As we only had a car for our first 5 days in Napier, we decided to do some out of town excursions while we had it. This included a visit to Cape Kidnappers, home of the largest mainland gannet (its a bird) colony in the world.
Cape Kidnappers forms the southern end of Hawkes Bay and was named by Captain Cook in 1869, as the place where a group of local Maori tried to kidnap a Tahitian boy who was on board the Endeavour. The gannets must have heard about it (perhaps from a stowaway seagull), as they arrived a few years later, and have been nesting here ever since.
There are 3 ways to get to see the gannets -
1. Walk the 20 Km round trip on the beach for free (at low tide)
2. Take a $44 ride along the beach on a trailer towed behind a tractor, then walk to the colony
3. Ride right to the gannet colony on an air-conditioned bus for $80
Marlene might have opted for the longer walk option, but I still have nightmares from making the trip as a Boy Scout 50 years ago, and convinced her to take the tractor ride. Thankfully it was more overcast and cooler than Tuesday (33 degrees), so the ride was bearable. Each tractor towed 2 trailers, with about 10 people per trailer, so we had about 40 people in total, making the journey.
 |
Gannet Beach Adventures
|
The tractor ride takes you along the beach, which is partly sandy, but largely rocky, below cliffs which tower 2-300 feet above you, and occasionally through the water, if necessary. At one point the tractor drivers both got out and attacked some new rocks with pick axes to make the ride less bumpy. Each day more and more of the cliffs falls into the sea below. Thankfully only a few pebbles came down during our ride, but even a small pebble could cause you some damage after falling 200 feet.
The tractors negotiated past Black Reef and along a sandy section of beach, to where we began the 30 minute climb up to a plateau, where the gannets nest.
 |
The Beach and Black Reef from the Plateau Gannet Colony
|
There are about 8,000 breeding pairs at Cape Kidnappers this year, so there are gannets as far as you can see, hear or smell. The adult gannets have yellow heads, and the chicks start off all white and become grey and speckled as they get older.
 |
Where's Waldo
|
The adult gannets care for the chicks until they are about 15 weeks old, at which point the chicks, having never flown before, fly to Australia (my first flight was also to Australia, but I did it in the relative comfort of an Air New Zealand DC8). The journey takes about 8 days for the gannets, versus 3 hours on the DC8.
The gannets are obviously very smart birds, as after 2-3 years in Australia they fly back to New Zealand and never visit Australia again.
 |
My Favourite - Isn't she (he?) Cute?
|
 |
Charming Chicks
|
After our allotted hour and a half at the Plateau Colony, we set off on the return journey to Clifton. At this point, Ian, our tractor driver, comedian and tour guide, told us that the Gannets at the Black Reef Colony are exactly the same as the ones we had just climbed to hill to see, and we would be able to see them without getting off the trailer. Bugger!
 |
Baby Gannet at Black Reef Colony
|
The cliffs along the northern side of Cape Kidnappers show layer after layer of different deposits, including volcanic ash, river silt and heavier rocks. Having been built up over thousands of years, the cliffs also show earthquake action. The photo below shows an old earthquake fault line (the near vertical line), where the land on the left of the fault dropped down about 8 metres (25 feet), compared to the land on the right of the fault.
 |
Old Earthquake Fault Line
|
It is said that you have to have a sense of humour to be a New Zealander, and some local wag has posted a "Topless Bathing Permitted" sign outside his beachfront lean-to. I don't see what the big deal is....I always bathe topless (if you can get me into the water at all).
 |
Topless Bathing Permitted
|
No comments:
Post a Comment