stick in the mud

Okarito is also famous for the kohuku or white heron sanctuary.

Charlotte and I headed out in a double kayak across the windy lagoon at high tide and quickly spotted one. As we tried to get closer, it flew off. 

This emboldened us to head away from the official markers into the reeds. 

A heron flew overhead! We paddled to another part of the lagoon and found ourselves wedged into 6 inches of gray silt. We pushed and paddled like a gondola but didn't seem to go anywhere. 

A shag watched from the rock. Eventually Charlotte got out barefoot and wedged us free. 

We entered a peaceful grove of ferns, not far from the area where we listened for kiwi the night before. 

The lagoon had an amber color like root beer. 

We were late returning so we cheated and got a ride back. 

Who needs cross-fit when you can haul a kayak up a steep hillside using only a rope? (Or have someone do it for you.)

All in all, a quiet peaceful way to spend a morning. I'll come back to Okarito one day soon. Glad it hasn't changed too much in the years I've been away. 

in the dark

Last night I learned to focus, and listen. Okarito is home to the Okarito brown kiwi, an extremely rare and endangered species. 

When Ian came to Okarito in 1998 as a backpacker and stayed at the Royal Hotel, there were only 140 or so left. Today, thanks to tireless work by Ian and the DoC, there are roughly 400, half of them tagged. When an egg is laid, a volunteer scoops it up and takes it to the kiwi center, safe from predators. Otherwise a hatched kiwi in the wild stands only a 5% chance of survival. 

Kiwis are nocturnal and extremely shy. They don't see well, so they rely on sound. Ian showed us how to be very very quiet. No photos. No rustling clothes. No sneezing. 

After dark we set out in search of BZ ("Bee Zed") and Beaumont, his lady friend. They are 17 and 18 years old. Ian has known them all of their lives.

We listened to them wake up around 9 pm and snuffle to each other. Then we heard them begin to walk through the bush. We followed a trail to a dell filled with ferns and trees and settled in, as they approached, then evaded us. We waited. 

Ian held a device that looked like an orange TV antenna to help locate them. At one point we heard a shrill cry: BZ and Beaumont calling to each other. The stars came out: Orion upside down! Venus to the east. Then we started to look for Jim, another kiwi. 

But Ian the kiwi whisperer located our couple again. And suddenly after a rustle in the leaves Beaumont appeared in the road right where we were standing, without ever realizing we were there. 

A tiny delicate creature, she came within a foot of Charlotte as she hurried across and vanished into the bush. I hope she's still there in 10 years and 15. Ian said the new goal is population 400, which is a lot more than the town's 20 permanent human residents. 

 

Walking home at midnight, the stars of the Southern sky were overwhelming too. 

More info:

http://www.okaritokiwitours.co.nz/

http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/okarito-brown-kiwi

https://www.kiwisforkiwi.org/

my beach house

I first stayed at the Royal Hotel in Okarito in 2001. It was a rainy May and I left Punakaiki with a full car. Someone knew someone who knew Roseanne who ran the Royal.

We didn't realize how small the town was and cobbled together dinner from  silverbeet (chard) growing in the garden. Breakfast, crepes with berries and whipped cream, was served at half past. 

The hostel was a collection of buildings including a ramshackle trailer. There was an illicit pub in a red barn where Roseanne and I won a darts' tournament(!) amidst a Keanu Reeves film festival. Strangely appropriate in a tiny settlement on the Tasman whose only population boom was as a gold mining town 150 years ago. 

Today, as the Okarito Beach House, it's a luxurious but affordable rental with a huge sunny kitchen and huger dining room table. 

None of the other bedrooms is occupied so I have the whole place to myself. A haven on a huge sandy spit surrounded by lagoons. 

The white heron sanctuary is to the north. 

The reeds and marshes are home to oystercatchers and ducks and the Okarito brown kiwi, rarest of kiwi birds. Tonight I'm going for a naturalist walk in search of them. 

I asked Aaron for a key. There isn't one. No one in Okarito locks their doors. 

I may never leave.