Kawau Island

Nov 3: Wednesday
It was another day to arise early since I enjoy hanging out with Brooke in the wee morning hours. I usually find her curled up on a black leather couch, breast-feeding 4 month old Zoe. Together we chitchat and sip tea and watch the sun rise higher in to the sky. When almost 2 year old Sophia awakes we begin preparing breakfast. Pancakes are served today with pure Canadian Maple syrup.

Brooke was willing to drive me to Sandspit where I was hoping to join up with Reubens Cruises to explore Kawau Island. Brooke and the girls were wonderful chauffeurs and brought me to port with 5 minutes to spare. I found out that the cruises were not running today because there were too few passengers, but a water taxi was willing to take me to the island. I paid my fare and joined the driver, Tony. We skimmed across the water in a heavy boat that also serves as the postal service to the various islands and wharfs. The mail gets delivered and sent back in neon green gunny sacks. We stopped at 5 different locations before I got off at Mansion House Bay.

Without a watch on my arm, or any source of time-telling in my purse, I ventured off to do a three hour tour of the gorgeous island. As I was walking around, I kept thinking of titles for this post:

Walking with Wallabies

Creation Cries Out

Hiking in Wonderland

I Saw God Today

I hiked first to Momona Point for an incredible view of the bay and then began a steep trek up and down wooded cliffs. To my delight and surprise, a wallaby was not impressed with my presence and quickly leapt out of the way, with his tail pointing straight out behind him. Next I went down to Lady’s Bay and Dispute Cove. From there I could see an old copper mine, so I carefully trekked out on a low-tide boulder beach to explore the old mine.

I found one entrance where I could go in... I got about 20 feet before I started spooking myself. I couldn’t see without a flashlight and I started thinking about the Chilean miners. That inspired me to back out and continue cardio hiking.

I’ve been skipping describing the trees, because I can’t. The scenery was breathtaking, and every few moments I would come across a totally different view or variety of trees. I spotted huge knotted trees, deep rooted trees, leafy ferns, towering redwoods and more, along with more birds. I arrived back at the port with 45 minutes to spare, so I decided to tour the Old Mansion... a museum of Sir George Grey.

At two I boarded back on the boat and chatted with two other passengers and Tony until we got back to Sandspit. There Travis and the girls picked me up. (Catherine and Brooke were going horse-back riding on Pakiri Beach.)

We all pitched in looking after the kids while Brooke made dinner... although it turned out to be progressive. A full arched rainbow shone over the port outside our windows. Cat and I quickly ate spaghetti because we wanted to drive around and take pictures of the lowering sun casting long and stark shadows on the rolling hills. We were only out for about a half an hour when Cat’s camera died and her car was red-line empty.

Driving back to the cottage we received word that all local gas stations close at six, but if we wanted we could drive 17 km to Matakana. Grabbing some garlic bread we went “cruising together” to Matakana, and continued on to the strange town of Omaha. Omaha felt like a cookie cutter town, rather flat, boxy, and cut off... like a place that would be used for filming “The Truman Show”.

Pulling in to our long gravel driveway another rainbow was shooting straight down from the clouds and into the water. Simply beautiful! When the sun went down the stars came out. It is an incredibly different perspective looking at the Southern Hemisphere stars. Millions in number and all unrecognizable to me, but each one of them was still glorious.

Salad, wine, a movie, a fire in the stove, and a deep conversation about South Africa filled the evening.