Tawharanui Regional Park, the glass bottom boat and a picnic lunch.



























































 We trooped down to the shore looking out towards Goat Island - according to the tour guide on board New Zealand has 22 goat islands, but this one has the distinction of never having had goats on it. It had two pigs, but they swam ashore at low tide, so he thinks it's mammal free - and bought tickets for the glass bottom boat. Three seniors and three adults. $220. The water was clear and the tour guide was informative. The larger fish had other places to be. We did see flurries of blue maumau, a range of different sized snappers, and lots of kelp. And quite a few red moki. 

At 12 we lunched at a well placed picnic table overlooking the bay and watched the snorkellers. We ate a great assortment of leftover food from the fridge and then after a change of clothes set off for Tawharanui Regional Park. This is a hugely popular park, considering the amount of campers and surfers here, especially on a Thursday outside of school holidays. 

We had high hopes of seeing Takahe, but at the end asked a ranger and he told us there were only two pairs left. One pair had had a chick this season but he thinks the pukeko killed it. There are thousands of protected pukeko there. The good news is that there is also 120 kiwi, and they've been breeding so well that the park is now rehoming some of them elsewhere. 

The track itself undulated around sleeping bodies, down to the beach, and up amongst the farmland and cattlebeasts. There has been extensive investment at this park putting in predator fencing which is fantastic. They also have the disinfectant regime to try to combat Kauri dieback here. This has been installed in most of the walks we've done, so it's heartening to see so much interest is in protecting these giants of the far north forests. 

After a bbq dinner - cooked by Bruce - we went for a 6 km twilight walk down the beach and around the multi million dollar largely unoccupied houses on the beach. 

Altogether it was a splendid, stunning, sensational, satisfying day. 

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