1 Nov: Turkeys and green

They have wild turkeys in NZ, presumably emigrants from the US. We'd seen them before and saw them again as we entered Eastwood Gardens this Sunday morning.

Eastwood Gardens is an arboretum created by one man, the somewhat eccentric William Douglas Cook, who started planting stuff when he returned from service in WWI, and kept planting until his death in 1967. During the 1950s he became afraid that the great gardens of Europe would be destroyed in an atomic war He wanted his land to be able to provide stock for replanting afterward, so he planted some of all the stately trees of Europe and the Americas.

The result now is a charming and beautiful rolling property thickly covered with trees and gardens of flowers. We took a 3km path that led through some of it. The clouds were breaking up and the sun popped in and out. Here are a few pics.

Gardeners: What is this?

Recent planting of 100 trees by the Rotarians.

Mother turkey with turklets.

Overview of the older part.

You wanna use this path, buddy?

OK, off for Opotiki.

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We stopped several times to try to get a picture that would show how they plant these very tall rows of windbreak trees to protect the orchards and vineyards.

This route goes through the Waioeka Gorge, a wild and steep canyon that didn't get a paved road until the 1960s. Now it's a scenic day-trip.

Camped in a really nice holiday park on the shores of the blue Pacific.It's warm! Marian's cold definitely improved, David's still mild.

31 Oct: Pies and Cinnamon

Not a terribly exciting day. Marian's cold continued and David felt the first little scratch in the back of the throat indicating he has it. No reasonable chance that he could avoid it, living together in an RV. But maybe his immune system will handle it better.

Friend Lolly sent along a sure-cure for cough and cold from the internet: 1 tsp honey with 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Well, it's cheap and tastes good, why not? So when we shopped for groceries this evening, we got a bottle of cinnamon powder. And we are each taking our "medicine" daily: Manuka honey with a thick sprinkle of cinnamon powder -- on toast. Manuka is the lower-growing of the Ti tree family. To have hillsides covered with manuka and the taller kanuka is as common, and similar in appearance, to hillsides covered with chapparal in California. The ti trees are covered with tiny little blossoms which bees like, and manuka honey is sold everywhere. And wow! Apparently it has amazing healing properties all by itself! Think what it will do with added cinnamon!

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Pretty much a straight driving day under mostly-cloudy skies with occasional light rain. We made a point of stopping in Wairoa for lunch at Osler's Bakery and Cafe, which the Rough Guide said specialized in making "23 kinds of home-made pies" and had won awards for them.

Now you would think, as we did think, that this place would make things like apple, blueberry, maybe peach (they grow peaches in this area) and so on.

Nunh-unh!

The famous pies are little meat pies, like Steak and Kidney (David had it, it was so-so), Steak and Mushroom (Marian thought it was delicious), pork pie, and so on. We ate one each for lunch and bought one each to have for supper as well. We liked 'em; so did this guy who blogs about meat pies!

Evidence of our virus-induced lethargy: no pictures of the pies! Just a couple of green road pics.

P.S. posting this on Sunday evening because Gisborne was so lame as to have no wi-fi in the campground or in the town. We are not Gisborne fans.

30 Oct: Slow day with gannets

Marian's still coughing and blowing and not feeling 100% so we took it easy today. We drove around Napier in the morning, up and down the narrow and curving streets on The Bluff, the nicer residential district on a hill above town, and looked down on Napier's little container port.

Then it was a choice between the national aquarium and a trip to a colony of gannets. Seen aquaria before, so...

This was to be a three-hour cross-country ride in a 4-wheel-drive bus so Marian opted to stay behind and relax in our van. As advertised the ride was an hour of bumping over a steep and narrow track...

...over a very hilly sheep ranch.

Funny story here. According to the guide, the first owner, back in 1890, was a scottish bank manager who bought it on the strength of a real-estate brochure, 5,000 acres of gently rolling fertile sheep land on Hawke's Bay. When he got here he found it was 5,000 acres, all right. That much was true.

Also worth a note: these very green hills, like our California hills, turn brown in late spring. This whole area is in a rain shadow of a mountain range.

Finally we reach Kidnap Point, so called by Captain Cook who had some sort of argy-bargy with the Maori here. There are three gannet colonies. The oldest, the Saddle colony, can be seen on this dramatic point.

It's been in the same place since 1890. On the top of the bluff is the Cliff colony, est. 1930. The bus parks right next to it.

The gannets who are home sit on their nest mounds, all facing into the wind, which was very strong and gusty today.

The male and female alternate guarding the nest and feeding. Even now, before they have laid their eggs, they have to guard it because if they didn't, their neighbors would filch the kelp they have collected as lining. So they sit and nap.

When fledged, a young gannet heads south to Wellington and then west over the Tasman sea to spend its first two years in Australia, nobody knows why. Then it comes back here to find a mate and set up housekeeping.

The one of the pair who's been out to sea fishing comes home.

It flies over the colony emitting a special "honey, I'm home" call.

Its mate sits up straight and calls back. The returnee puts down the flaps and lands.

Then they do a little necking and beak-stroking.

It is the male's job to bring back hunks of kelp to furnish the nest.

So that was that. Did the laundry for the last time in New Zealand: one week to go! Tomorrow we are off to Gisborne.