from the west...: Another visitor!

We have been fortunate to have so many visitors come through NZ since we've been here. They have not all come to visit us, per se, but we are really grateful when they take extra time to visit. A couple of weeks ago, my friend Brock graced us with his presence for three days at the tail end of a work trip. He's always up for an adventure and was ready to be out in nature, so we did the best we could in the short time we had with him.

We headed out to the black sand beaches of the west coast on day one. We explored the beach at Te Henga, including a cave and some phenomenal geological formations. The area used to be the eastern flank of the Waitakere Volcano that erupted 15 to 22 million years ago. It was the second largest volcano ever to erupt in NZ. Te Henga was the site of one of the lava flows that extended under the ocean, creating pillow lava and hyaloclastite formations. There are also a lot of examples of volcaniclastic rocks that have been reworked by rivers and the ocean over time.

microbial mats on the walls of the sea cave

looking north from the cave

pillow lava

volcaniclastic rocks

columnar basalt formed by rapidly cooled lava

From the beach, we hiked over the giant black sand dunes and around Lake Wainamu. We used every ounce of daylight, finishing our hike as twilight set in.

Lake Wainamu with the giant sand dunes in the distance

The following day was a holiday so Pete and I were off from work. It was a beautiful day for a trip north to see glow worms and birds. We first visited Waipu Cave when Jenny and Andrew were here a couple months ago. We thought it was so neat that we wanted to take Brock too. We were not disappointed! The glow worms are really spectacular and there are a lot of interesting limestone formations in the cave too. We explored a bit more of the cave this time around and found some chambers that we missed on our last visit. A large storm came through NZ about a week before we went to the cave and we could see how high the water had gotten inside by the debris marks on the cave walls. That is not a place you want to be in high water!

The little dots are all glow worms. They make
the cave walls look like a starry sky.

After a picnic with a spectacular view over the Whangarei Harbour, we headed to Tawheranui Regional Park to see kauri trees and find some native birds. The birds did not disappoint that afternoon. We even got a good look at a kaka and were treated to its crazy range of calls. Brock finished the day with a swim on the beach at sunset. It was the perfect end to a great day.