Tossed By The Wind

 After our visit to Shakespear Regional Park, we found our accommodations in Gulf Harbor, another AirBnB. I was pretty skeptical about AirBnB based on some of the horror stories that have been written about bad hosts and bad guests, but we have been quite pleased with the two we have stayed at in New Zealand. This one was hosted by Hannah, who has a brand new house on a hill overlooking the Gulf Harbor Marina. It was designed with hosting in mind and has two rooms on the lower level of the house, each with its own entry from a deck with a view and to a lower level common area. It is separate from the owners quarters on the upper floor. The rooms were spotless and comfortable with large well designed bathrooms. Our room was a little crowded as it had a queen bed and a single bed, but the other room with just a queen bed was booked on our first night. After settling in, we went off to dinner at the local country club for great fish tacos.

After a good night's sleep, we went out for coffee and breakfast at the only spot open in the area early, the Local Cafe in nearby Manly, about 3 km away. The coffee was good, the breakfasts uninspiring.

So much for food, the ferry to Tiritiri Matangi (which translates to "Tossed By The Wind") left from Gulf Harbor at 9:25 and it was a quick trip to the island. The night before we noticed that the guided walks were supposed to be booked at the same time as the ferry booking and we agonized over missing that. 

When we got to the island, we realized that it would be the same kind of tour as we'd already taken at Sanctuary Mountain, Kapiti Island and Zealandia, heavy on history and botany and lighter on birds. We decided to just walk on our own. There was really only one track available from the ferry dock, the Wattle Track, which winds through the bush up to the lighthouse. The normal loop that goes along the beach, up to the top of the island, over to the lighthouse and down the Wattle Track was closed due to cyclone damage.

It was a nice walk up to the lighthouse, going at our own pace and finding much more birdlife than we probably would have on a tour, including Hihi (Stitchbirds), one of the species that eluded us in other sanctuaries. They were dickering with a large number of Bellbirds at a feeder set out to attract them. There were many more birds on the way up to the lighthouse, mostly Bellbirds and Tui.

We stopped for lunch at the lighthouse which is at a high point on the island and then searched for the pair of Takahē who hang around up there. Sadly they weren't hanging around at lunchtime.

On the way back down the Wattle Track, we had probably our best sighting of the day, a pair North Island Kōkako, large crow-sized birds with curved beaks and blue wattles on their throats. They were right next to the track eating seeds in a tree, paying no attention to us.

By the time we left the island, we'd seen 22 species in all, with two new life birds.

Dinner was at the Mainsail Bar & Bistro. It was mixed. My grilled fish was pretty good, but Ellen's garlic chicken salad was a disaster. She was expecting a salad with chicken on top, but it was mostly sticky sweet and sour chicken pieces with a few salad greens at the bottom. I had some of it but neither of us had recovered from it overnight. The hazards of travel I guess.