Day 7. Sunshine on my Shoulder. Makes Me Happy

So begins our second week on holiday. Still in New Zealand, but the sun is shining brightly. Last night the sky was lit up with stars unlike anything possible in New York or the surrounding suburbs. We saw the Milky Way, Orion's Belt and Sword (the sword was upside down), Alpha and Beta Centauri, Sirius, Rigel, Betelgeuse (without Michael Keaton), Magellan Clouds. Startling to say the least.








We headed south along the coast stopping at Pancake Rocks and Blowholes, which in the early morning light and high tide was lovely. Splashes of water spraying over the rocks.

Onward South towards Okarito stopping at a goat farm to taste the cheese and photograph the goats (one in a wheelchair having been born without the use of his back legs).

Next stop was at a woodcarver/photographer whose work in both wood and images was wonderful.

On to Okarito with a stop in between to look at greenstone carvings. In New Zealand, Jade is Greenstone. The booming village of Okarito is charming. The population is a whopping 30 permanent residents and everyone is just so warm and friendly. Our first stop was to explore the possibility of a night trek to see the elusive and nocturnal kiwi. We had several minutes of friendly banter about whether we were good enough to go on HIS excursion when we discovered it was not friendly banter at all. We failed miserably because we had the unmitigated gall to actually ask some questions. With a grumble and some unkind thoughts we moved on to meet another tour related couple who were quite nice. She took us on a tour of the village, starting with a walk along the beach and then through town and into the temperate rainforest. It is a beautiful place and the whole tour took about an hour.

Accommodation is the first floor of a beach front house this time with three bedrooms kitchen living room and dining area. There is a large lawn behind the house and before you get to the beach the grass is a bit flat. Tractor tracks. Nope, actually a landing strip. With hopes no planes are in the backyard in the morning.

Off to the beach for sunset while John, our guide and driver, made us a delicious dinner, we saw the beautiful sky once again and finished the bottle of wine. And relaxed for the evening anticipating the next morning's boat ride through lagoon to see the birds.