riverECHO

Paparoa National Park, which basically surrounds us and the small small town of Punakaiki, is the youngest national park in the country and only has a handful of maintained tracks. One of them, its only multi-day track called the Inland Track, is actually doable in three shorter day trips. It links four rivers together which all dump into the sea including (from south to north) the Punakaiki River, the Porarari River, Bullock Creek and Fox Creek. We hiked the southern most segment yesterday, walking up the Punakaiki River, over a ridge to the Porarai River and back down through the high limestone cliff walls covered in rainforest along the Porarai to the ocean. Although lightly sprinkling for most of the day, we were fully protected by the high rainforest canopy. It wasn’t until we had to walk along the open highway back to our car that it started downpouring. We quickly busted out the newest addition to our New Zealand wardrobe . . . two dark green heavy duty ponchos that BJ’s mom thankfully bought for us a month ago. While they win no style points (we looked especially silly because we were wearing shorts which meant that the only things extending out from beneath the ponchos were our bare legs), they are completely waterproof and extremely breathable. Anni, before you come down here next year, forget the $100 rain jacket from REI and go for the $10 poncho from the gas station. You’ll stay dry and look really cool . . . take it from your super stylish big sister.

Enough about style, the highlight of our hike was the many feathered friends we made along the way. One thing I will miss about New Zealand is the number of bird species we have encountered throughout our tour. Read on for some very scientific field notes about the birds of New Zealand’s Paparoa National Park. We encountered many birds yesterday, only four of which we could identify. A pair of tui, a mostly black bird with two distinguishing white tufts of feathers on its chest which make it look like its wearing a very perky bra, visited us at our house yesterday morning. Then on the track we were followed by a fantail, a very small bird that likes to show off its very large fan-like tail. This particular bird followed us for about a kilometer, chirping occasionally, who was very serious about keeping track of us. We also watched a bell bird, a lime green colored bird, belt out its range of notes from a nearby tree. I’ll remember the noises this bird makes forever . . . a range of high pitched squeals to gurgles to squelches make this bird’s presence obvious. Finally we watched a number of pukeko couples scrounging for food in a wide river valley. The pukeko has a spectacular silvery blue chest with a distinguishable and kind of ugly red face which resembles the top of a pick ax. They don’t fly but can be seen wandering the wetlands on there long skinny legs looking for some good eats.

Enough about science, we also had a very exciting day at our post office box. Yes, I know, it’s the little things down here. We not only got our passports back from the Chinese embassy yesterday, who have decided they will let us in to their country in August to visit BJ’s brother and sister-in-law, but we received a package from my mom containing a game called Bananagrams, basically a fast paced version of Scrabble. We’ve already spent a couple hours splayed out on our living room floor playing this very addictive game. Thanks Mom . . . . you obviously knew how to liven up our quiet dark evenings on the beach!