A very quiet and restful last night on the road. Our cabin was in the middle of native bush and it was oh so quiet, a welcome reprieve after the previous night in Taumarunui.
It was also luxurious and family sized, and only slightly more expensive than our motel the night before. Mysterious.
Checkout was still at 10 am, which I gather is a very kiwi thing. It’s usually later overseas. We had another delicious meal at the restaurant as our breakfast, and then went for one last walk. This was again in the goblin forest surrounding the lodge, another loop track, a bit longer this time.
We came across some tiny insect eating birds hoping around up in the trees, we’d seen the same in the bush above Ohakune but this time I got some photos.
The ones we’d seen in Tongariro national park had been tiny round things like fluffy ping pong balls with no tails to speak of. They were so small they made fantails and wax eyes look positively muscular. At the time I’d thought they were rifleman (riflemen? riflemans? rifleman’s?) and I’m pretty sure these were too. The confusing thing is that we also definitely saw tomtits in both locations, and above Ohakune they appeared to be all hanging out together. Apologies to those who hate birds but I find this interesting. Anyway here are some screenshots from a NZ bird website.
There were predator traps every couple of hundred metres or so, they were right next to the path so I assumed they were virtue signaling to all the tourists, but Samantha pointed out that if you had to empty them all every couple of days you’d want them easily accessible too.
I also note that the ones that we saw further up the mountain the day before had notes on them saying that stoats kill kiwi chicks, and to please not set the traps off in an attempt to be humane. I’m guessing you can trigger them just by knocking them.
After our walk it was time to hit the road. We had 3 1/2 hours of driving during which the highlight would be Whanganui. We listened to some excellent podcasts to keep us awake and interested but I ended up driving the last leg so that Samantha could have a snooze.
What a fantastic trip! All the better it seems for being completely unprepared. The rest of the group enjoyed their tramp down South but I’m very happy with what we did. The Whanganui River will always be there but the mother daughter relationship is constantly evolving and that makes this week especially precious.
Thank you Samantha! I’ll never forget it (unless I get dementia).