Orongorongo Track & Turakirae Head

Sam is home for a week before he heads backs up to Auckland to complete the last couple of weeks of his degree. He and I had a day out communing with nature. We walked the Orongorongo track which I have done several times before but not with Sam.
We started with morning tea on a tree stump in the car park
then headed onto the track

and up the Catchpool valley.

The track follows the stream for a while,

then climbs up and over a saddle down to the Orongorongo river which was fairly full after recent rain.

We took lunch down on the shingle bed

and were joined by an Avondale spider.

We drove down to the mouth of the Wanuiomata Stream then walked across the bridge over the Orongorongo River and onto to Turakirae Head.

It's an area that has been repeatedly raised by earthquakes and contains at least five raised beaches. It's a bit difficult to appreciate it at ground level but the aerial view in that last link gives a better impression.

A brief description from here -

Spectacular earthquakes have been lifting the lower North Island out of the sea step by step over thousands of years. At Turakirae Head Scientific Reserve it’s easy to see a well-defined sequence of earthquake-raised beaches – sometimes called ‘stepped beaches’. Each plateau provides a valuable habitat for a variety of plants and wildlife. The five earthquake-raised beaches are internationally-renowned in scientific circles for the continuous record they provide of geological upheaval over the past 7,000 years.

If you want some more technical information then here are three links that might be interesting -

Seaweek clean-up removes marine threats

A 7000-year record of great earthquakes

Beach Geology and Geomorphoology at Turakirae Head

Spring Weekend

It’s that time of year again. This weekend has seen the making of the Christmas cake.

The weather hasn't been very spring-like lately. It cleared up this afternoon so we went for a quick walk in the Town Belt behind Jenny’s flat.

Here are Andy and I with Mount Kaukau in the background and a view across the Te Aro flat. In the foreground is the Basin Reserve cricket ground, with the Carillon above it and the old Dominion Museum to the left of that.

The area was used for some of the early scenes in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Ring trilogy.

The apostrophe police think that should be "Hobbits' Hideaway" - look children, here are two of the mischievious fellows!

We came across a group of tourists on a location hunting excursion.

They like re-enacting the scenes that were shot in the various places. This is where the dark riders have been seen in the Shire - using three of the tourists to simulate horse and rider!

On the way back to Jenny's for afternoon tea we explored some of the back streets of Mount Victoria and the interesting architecture.

Vanuatu Part 2

Noreen has not been inspired enough to post her own blog, so here are a few more photos from her recent trip.

This is how the locals live.

They have some interesting reptiles.

The last shots are of the volcano Mount Yasur on Tanna.