Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Kapiti Island and Wellington: April 14 and 15
Kapiti Island: April 14
After getting too little sleep, we arose early on our first morning in Wellington and drove on the M-1 to the attractive coastal resort town of Paraparaumu, about 40 minutes north of the capital. Here we boarded a small boat, along with about 25 other people, and were taken across a narrow strait to famous Kapiti Island. (First, a word about the remarkable way boats are launched in New Zealand. We boarded the vessel while it was perched on a trailer attached to an unusual tractor. The tractor had very tall wheels and its engine and driver’s seat were elevated high above the wheels. The tractor pulled us down onto the beach, where it turned around and backed us into the water to a depth of about 4 feet. There it gave the boat a shove that set it backwards off the trailer into the water. This method requires firm sand but has the benefit of reducing the number of docks and moorings required, as most boats are taken out of the water at the end of each day.)
Kapiti is a rocky island of about 8 square miles. It is now covered almost entirely by a thick forest of native trees, as it was before the Maori arrived. The Kapiti Maori were a particularly fierce, warlike tribe (the Maori were generally formidable warriors) who raided and enslaved mainland Maori and were enthusiastic cannibals. This group did considerable burning and clearing and maintained control of Kapiti until the mid-nineteenth century, after which British settlers displaced the Maori and converted much of the island to farmland, a remarkable feat considering the general steepness of the land, which rises to a summit of about 1800 feet. Needless to say, the clearing and burning of the land, along with the introduction of domestic animals, as well as rats and bush-tailed possums from Australia, led to the demise of almost all native wildlife (birds). The possums were probably the worst pest, consuming enormous amounts of native tree foliage and fruits and killing much of the forest.
After nearly a century of restoration work and – in the late 20th century – the removal of all rats and possums, the native forest is reclaiming the island, which has become one of NZ’s most important wildlife refuges. On Kapiti Island native birds, including most of the country’s endemic species, are now thriving. In fact, some of these species are now extinct on the mainland. Among the management policies that have permitted this revival of natural New Zealand on Kapiti are a restriction on visitation (only 50 people can visit Kapiti each day) and strict monitoring of everything brought onto the island (our bags were searched to confirm that we weren’t accidentally bringing along rodents or stoats). I had applied for a permit to visit the island many months before, and we were very pleased that the day was clear and dry, since the government does not offer refunds if the permits cannot be used due to bad weather.
Lynn and I managed to see most of the endemic birds as well as to reach the summit, which required a strenuous effort. We saw tuis, stitchbirds, saddlebacks, NZ robins, kakas (large red parrots), wekas (large flightless rails), takahes (huge flightless iridescent purple moorhens), kerurus (enormous, strikingly colored pigeons), kakarikis (red-crowned green parakeets), bellbirds, whiteheads, NZ kingfisher, and tomtits. We did most of our birding in the early stages of our visit, and then set about the task of reaching the summit, from which we could see the South Island quite clearly across the rough waters of Cook Strait. Given the brief time allotted for our visit, we had to hurry down and couldn’t do much birding on our return to the rocky beach. Our boat picked us up at 3:00 pm and after the 15-minute cruise back to Paraparaumu, the tractor picked up our boat and pulled it up onto the beach. Despite our exhaustion, this was an immensely satisfying trip.
Our return drive to the hotel was much simpler than our initial trip from the airport. Wellington is a small city (about 250,000) but its built on steep hillsides around an extremely convoluted series of bays and peninsulas. It has many one-way streets, and not all streets are clearly labeled. After successfully finding our hotel on the narrow Terrace, we ventured out once more to find a seafood restaurant down by the bay. When we finally retired for the evening, we quickly fell asleep.
Wellington: April 15
This morning we took the Wellington cable car up to the botanical garden, walked about the garden a bit, and then drove down to the harbor to spend some time in Wellington’s famous Te Papa (national) museum. This museum has wonderful Maori exhibits, as well as excellent representations of European settlement and of the hybrid culture that has evolved in this country. Here I was finally able to find, with help from the staff of the museum gift shop, a couple of excellent recordings of traditional Maori music, performed with traditional instruments and accompanied by historic Maori chants and songs.
Midafternoon, we left the museum to greet two Keene émigrés, David and Dana Orsman. Dave worked in the College Relations office at KSC, where his job of writing about and photographing professional activities and cultural and recreational events took him into every office and dormitory and allowed him to become one of the most widely known (and admired) individuals on the campus. He’s a native Kiwi who had lived in Tonga in his childhood and, after developing a passion for mountaineering and climbing, had spent considerable time in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, where he met a lovely female climber from Connecticut. Dave and Dana (a Boston University graduate) were eventually married in North Conway, New Hampshire, and after living for a while in New Zealand, returned to New England so that Dave could work at KSC and Dana could pursue a master’s degree at Antioch New England. Both are thoughtful, articulate, warm, interesting, and immensely likeable people, and their departure from Keene this past fall caused widespread regret. Both Dave and Dana are far more physically active than either of us, and New Zealand is obviously a good place for people with such enthusiasm for the outdoors. On Sunday, Dave was planning to run for about 3 hours along a ridge-top path above the city in preparation for an upcoming marathon; Dana would accompany him on her mountain bike. Both of them appear to miss New England, however, and both suggested that they might return to the States within a few years. We walked about Wellington, where Dana teaches Maori and Samoan children and Dave works for Land Transport, a Crown (national) agency. They showed us some of the major new developments in the waterfront area, including some public artwork, and took us to a city museum where we viewed paintings, photographs and sculptures by an eccentric Australian artist. We drove up a remarkably narrow road to the summit of Mount Victoria, highest point in the city, to enjoy a panoramic view of Wellington’s many hills and harbors, and then drove to their home suburb of Tawa, where we ate at a Thai restaurant and visited with them (and their cat) at their comfortable home. Our return to the Mercure was quick and uncomplicated, and when we tried to watch a movie on television, we both promptly fell asleep.
After getting too little sleep, we arose early on our first morning in Wellington and drove on the M-1 to the attractive coastal resort town of Paraparaumu, about 40 minutes north of the capital. Here we boarded a small boat, along with about 25 other people, and were taken across a narrow strait to famous Kapiti Island. (First, a word about the remarkable way boats are launched in New Zealand. We boarded the vessel while it was perched on a trailer attached to an unusual tractor. The tractor had very tall wheels and its engine and driver’s seat were elevated high above the wheels. The tractor pulled us down onto the beach, where it turned around and backed us into the water to a depth of about 4 feet. There it gave the boat a shove that set it backwards off the trailer into the water. This method requires firm sand but has the benefit of reducing the number of docks and moorings required, as most boats are taken out of the water at the end of each day.)
Kapiti is a rocky island of about 8 square miles. It is now covered almost entirely by a thick forest of native trees, as it was before the Maori arrived. The Kapiti Maori were a particularly fierce, warlike tribe (the Maori were generally formidable warriors) who raided and enslaved mainland Maori and were enthusiastic cannibals. This group did considerable burning and clearing and maintained control of Kapiti until the mid-nineteenth century, after which British settlers displaced the Maori and converted much of the island to farmland, a remarkable feat considering the general steepness of the land, which rises to a summit of about 1800 feet. Needless to say, the clearing and burning of the land, along with the introduction of domestic animals, as well as rats and bush-tailed possums from Australia, led to the demise of almost all native wildlife (birds). The possums were probably the worst pest, consuming enormous amounts of native tree foliage and fruits and killing much of the forest.
After nearly a century of restoration work and – in the late 20th century – the removal of all rats and possums, the native forest is reclaiming the island, which has become one of NZ’s most important wildlife refuges. On Kapiti Island native birds, including most of the country’s endemic species, are now thriving. In fact, some of these species are now extinct on the mainland. Among the management policies that have permitted this revival of natural New Zealand on Kapiti are a restriction on visitation (only 50 people can visit Kapiti each day) and strict monitoring of everything brought onto the island (our bags were searched to confirm that we weren’t accidentally bringing along rodents or stoats). I had applied for a permit to visit the island many months before, and we were very pleased that the day was clear and dry, since the government does not offer refunds if the permits cannot be used due to bad weather.
Lynn and I managed to see most of the endemic birds as well as to reach the summit, which required a strenuous effort. We saw tuis, stitchbirds, saddlebacks, NZ robins, kakas (large red parrots), wekas (large flightless rails), takahes (huge flightless iridescent purple moorhens), kerurus (enormous, strikingly colored pigeons), kakarikis (red-crowned green parakeets), bellbirds, whiteheads, NZ kingfisher, and tomtits. We did most of our birding in the early stages of our visit, and then set about the task of reaching the summit, from which we could see the South Island quite clearly across the rough waters of Cook Strait. Given the brief time allotted for our visit, we had to hurry down and couldn’t do much birding on our return to the rocky beach. Our boat picked us up at 3:00 pm and after the 15-minute cruise back to Paraparaumu, the tractor picked up our boat and pulled it up onto the beach. Despite our exhaustion, this was an immensely satisfying trip.
Our return drive to the hotel was much simpler than our initial trip from the airport. Wellington is a small city (about 250,000) but its built on steep hillsides around an extremely convoluted series of bays and peninsulas. It has many one-way streets, and not all streets are clearly labeled. After successfully finding our hotel on the narrow Terrace, we ventured out once more to find a seafood restaurant down by the bay. When we finally retired for the evening, we quickly fell asleep.
Wellington: April 15
This morning we took the Wellington cable car up to the botanical garden, walked about the garden a bit, and then drove down to the harbor to spend some time in Wellington’s famous Te Papa (national) museum. This museum has wonderful Maori exhibits, as well as excellent representations of European settlement and of the hybrid culture that has evolved in this country. Here I was finally able to find, with help from the staff of the museum gift shop, a couple of excellent recordings of traditional Maori music, performed with traditional instruments and accompanied by historic Maori chants and songs.
Midafternoon, we left the museum to greet two Keene émigrés, David and Dana Orsman. Dave worked in the College Relations office at KSC, where his job of writing about and photographing professional activities and cultural and recreational events took him into every office and dormitory and allowed him to become one of the most widely known (and admired) individuals on the campus. He’s a native Kiwi who had lived in Tonga in his childhood and, after developing a passion for mountaineering and climbing, had spent considerable time in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, where he met a lovely female climber from Connecticut. Dave and Dana (a Boston University graduate) were eventually married in North Conway, New Hampshire, and after living for a while in New Zealand, returned to New England so that Dave could work at KSC and Dana could pursue a master’s degree at Antioch New England. Both are thoughtful, articulate, warm, interesting, and immensely likeable people, and their departure from Keene this past fall caused widespread regret. Both Dave and Dana are far more physically active than either of us, and New Zealand is obviously a good place for people with such enthusiasm for the outdoors. On Sunday, Dave was planning to run for about 3 hours along a ridge-top path above the city in preparation for an upcoming marathon; Dana would accompany him on her mountain bike. Both of them appear to miss New England, however, and both suggested that they might return to the States within a few years. We walked about Wellington, where Dana teaches Maori and Samoan children and Dave works for Land Transport, a Crown (national) agency. They showed us some of the major new developments in the waterfront area, including some public artwork, and took us to a city museum where we viewed paintings, photographs and sculptures by an eccentric Australian artist. We drove up a remarkably narrow road to the summit of Mount Victoria, highest point in the city, to enjoy a panoramic view of Wellington’s many hills and harbors, and then drove to their home suburb of Tawa, where we ate at a Thai restaurant and visited with them (and their cat) at their comfortable home. Our return to the Mercure was quick and uncomplicated, and when we tried to watch a movie on television, we both promptly fell asleep.
# posted by Ken @ 2:38 AM 
