Drove around part of the caldera rim, which the lady in the campsite said she would not bother with as very narrow and couldn’t see much.  Dahhh.  It was wide and we saw plenty.  Not sure if s, maybe she is a stay at home?  Anyway, of course Paul being Paul, we had to dip into some bays along the way.   We dipped into Le Bons Bay, Okains Bay and Pigeon Bay.    We went for a walk along the beach in Le Bons Bay – a good swimming spot – but I could not persuade Paul to show me how it was done.  Would be a great bay to anchor in. 

Caught a couple of oyster catchers at the far end of the bay, bright red eyes and beaks.

Lots of pine cones around.  See them all over the place, branches blown off in the wind and individuals strewn across the ground.  Spotted this pretty daisy like flower growing amongts the marram grass on the sea shore.

The califorian quail (Callipepla californica).  Apparently, there were so many insects that farmers used to drive ther sheep and cattle over fields in the hope they would destrot them  Starlings were then imported and they (the farmers) were amazed at number of insectes they ate.  They then imported thrushes and blackbirds – I’d said to Paul earlier that I’d seen a thrush and that it could not be cos NZ not connected in any geographical (aprt from huma) way to Europe.  Other game birds were introduced and this presumeable from the States.  Lovely tuft on the head.

We stopped at a scenic reserve to do a little walk but it was so muddy and we were skidding everywhere that we gave up on that.  However, Paul visits the dunny.  Big, and I mean BIG, spiders in here.