When you travel as an independent, you often encounter situations that provide very pleasant memories. My wife Sylvie and I have many such memories from our visit to New Zealand, but one stands out. More on that later.
Sylvie and I set off for New Zealand in December of 2004. It was my idea, but Sylvie jumped on it for three reasons-a friend of ours had a sister in Aukland, Sylvie’s brother was married to a Kiwi, but most importantly, we could go on to Australia from there, a place that Sylvie really wanted to see.
I wanted to go to New Zealand because I am a birding nut. New Zealand is home to six families of birds that can be seen nowhere else in the world. The most distinctive of these was the Kiwis (at that time there were three species-present day 4 are recognized). At that time, I was on a quest to see as many as possible of the now 250 families in the world (in 2004 there were fewer families recognized-I don’t quite remember how many)
We made lots and lots of plans, but they got a bit scrambled because Sylvie’s Dad died on Veteran’s Day. But the funeral service was held shortly thereafter, so we were able to stay with our plans. We had been living in Sylvie’s house, so she rented it while we planned to be away for almost 6 months. We were living in a short-term rental before our departure and had already given notice of our departure. Well, it was tight, but everything worked out.
We flew to Auckland, New Zealand on a direct flight from Los Angeles on Air New Zealand.
Figure 1: Air New Zealand
It was a more than 12-hour flight. We arrived in Auckland at 6:00 in the morning on December 1, New Zealand time (2:00 in the afternoon Washington DC time), almost two days from our departure from Washington. We were exhausted. We had prebooked a hotel that allowed us to arrive in the morning. We got to the hotel and crashed. We were up in the middle of the afternoon and decided to walk around downtown Auckland. We were amazed to see that although it was the start of the Christmas season, the stores closed at 3:00 PM during both the week and weekend (it was Wednesday). Wow. The full-blown commercial life had not taken over.
Back to my goal to see a Kiwi. Our planned destination for the next day was Tiri-Tiri Matangi-an island in the Gulf of New Zealand (Huaraki Gulf).
Figure 2: Tiri-Tiri Matangi Island
Auckland is situated on the Gulf and ferries go to the island daily. The special thing about Tiri-Tiri Matangi (Maori word for “Tossed by the Wind”) is that it is an outdoor Aviary. When New Zealand was first colonized by Polynesians (the Maori) in 1250-1300 AD, they brought with them Polynesian rats. When European settlers began arriving in the early 19th century, they brought other mammalian predators-common weasel, house mice, ferrets, and stoats. Europeans also brought various farm mammals. Prior to the two colonizations, there were no mammals whatsoever on the islands, including of course humans.
The birdlife of New Zealand evolved without the threat of predation, particularly egg and nest predation, so many species were ground nesters. The introduction of the mammalian predators (Including man) devastated the New Zealand avifauna, including many extinctions.
Figure 3: Hauraki Gulf, Auckland & Tiri-Tiri Matangi
The island of Tiri-Tiri Matangi has had all the mammalian predators eradicated so that the island habitat is no longer a threat to native birds. And the species on the island include one species of Kiwi.
Figure 4:Ferry Arriving at Tiri-Tiri Matangi
We caught the ferry to Tiri-Tiri Matangi the next morning, December 2 mid-morning and were on the island by noontime. We were dragging, but we were directed to our accommodations for the night (remember-Kiwis are nocturnal). The research station on the island includes a bunkhouse for visitors.
Figure 5:Research Station Bunkhouse
We had booked twin accommodation (doubles not offered). We were shown to the quarters and were a bit surprised to learn that twin accommodation meant top and bottom bunk beds.
Figure 6: Our Twin Accommodations
We did realize that it was a bunkhouse and that we would be sharing it with other people. Nobody was there when we arrived. We ate a quick snack and decided to explore the island for a few hours. Amazingly in the next few hours that we wandered around I saw birds that are in three of New Zealand’s endemic families-out of the 6 families that I came to see.
Figure 7:Stitchbird
Figure 8: Whitehead
Figure 9: North Island Saddleback
Sorry, too much about birds. We came back to the bunkhouse in the late afternoon, had a bite to eat, and took a nap. We were awake about 8:30 as the sun went down, put on some cool weather coverups, grabbed our flashlights and set off in search of the Kiwi. About an hour later, we were in luck and several birds were right out in the middle of the dirt track we were walking on.
Figure 10: Little Spotted Kiwi
But we were not yet finished. In talking to the staff at the research station, Sylvie learned that there were also penguins that came ashore at night. Off we went to the suggested shoreline, and sure enough, there they were.
Figure 11: Little Blue Penguins
“Oh my.”, said Sylvie, “Those are the cutest things I have ever seen. I am so glad I came on this night walk.”
We headed back to the bunkhouse, put on our night clothes, and climbed into bed, me on the top bunk. No one else was in the bunkhouse. We were soon fast asleep.
Sometime later I was awakened by somebody entering the bunkhouse. I couldn’t see in the dark, but it sounded like two relatively young women. I dozed off again. Sometime later I was awakened again. This time it was by the noises from somewhere down below me. It did not take me long to understand that these women were having sex. And they were not quiet about it. I tried to peek over the bedrail to see if I could see, but no luck-It was pitch dark. The noises went on for quite a while, and then clearly sounded like orgasm.
I must say that I did not mind being awakened for that show, unlike my buddy Brian with his sort of similar experience in Costa Rica (read his post titled Strange Bedfellows).
In the morning, I asked Sylvie if she had heard the show. She said that he had been sound asleep and heard nothing. When I explained what I had heard, she smiled, gave me a big kiss, and said, “Ian, I am glad you had a fun time. Sorry I couldn’t join you.”
We were up fairly late for us, and we could see that the two young ladies were sharing the same bed. After breakfast we dawdled our way back to the dock to catch the noon ferry back to Auckland.
The rest of the trip was wonderful. We got to visit our friend’s sister and her husband in Auckland, visited Sylvie’s sister-in-law’s Maori grandmother in Rotorua, boated with the dolphins, did a sperm whale watch, traveled throughout the North Island, South Island and Stewart Island, and did a week cruise to the Subantarctic Islands with 2 of my birding buddies. From there we went on to Australia to begin 2005.
Wow, what a trip. But we always smile when we remember our bunkhouse experience on Tiri-Tiri Matangi.
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