to watch the seals. It turns out we did see a few seals from Cape Vlamingh, but we weren't sure at the time. It turns out they were flipper sailing, which means you just see black things bobbing in the waves. Especially from a distance there's no telling these are animals. But watching them from Cathedral Rocks Lookout, where you can watch them from a lot closer, clarified that.

New Zealand fur seals