Amazing weekend in Ohope

This weekend was a long weekend for the Auckland region for Auckland anniversary day, other regions have their anniversary day at different times of the year. We melted in the Friday evening traffic with Hanna at the wheel and headed to the east coast town of Ohope. The journey was about 4 hours, the first hour or so was spent enduring traffic jams and heat on the motorway. Once we were clear of Auckland traffic it was a very scenic drive and time flew by.

We stopped in Whakatane, about 10 minutes before Ohope, and met our host JB, he is a friend of Hanna's, and a few others for a Sri Lankan curry. After this we headed to JB's for a couple of drinks to relax after the long trip. The reason we were in Ohope was to celebrate one of Hanna's friends recent wedding. They were nice enough to invite us to the pool party at their place. We spent the afternoon and evening enjoying many drinks, chilling in the pool and having a proper Kiwi BBQ. It was cool chat to many people from the area, some were ex pats others more local but everyone was very welcoming and friendly.

Seagull doing its thing in Whakatane

Morning after the road trip

JB masterchef on the barbie

A Kiwi favourite - Mussels wrapped in bacon, tasted awesome

The next day we headed across the road to the beach. Ohope beach is 11km of amazing sandy beach, so long that it could never get busy enough to feel crowded. Most of the day was spent chilling out reading or body boarding in the surf. Turns out I am quite good at catching some waves. I complained a couple of times about a sharp shell attaching it's self to my foot which bloomin' hurt. It was only later over a couple of beers JB suggested it was a crab, I would of been straight out of the sea if I had known at the time. JB has a kite buggy and after a wizz around the beach he was happy to give Lloyd and Franzi (who was also staying with him) a lesson on power kites and the buggy. Lloyd picked up flying the kite really quickly but the kite plus the buggy was a bit more tricky. He still managed to get going and turn it a few times. The other cool thing about Ohope is that from there you can see White Island, this is a very active volcano and regularly erupts, spitting hot ash into the air.

Not sure we can find a spot on the beach

JB showing us how its done

Lesson One

Check out Lloyd's skid marks

Getting the hang of the kite

Final flight before the buggy

In to the buggy

Lloyd actually picked up some speed

White Island having a puff

JB's part time job involves work for the Kiwi trust. One of the parts of his role is to head out into the Ohope Scenic Reserve and use radio trackers to locate released Kiwis. A couple of the released Kiwi chicks had not been located for a while so he needed to try and find them for health checks. He invited us all along for the day learn a bit about Kiwis while trying to find them. The radio trackers used are very advanced, they use different signals to tell you information about the Kiwi. Cleverly the tracker can tell if the bird is sat on a nest and when an egg has hatched. We started on the main track through the bush but soon broke off down one of the rodent bait station lines along which there are traps for rodents and possums. The lines are marked by coloured triangles nailed to trees, they are close together so you don't get lost.

JB talked us through searching for the Kiwis using an antennae, each Kiwi has a specific frequency and a record of where they were last located. We headed to a few spots where regulars were found. Further down the track we picked up the signal for one of the missing Kiwis, unfortunately it was the mortality signal. The search began to find the bird and the tracker. The trackers cost a lot of money so need to be recovered, but they also need to try and log where and how the bird has died. We zigzagged along a river and through a gorge to try and pinpoint the location. The track was fairly unused so was very challenging, we had to clamber up slopes and swing on trees to get around. A lot of the forest floor is made up of fallen trees and rotting wood, hand and foot holds were difficult sometimes impossible. Sadly we could not reach the fallen Kiwi but had at least located the smaller area for the search to continue the next day. We started to head out of the Reserve, something that was just as challenging as searching for the Kiwi. We all had a little fall or two, cuts and bruises and wet feet. It was a good laugh and cold drink and bag of chips at the end went down a treat. We are really thankful to JB for giving up his time and taking out in the bush, we hope we didn't slow him down too much, in Hanna's words he is a mountain goat. The photos are of the easy parts because the cameras were put away for the hard bits.

Ready to head off

The easy part of the walk

JB and Franzi give a Kiwi tracking lesson

Action Shot 1

Action Shot 2 - Monkey swing

JB found a Kiwi burrow

Silver Fern

Palm Tree - was bigger than it looks in the pic

The way out

The Ohope Scenic Reserve

After resting our bodies for a couple of hours we jumped in the car for the 4 hour trip back. A few people at the party had suggested a different route home through the Kaimai Ranges. We managed to time it perfectly for sunset as we came over the mountains.

A massive thanks to Hanna for letting us join her for the weekend and to JB for being an amazing host. Enjoy the photos, there are loads!

Sunset from the Kaimai Ranges