Day 55 - A Gannet Side Trip

Wednesday, November 27th, 2013

I awakened to trilling, warbling and whistling birdsongs. The bird life in this country is  wonderful - such a variety of birds and all quite tame. 

Our plan was to take time exploring our way to Whangarei. The first side trip took us to a macadamia nut farm, processing facility and cafe where we looked forward to seeing the nut growing, being cracked and processed before having the opportunity to taste and buy a variety of products. We were very disappointed to find the facility closed today :(

With time on our hands, we decided to backtrack to a sight we bypassed yesterday - the gannet colony next to Muriwai Beach - the black sand beach where the first scenes of the film "The Piano" were taken. We walked the beach, which was hosting many surfers, and then climbed up a hill with a viewpoint that allowed us to look directly across and down on the birds. The photo below shows the gannets nesting on a ledge just below and on two rock outcrops.

Gannets nest here because of the wind. The updraught makes for easy take-offs and landings. There are over 1000 couples here now gannets mate for life. Males and females take turns resting on the egg and we could easily see the birds stand, air their wings and settle back down on each precious egg. 

                                            

Following our gannet colony experience, we headed north to Whangarei and the home of my step-daughter, Tami-Jo, and her family. We were given a warm welcome as we marveled at the work of three young men preparing a barbeque as Tamijo introduced us to her extended family. We enjoyed a fabulous dinner followed by a miraculously quick and efficient cleanup by the young men, erasing all evidence of dinner.