A Kea Encounter and a new campsite - Okarito
Sunday 4 October
Strap in… this is a long day with far too many photos - sorry!
It kicked off at 6.30ish with a kea tap dancing on our roof which woke Louis, then letting out an ear piercing shriek which woke me. Fortunately we didn't seem to sustain any damage but Louis' wetsuit and swim cap hanging on the Ute to dry got a few pecks!
We spent the next half hour watching its antics as it tried to peck at Louis wetsuit, unpick the guy ropes and remove the groundsheet from Asha from Auckland’s tent, dig up some tasty roots, grab some fluff off my slippers and generally misbehave 🤣. I had my Canon out but it was still quite dark so hard to get any decent shots on that or the iPhone sadly. Got a few close ups and some video - Louis wasn’t sure whether to be worried about his new Ute or to film the encounter… he opted for the latter!
Yay - finally got our kea fix!
A while later after a quick trip back to FJ for diesel (from the most expensive outlet on this side of the Alps, possibly all of the South Island!) and more milk, we unleashed the kayak from its overnight home lashed to a cabbage tree, and set off to explore the inlets and creeks around our end of the lake. Popped our nose into several watery spaces and enjoyed the mountain views across the lake. Beautiful day - clouds were obscuring much of the snow capped mountains, but they’d pop through occasionally and the valley up to Franz Josef Glacier was clear as crystal
Saw a salmon wrestling with something on the surface nearby, two black swans and some scaredy scaups who disappeared rapidly on our approach! Landed back at the beach with great accuracy, right next to where I'd left my jandals on the shore!
Packed up Banjo and around lunchtime, set course for Ōkārito out on the coast. Parked up at the fab community campground there, with a lovely welcome from Colin the custodian. We've had this spot on our wishlist for a while but always been in a rush up or down the West Coast or the weather has not played ball!
The campground has a large variety of fairly basic facilities - flushing toilets, $2 showers, a BBQ, kitchen sink area, bins & composting, potable water, washing line and a large well stocked semi-open shelter (with fab murals at each gable end) with a plug for laptop/phone/camera battery charging.
A very friendly, or nosey, blackbird joined us as we parked up & unhitched 🐦⬛ - Louis was trying a timelapse film of us setting up and the blackbird kept hopping around the GoPro! Had lunch serenaded by tuis and korimako in the hedge next to us (so many and so vocal) then wandered down to the beach to check it out in the sunshine.
We had to look right & left before crossing the airstrip between us and the beach! Apparently we had missed some microlights landing and leaving before we arrived! The beach was vast - grey sand studded with assorted stones and rocks, two watery ponds near the back of the beach, driftwood galore and little fenced off areas where the dotterels were nesting.
The driftwood was fabulous - we made some natural sculptures (which had all washed away by the next day) and found Louis a Gandalf staff! I restarted the summer tradition of leaving your jandals in a bush at the start of the beach... always gotta remember to go collect them again. Birdlife galore on the beach, the airstrip and the campsite - oyster catchers (tōrea-pango), banded dotterels (pohowera), bellbird (korimako) & honkwahs (pūtangitangi) ❤️
Back to Banjo to watch niece Natalie playing football with her team against Auckland United - it was all even stevens until the last 30 seconds when Auckland scored and beat Wellington Diamonds 1-0!
We dressed up a tad warmer for our second outing, as the wind had got up, to go exploring along the beach and into town. It was lots cloudier, but still lovely. One of our fellow campers was having a driftwood fire out there with his son or grandson - we should do this! We walked to the bottom of the beach, off by the road access and back into town. There are quite a few historic buildings here including the historic hostel, Lazy Acres, General Store and Albert’s shack. Especially for you 🎶 - I was excited then sadly disappointed that the store belonged to James not Jason Donovan!!
Stopped by the people that make and sell local Okarito big repellant; we have seen it sold up and down the West Coast but figured we would buy straight from source here. We got a mini and a medium roll on product in its recycled milk bottle container - for the princely sum of $12 - and they are so much nicer than the commercial products we have used before - especially the scent of citronella.
Found all the local historic buildings, got details on local walking tracks and learned about the gold mining history out at the old wharf.
Walked back along the local airfield - no fear of being landed on, the main marks I saw were horse hoof prints!
Pork chops for dinner with Graham Norton on the iPad, then I dashed out to catch sunset which was pretty phenomenal - I even witnessed the legendary green flash as it sank below the horizon 💚 Love the oyster catcher with his orange bill flowing luminous in the setting sun 🖤🧡
Finished the evening with another episode of Graham Norton and did some Banjo blogging
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