Sunday 16 January More twitching

View from Tiritiri Matanga

I went twitching on my own today. David dropped me ashore to join the guided tour while he went back to the boat to work on our faulty GPS navigation system. The mainland ferry disgorged over a hundred day trippers (the poor people who don't have a yacht in the bay :))) onto the wharf and we were nimble split into groups of 8 and assigned a guide. Roger was our guide, a keen ornithologist and plantologist and a volunteer. For two hours he took us along paths pointing out the trees and flowers and stopping to talk about the birds. I saw more than I did yesterday including two Morepork owls. The Maori bird names are descriptive of the bird, for example a Stitchbird is a Haha in Maori which is the call it makes, the kakariki parakeet is green, kakariki is Maori for green. Makes life much simpler. For any bird watchers reading this I can also add pied shag, black oyster catchers, NZ robins and saddlebacks to the 'I spied' list.

While I'd been enjoying my stroll poor David had been having a tough time with the electrics. I certainly had the better morning. In the afternoon we were visited by a lovely Italian couple, Camino and Marcella, who had anchored their Amel on the other side of the bay. They settled here after sailing from Europe. When we crossed the Pacific there were Amels everywhere we went, here in NZ they are a rarity and this was the first one we'd seen not in a marina. Also we haven't met any other international cruisers other than when we've been in Opua marina and Whangarei marina. Perhaps they're doing road trips. Our friends on Inspiration Lady have gone to the South Island. Camino gave us a tip on where to find scallops and a safe harbour to shelter from gale force winds which are forecast for Tuesday.