Week 5 New Zealand North Island

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and also the gateway to the South Island. An attractive modern city full of tourists and backpackers. The area has a major harbour and bay area. We experienced our first earthquake today at 19.17 this evening when the buildings rattled and the flagpoles swayed. Mrs Lockwood felt the pavement sway under her feet. Checked on the internet and it was recorded at 5.7. The locals said it was quite a big one for them in Wellington.

This is Mount Taranaki on New Zealands west coast. It is a composite volcano which is currently dormant. It is also known as Mount Egmont.

Within the Mount Taranaki National Park near the Dawson Falls visitor centre there is what is believed to be the oldest running power station in the world. Its a small hydro electric generator first used in Wellington in 1896. It currently supplies power for the visitor centre at Dawson Falls with a little help from the National Grid.

This is part of the Tongariro National Park near Lake Taupo which comprises New Zealands most active volcanoes. Mount Tongariro, Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu . Mount Ruapehu erupts every 1 -3 years. It is a composite volcano but its summit crater is full of melted snow and water. When it erupts it tends to throw out ash and lava bombs rather than lava flows. It had a major eruption in 1995 and 1996 and several smaller ones since.
One of the best walks in New Zealand the Tongiriro Crossing is here , unfortunately we did not have the time or the weather to do it.



It is also part of New Zealands major ski area on the North Island although looking at the boulder field in the ski resort it was difficult to imagine how deep the snow must get to cover them up to be able to ski.








Because it is a volcano and can erupt without warning as it did in 1995 an extra to the ski plan is what to do in an eruption to avoid the lahars (mud flows) and which lifts may be affected. Adds a new dimension to adventure skiing. There are pictures in the visitor centre showing people skiing when it erupted in 1995 and 1996 and black streaks where the lahars were. Nobody was killed. There are automatic sensors on the mountain which activate sirens to warn skiers when an eruption is imminent.

Earthquakes, volcanoes , tsunami are all part of New Zealand life and you just have to know what to do if one occurs. All the hotels have information in their guest folders.

Aratiatia Dam near Lake Taupo. The gorge below the dam is dry until the hydro power station further down the river releases water 3 or 4 times per day turning the gorge into spectacular river rapids.

Aratiatia Rapids in full flow.

Black Swans are common within the area of Lake Taupo.

Huka Falls near Lake Taupo where the slow moving river is forced through a narrow gap with very powerful fast flowing water.












This is Craters Of The Moon Geothermic Area near Lake Taupo. It looks like Ilkley Moor with steam! In the 1950's the area only had a small number of steam vents until the Geothermic power station was built. This upset the balance of the area and dramatically increased the number of steam vents in this area. When the steam vents collapse and block they blow out to form craters.





A collapsed Crater at Craters Of The Moon. The ferns , lichens and scrub are specially adapted to the high temperatures and acidic soil and are not commonplace in any of the volcanic areas we have seen in the USA.









This is Kuirau Park in Rotorua. Rotorua has many thermal areas around the town. In the park there are many areas where the ground has given way to bubbling mud pots or steam vents. Most have been fenced off to protect people as within thermal areas the ground is very fragile and can give way into boiling water .

There is a strong smell of sulphur (rotten eggs) all around the town. The town is nicknamed "Stinkyville".













On the edge of town there is a large thermal area which also contains geysers the largest of which is Pohutu Geyser which erupts every half hour to a height about 30m.

This is Hot Water Beach near Whitianga.
People take spades to the beach and dig holes in the sand which then fill with warm water which comes up from underground springs heated along the volcanic fault line. They then sit in the warm water and relax. This can only be done at low tide.

Cathedral Cove is a well known beach area
near Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula.
It has many sea stacks and caves.

This is the Whitianga Area of New Zealand overlooking Mercury Bay , Lonely Beach and Cooks Beach. Mercury Bay was named by Captain Cook when he visited the area in 1769. He came to find the exact position of New Zealand in the Pacific which he did by making an observation of the planet Mercury as it moved across the skies of New Zealand in that year. He spent 10 days in the area making the observation.




This is the trig point on Shakespeare Point above Cooks Beach. The plaque commemorates Cooks acheivement of finding the exact position of New Zealand in the Pacific and mapping the New Zealand coastline throughout. It proved to be reliable for more than 150 years for Mariners.
Mercury Bay also has visting Orca Whales which chase the Stingrays into the harbour area. Unfortunately we didn't see them!!

The coastline around Whitianga is part of a volcanic fault line that runs from Taupo in Central North Island out to White Island in the Pacific. This is part of the Pacific Ring Of Fire. Faults along the main fault line have been eroded by the sea to form caves, stacks and blowholes, Tour operators in the area take boats into the caves.

This is the Treaty House at Waitangi. It was here in 1840 that the British Government party headed by Captain William Hobson and the local Maori tribes signed the treaty in which they agreed to live and work together as one nation. This became the basis for the current New Zealand. Auckland became the capital in 1842.

This is the meeting house at Waitangi. It was built over a period of 6 years from 1934 to 1940 in order to celebrate the centenary of the signing of the treaty. It is shared by all Maori tribes and each has a carving inside. The carvings depict their own style. The Maoris are renowned for their carving skills. Inside the meeting house each wall panel is from a different Maori tribe from the North Island.





Another part of the centenary celebrations in 1940 was the launching of this Maori war canoe which is made up of 3 huge Kauri trees. It needs a minimum of 76 paddlers to handle the boat safely on the water.










This is part of the Coromandel Peninsula. We think it is very similar to the coastline in our country but with better weather and bigger fish.
The area is famous for game fishing in particular Red Snapper and Marlin. So far New Zealand is very similar to UK apart from they have a lot of ferns and palm trees and some exotic flowers. We have seen many birds similar to the UK like the sparrow, thrush , blackbirds and herons.
There are also plenty of cows and sheep.




Mr Mrs Lockwood kayaking around some of the islands in the bay with a local guide and a young man who was born in Yorkshire who had emigrated 4 years ago. It was very windy and paddling was very hard at times through the choppy waters. We also fished from the canoe but only the guide Dan managed to catch Sea Trout. We went on several of the beaches on the islands , many are classed as marine reserves checking possum traps with the guide whilst we were out. Possums which are protected in Australia are a big nuisance in New Zealand. They are culled to protect other endangered species such as the Kiwi as they strip the new vegetation bare on trees.

This is "The Shippy" , the local fish and chip shop at Paihia where we were staying. It was once used for transporting sugar, then it became a museum of underwater artefacts from a local diver entrepeneur. There are many wrecks in the area. It is now set up as a cafe type fish and chip shop where you can either take home or eat them out of paper up on deck with a beer and watch the sunset over the estuary. They serve Gurnard, Hoki, Snapper and others but not Cod or Haddock!




This is the Bay of Islands area 237km north of Auckland. The area consists of 144 islands of various sizes. Any rock that supports vegetation is classed as an island.










Auckland was the capital of New Zealand from 1842 to 1865 before being transfered to Wellington. Auckland is a very large modern city situated on the Northern Island. It is similar to Sydney in that it has huge bridges over the water and a major harbour where cruise ships sail into. It also has many sprawling suburbs.

Australia Week 4 Darwin,Kakadu,Katherine,Litchfield NP

The final sunset over Darwin Harbour as we get ready to fly on to New Zealand.












Litchfield National Park just south of Darwin. Possibly the nicest of the parks we have visited with a nice range of wildlife, walks and waterfalls. This is Wangi Falls.












This is a Golden Orb spider which is about the size of an adults hand. It is non venomous and only harmful to the much smaller male. The males are red and can just be seen top right of the main body just before he becomes a tasty snack for the female after mating.













The area is also famed for these magnetic turmite mounds which are different from the cathedral turmite mounds seen previously in the blog. The magnetic turmite mounds appear like a graveyard aligned North South in order to provide the minimum face to the sun and provide temperature control. They provide shared homes for snakes, lizards and rats.

Emus are a threatened species but we managed to see this female with her 6 chicks which unfortunately were too quick to get a good photograph of.

Katherine Gorge is part of the Nitmiluk National Park. It comprises 13 seperate gorges along the Katherine River. This is gorge 3 midway round a 12 km bush walk called Butterfly gorge.

Due to the extreme heat at this time of year (today was cool at 33C in the shade) 40C plus in the open and very high humidity 93% bush walking can be extremely hazardous requiring a litre of water per hours walking. On this particular walk, as Katherine is a popular area there were additional water butts on route.

Having not seen many Wallabies and Kangaroos Katherine area has many. This Agile Wallaby was sharing the picnic area with us and the joey was having his own picnic!!

It was so hot the majority were lying under the picnic benches to keep cool.

This is Edith Falls near Katherine. This is a popular bathing and swimming spot for the locals of the area. We think they are very brave as the signs say that the Freshwater Crocodiles that inhabit this pool only feed between 19:00 and 07:00. I hope the crocodiles wear a watch!!
We later found out the reason the local people are not so bothered is that Freshwater crocodiles pull their teeth out when they bite you. Another comforting thought!!

After very heavy rains saltwater crocodiles can also move into freshwater areas.

Up here in the Northern Territory distances are so large for transport that they make road trains like this where a lorry can be 4 trailers long. Only a problem when overtaking is required, but as there is not much traffic you don't have to wait long for the recommended 1 km straight passing place required.

Mr Lockwood taking over the controls of the boat as Robbie our Aboriginal guide bailed the boat out due to a torrential thunderstorm filling it with water. Wouldn't have been a problem apart from we are on the East Alligator River so named because the Englishman who came in the 1800's spotted the reptile below and thought it was an Alligator and so named the river. He never came back to correct the name !!

Robbie taught us a lot about Aboriginal ways of survival using the materials around them and hunting including demonstrating his spear throwing skills.

This is an Estuarine Crocodile (Saltwater). It is one of many where we were on our tour. They grow up to 6metres in length and are very aggressive. People should not walk within 6 feet of the waters edge. Many of the billabongs as well as the rivers have crocodiles in them. Saltwater crocodiles can move into freshwater areas.

This is Aboriginal rock art at Nourlangie in Kakadu National Park. The art varies in age and is often over painted by subsequent generations. It often signifies spiritual ancestors, animals, fish and people. Some of the art can only be seen by senior men or women as it is considered sacred and dangerous. The rock art represents one of the longest historical records of any group of people in the world.

This little chap is a green tree frog and was attached to our room door one morning. Thankfully he is much smaller than the toad below.










This is a Cane Toad which was introduced to Australia to eat insects. It is now a major pest as it is poisonous to all predators. During the evening they come out in their thousands. They are about the size of an adults clenched fist. In one of the local towns they have childrens competitions to collect as many toads as possible in a bucket. Then they get rid of them. The children have great fun but mums don't as the official way to kill them as recommended by the authorities is to put them in a plastic bag and then into your freezer!! Yuck!!!



Kakadu National Park is a world heritage site and is known for its wetland areas and is co-managed by the Aboriginal tribes of the area.
The area has much wildlife and in particular has more than a third of the native bird species of Australia within this area. It covers 20,000 sq m
and provides habitat for 68 mammal species , 120 reptiles and 26 frogs and 300 fish species.





Radjah Shellducks by Anabangbang billabong. We couldn't walk round the billabong as planned due to the path being flooded and the danger of crocodiles. Notice the spiders webs.

Mrs Lockwood walking by Mamakula wetland where there were many birds and Wallabies. There were also many many flies!! Mrs Lockwood couldn't waft her paper fan fast enough!!! It was also 38C and very humid!!!

Finally seen lots of Wallabies and Kangaroos in the Kakadu area bounding around as you imagine them to be. Great big leaps and very fast as they move along.

This Termite mound is over 2 metres high. There are hundreds of mounds by the side of the road. Some a couple of cm and some as big as this.

Arrived in Darwin capital of the Northern Territories only to find President Obama had come to see us. All the streets were lined and cordoned off for his visit which was big news in Australia and in particular this area as quote"Nothing ever happens here". We joined in and stood and watched as he shot past with full escort. Very impressive. He waved at us.

Mrs Lockwood standing by the war memorial outside Government House. Darwin played a big part during the second world war but suffered heavy bombing by the Japanese in 1942.Darwin subsequently was rebuilt but was again destroyed in 1974 by cyclone Tracy. As Darwin is north of the Tropic of Capricorn not only does the sun appear to the North for 6 months of the year but it also appears in the South at midday for the remaining 6 months of the year. Its position also means it has wet and dry seasons. The dry season is in their winter months hence it is very hot now and they are starting to get very heavy thunderstorms each day. The humidity is also very high.