Day 51-53: Takaka

A few good lazy days around the area.  Nothing too much of note.  The massive hydrangea in the yard has sent up its first flower: 

But nothing too crazy going on.

A couple beach visits, the first to Motupipi beach, both in an attempt so squeeze as much beach time in while we are in this lovely place, and to see if there was a closer place to collect pipis.

The beach is quite lovely, and had a few of these particular succulents growing near the sand.  Does anyone know what they are?  When we hiked in Portugal, they were EVERYWHERE.  Here, probably because it's earlier in the season, they are quite green and lush.  There, since it was late summer, they had all already sent up yellow flowers, and had begun to turn orange and brown.

There was a man on the beach setting up a kite surfing sail.  It doesn't have any rigid members, rather, all the structure comes from inflatable ribs.  Which makes sense, as you don't want it to break or sink when it hits the water.  Which one would assume it would do so often while surfing.

We found out later that the man kite surfing is currently staying at Kiwiana.  A very talkative fellow, but knows a lot about activities in the area.  He suggested strongly that if we were going to rent mountain bikes (something we had been considering) that we should splurge and get full suspension, rather than front suspension only.  This was not because the trails in the area need such hardy bikes, but rather that they were simply just that much nicer.  We figured we'd probably take him up on that.

 Wendy and Carol are cat people, and the cats love to peer down on us from the sun screen on the patio.

It's a bit hard to make out, but the iridescent blue and black bird with the white crest in the flax is a Tui.  They are lovely birds with a lovely variety of very tonal songs.  They are also mimics, and can be taught (or can learn) to mimic things like horns, sirens, or dog barks, too.

Evidently, the Maori idiom for complimenting a persons singing voice is to say, "They have the throat of a Tui."

The next day we visited Ligar Bay (which we visited a few weeks earlier).  This time, it was at high tide, which means there is only a small sliver of sand right up by the road.  While Molly jumped in, I simply passed out on the beach.  Very nice.