Not Much to Report

March 21, 2014

Today I am writing my blog sitting in my office.  Yes, I call it my office because it’s the one place I go to every day :-), the only place I can sit out of the way while Jens makes up the bed in our Lucky 3.  I am looking over the pictures and it seems we have done more driving than anything so there isn’t so much to report. 

But  – we have driven on 90 mile beach (extra cool – driving along a beach for 75 kilometers and then up a stream bed back to the road … ha!  And all that with a campervan … ha ha!); been to see the second largest Kauri tree in NZ; visited an old gumdigger site; went to the most Northern lighthouse in NZ which is also where the Maori spirits go into the sea to join their ancestors (or something like that) and where the Tasman sea clashes into the Pacific Ocean; and into some caves where we waded through waist deep water, clambered over and down rocks into the deep recesses of the caves, turning our lights off to see glow worms.  Just stuff like that. 

And here are the pictures.

Gumdiggers:  The gum is a congealed resinous sap produced by the Kauri trees to cover a wound.  The large lumps that form fall to the ground and were collected by the Māori’s for use in lighting fires, for chewing and tattooing.  The English found another use for the gum.  It was exported back to Britain by the boatload and used for making a high quality varnish.  In this particular area an ancient Kauri forest was found in the peat bog and they are now studying the well-preserved trees that are over 220 million years old (see second photo).  This is a picture of a “hurdy-gurdy” they used to separate the pieces of gum from sand and twigs.

Te Matua Ngahere – Father of the Forest:  The Kauri tree is a slow growing giant that was almost obliterated from New Zealand being highly prized for its timber.  The trees in this forest were saved from destruction and this particular one is the second largest in all of New Zealand with a girth of 16.41 meters; hence the name “Father of the forest”.

Abbey Caves:  There are three caves to explore – unguided and undeveloped – enter at your own risk.  Organ cave is the largest and goes in as far as 260 meters.  Our favourite was Ivy Cave where we entered at one end, walked 200 meters, sometimes through waist deep water, to exit out the other end.  There were lots of glowworms and cool rock formations in all three caves. 

Jens and I before we got wet and muddy.

Vern contemplating if he should continue and get into the water up to his waist.

Jens and Michelle forging ahead.  

The Top End: This is where the Pacific Ocean clashes with the Tasman Sea.  And the tree you see below clinging to the rocks is where the spirit of the Maori’s passing into the next world would climb down its roots and into the sea.

Looking forward and looking backward - nothing but miles of beach.

90 Mile Beach:  We’re not sure why it’s called 90-mile beach because it is actually only 55 miles – but we were able to drive about 75 kilometers along the coast on the beach and up a river to the road at the other end.  The gorgeous sand dunes along the way reminded us of the deserts in Dubai.

On the beach!

The river bed we drove out of.