Carolina Kiwis: Here Kitty Kitty

Sunday

Sherry slept okay on her couch cushion pallet, except the floor really stunk. In the morning she got up and noticed it wasn't the floor, but Mark's Tevas that were funkifying the whole camper. Mark woke up to find his sandals permanently banished outside and his cold in full force. Sherry took pity on him and fixed him a cuppa and Nutella on toast in bed. Ro spent a good portion of the morning playing outside with those same kids from last night, loudly debating the merits of Ben 10's various aliens, but we had to put the brakes on his idea to invite all the kids into our camper for a play.

Hangin' out with the skater dudes

The first stop of our local sight-seeing was Mount Parihaka, once the site of New Zealand's largest Maori pa. Even though there was a road that went nearly all the way to the top, Ro was in no mood to walk up the 50 or so steps to the summit. After much coaxing, his demeanor brightened when he saw the impressive panorama, and he forgot all about being tired. He eagerly wanted to walk down one of the summit trails to the base (45 minutes one-way), even after we explained he'd have to walk back up to the car.

Whangarei Harbour from Mt Parihaka

The war memorial on the summit can be seen for miles

Our next stop was the A.H. Reed Memorial Kauri Park. We soon encountered an older couple that had snapped a pic for us on top of Mount Parihaka, "no, we're really not stalking you." Kauri trees are the oldest and biggest trees in NZ, akin to Sequoias in stature. The park features a remarkable feat of trail-building in an elevated canopy walk, which Ro initially couldn't wait to get to, then was a little scared of once he saw it. We bribed him with some trail mix; he carefully picked out the m&m's as he toddled through the forest canopy, and his attention was finally captured by some weird-looking insects. We continued through the woods to Pukenui Falls, clambering up a steep trail which Ro happily bounded up with ease. As per his usual, the more difficult the trail, the more fun he has; give him a wide, flat track and he's just as likely to plop down in the middle of it as walk on it.

Sherry in her element

And that's a SMALL kauri tree

Careful, mummy, watch your step!

There was a trail along the Hatea River from the Kauri park to Whangarei Falls, but it was a half-hour each way. We didn't want to push our luck with Ro, so we elected to drive. The most popular scenic attraction in town, the falls are located in the middle of a residential area. All the nearby residents must get tired of campervans constantly parked in front of their houses. There was a nice, big, sloping, tree-shaded lawn above the falls where we had a little picnic, watching the local kids jumping into a large pool above the falls. Most were content to swing out over the pool on a rope, but one daring girl (looking about 10yo) kept climbing a large pine tree and jumping at least 8m from a high branch that barely held her weight. There was a walking track down into the gorge which took you to the bottom of the falls, but Ro was tired and content to just watch the falls from above, waving to Mark down below.

Sandwich, anyone?

Junior daredevil showing how it's done

That's far enough, Ro!!!

Picture of Confusion

There's always a nice Asian tourist around to take your picture

The major stop of our day was the Zion Wildlife Gardens, located out in the countryside in the middle of a bunch of small dairy farms. We wondered if the cows ever got spooked from the roaring of the big cats at Zion. Home to the television series The Lion Man, the Gardens are chock full of rare cats, many of which are extinct in the wild.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_Man

Cheetahs hungrily eyeing a Kids Meal

Ro's mane is even whiter than this lion's

Ro sooooo wanted to pet one

There was a fatality at the park last May when a white tiger mauled one of the keepers, so the pricey tours that involve guests actually getting into the cages with these beasts have gone by the wayside. The exception to that is the "Cheetah Chat," since apparently cheetahs aren't considered a threat to a full-size human. Even so, we were happy with our "Works" tour, which showed us all of the wildlife at the park, and most of the big cats getting fed. Zion, the big Barbary Lion from which the park gets its name, played Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. Ironically, there's another lion at the park named Aslan, who lives with his sister Narnia.

http://www.zionwildlifegardens.co.nz/

Like most celebrities, Zion was too busy to sign autographs

Mmmmm...horse

[Insert 80's hair metal band reference here]

We got much more detailed information about the animals from our experienced guides than we would have gotten at a zoo. For example, one guide Antoine, when talking about the park's baboon, related a story from when he lived in Africa and his house kept getting burglarized by the local baboons who were eating all his food and drinking all his fizzie drinks (i.e. soda). So one day he stuffed a bread roll with the hottest chili peppers he could find, and watched as the dominant male baboon scarfed it down, tears soon welling up in its eyes, lesson learned.

Ash has to take a submissive posture to hand-feed the cheetahs

No way Antoine would let Aslan crawl over him for a steak. Note the mane extending down the belly of the Barbary Lion

Ro found the Royal White Tigers to be funny-looking, because they were all cross-eyed. The only cat he got to pet, though, was a stray house cat. He and a couple of other little boys were pretty hot and tired towards the end of the afternoon, so we skipped the Serval feeding and headed for the office to get some cold drinks. Ro promptly fell asleep on the drive back to Whangarei. Mark watched him in the car while Sherry ran in to New World for some groceries; he was still sleeping when we got to the Town Basin (sort of a marina/riverwalk), so Mark let him sleep while Sherry did a little shopping, then we all rendezvoused at the big playground.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whangarei

While browsing, Sherry picked up a little gossip from the shopkeepers. Apparently the ostentatious, locally built, brand-new $8 million yacht Isabel parked at the marina belongs to none other than US Senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry, who was allegedly just in town a couple of days ago to take delivery on it. The ship's registry is in Newport (?Rhode Island). We ate dinner on the waterfront at Reva's, a Whangarei institution, with the yacht as our backdrop. Mark had the seafood chowder and scallop & bacon salad, Sherry a veggie burrito, and Ro a cheese pizza, all of which was pretty tasty.

Ro doing what he does best: giving Sherry a heart attack

Do we hafta eat? I wanna play some more!

Ro seeing how our humble public servants live

After another play on the climbing frame, we drove back to the holiday park where Ro tooled around on his scooter with the other kids. We struck up a conversation with one of the mums, Kiri, who invited us down to the beach to share their campfire. Their extended clan were all from the Hibiscus Coast, near Auckland. Although we all came from more spectacular beaches to holiday along this bay, sometimes it's necessary to extract the kids away from TV and video games for a few days, eh? We were invited over to their little tent complex for drinks, but it was already nearing 10pm, and we needed to put Ro to bed, knowing we have another long day tomorrow. They tipped us off to a free shower facility just up the hill; no more rooting around for coins! As Ro and Sherry were walking back to the camper after rinsing off, Ro spotted a vintage Airstream that was probably newer than our camper, exclaiming "That's an OLD camper, eh mum?!"