day 169: kaha why
Miriam: What an absolutely wonderful welcome to NZ we have had. John and Lynette hosted us with the utmost generosity and we thoroughly enjoyed remembering what a joy it is to have hot showers, clean laundry, and a warm house in which to lounge about. We’re so grateful and feel completely spoiled. I slept over even and wow, an actual bed with dry clean sheets, not even a trace of salty crust or the dampness that clings to said salt crust, was relevatory. They live in the lovely sheltered Opito Bay next to a kiwi sanctuary and I woke in the middle of the night to the sounds of kiwis calling so near by it felt like they had snuck into my bedroom. I started the morning with a hike through the reserve to the stunning Tareha Point that looks out over the Bay of Islands. I loved wandering through native forest of Manuka and Pahutukawa rising overhead in such unfamiliar graceful shapes, the forest floor strewn with ferns, marvelling at the Ponga (tree ferns) and listening to the Tui sing their strange, resonant songs. I have visited this beautiful land once before but do not know it well and am enthralled by the unique beauty of the forests here. A Fantail flirted with me, hovering so close and flashing their extravagant tail. Next, I headed down to a gravel strewn beach at Lizard Bay, thick with Harakeke and a lone iridescent Sacred Kingfisher before circling back to the house.
Then came errands in Kerikeri and my first taste in years of a proper meat pie. We found some delicious mandarins to glean off a tree in the grocery store parking lot; I climbed up on Jamie’s shoulders to reach and toss them down to Matt. Lynette took us by the Kemp House and Stone House heritage site to see the oldest colonial buildings in the country and wander enchanted through the garden and orchards. I topped off the afternoon by heading out in Lynette’s kayak to glide through the glassy waters, seeing the point and beach from another perspective and hanging out with some Shags and Petrels. A full and glorious day altogether.
Matt: Nothing on a Renwick Pie but the steak bacon and mushroom momentarily sated a dream ages in tending - also a gang of five grey herons stalk Opito Bay, sounding not at all like birds