Gannets galore: Cape Kidnappers

Up early this morning as my shuttle driver was picking me up at 7:15 a.m. to drive me the half hour out to Te Awanga to the parking lot where the Gannet Beach Adventures company starts their tractor-pulled wagon trips along the beach to Cape Kidnappers. They run the trip once a day dependent on the tides as the beach is inaccessible during high tide. It is an eight kilometre trek out to the cape and you can walk it if you want (based on tides) but the wagons seemed a good choice. (You can also go overland -- with no worries about tides -- through farmlands and the new high-end golf course -- but the wagons looked more fun.). There were enough people to run three tractor wagons so we all loaded on. There is probably no better job for grown men than driving tractors pulling wagons along a rocky half-water-covered beach. Clearly they all loved what they were doing and they went out of their way to go over every rock they could and joked with each other and the passengers. Roaring out to sea. Then turning around on the beach to lap each other.


Riding on the wagons you get a very good view of the cliffs and the beach. The geological history is all there to see in the layers seen in the cliffs, the earthquake faultines, the volcanic ash and the fossils in the rocks. As well as some social history as you can see Maori middens -- where they embedded shells and bones from fish they ate in the cliffs above the high tide line rather than throw them back in the sea for spiritual reasons. Some of the cliffs are a couple hundred thousand years old and the ones right out at the Cape are millions of years old.


After about an hour and a bit we got out to the gannet colony and started to see them on some rocks. They are quite pretty sleek birds. There were lots of babies as this is the time of year for rearing and feeding of the young. The babies are all the size of adults but they have fluffy feathers and look slightly silly. We stopped the wagons so the driver could pick up one young one that had fallen down from its nest and put it back -- apparently once a baby moves out of the nest its parents stop feeding it. Other gannet info -- they mate for life, they can live up to 25 years and in February/March they fly to Australia (I don't know why) and return to Cape Kidnappers to breed in future.



Once the wagons had got to the very end of the beach they parked and you could walk the 25 minutes uphill to the top of the cliff to the main gannet colony where you literally get right up next to them.


Very cool (if a little stinky on a very hot day!) The 25 minutes back downhill to the beach was less of an exertion and there was some time to paddle in the ocean before loading back on the wagons for the return trip on the beach. Very glad that I did this. It was a lot of fun and incredible to see the cliffs and gullies up close and to get right up to the gannets. (They don't act like sea gulls and pigeons and other birds in that they won't eat food if you give it to them. They only eat what fish they catch. So they aren't as susceptible to humans as other birds are. Interesting.)

My shuttle driver was waiting for me when the wagons returned to base about four and half hours after heading out. He dropped me back at my motel and I freshened up (put on some more sun lotion) and headed back out. There was a festival on the beach across from my motel so I went to check it out. It was a festival for Napier's youth with bands and dancing contests etc. I watched for a bit and then headed into town and had some lunch at one of the cafes. Had some area goat feta in olive oil and fresh herbs with flat bread and a side of fresh watermelon. Along with a glass of Triplebank "Awatere Valley" savvie it was a nice light late lunch and I could just relax and enjoy it. Afterwards I looked around the shops a bit and then headed back to my room to relax and read on the balcony until dinner time.

And then it happened. I went out for dinner. It had to happen sometime. I had my first bad meal of the trip. I went to a place down the road called "Cobb & Co". It has been busy every night I have walked so I thought I would try it out and I saw they had lamb shanks on the menu. The lamb shank was fine -- it was braised with fresh rosemary which you could taste and the meat fell nicely off the bone. But the "creamy" mashed potatoes were certainly not creamy unless I have completely misunderstood the meaning of that word. There was no taste to them at all either -- no butter or olive oil added. The gravy or "jus" as they called it was separating on my plate -- "jus" in my experience doesn't separate. The "seasonal veggies" were shredded carrot, cauliflower and broccoli. It is the height of summer here so none of those things is "seasonal"! And it would have been fine if they were steamed or something but they were boiled and covered with a white sauce that was just flour and water. Truly horrid. The place was full and people were eating their food so I guess it was just me but I prefer nice simple freshly cooked food with flavours. I had some sort of sav to drink but even that was blah. Since I was having lamb I would have ordered a syrah or a merlot but they were imported from Australia!!!!! Prime wine country and they had imports. I graciously paid for my meal and headed back to my motel. I decided to pop into my motel's restaurant for dessert to try to get rid of the memory of my dinner. I ordered the manuka honey creme brulee and it was very nice indeed with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. That helped. Made myself a nice cup of tea in my room which also helped.

Well, must pack up the suitcase again. Tomorrow I fly to Auckland to get my connecting flight to the Bay of Islands airport in Kerikeri and from there I will get a shuttle or taxi to the town of Paihia. Hopefully flights are all on time as I have a very tight window to get my connector in Auckland. It doesn't look like there is a lot of wireless in Paihia so will have to suss that out when I get there. Will update as soon as I can.