Easter egg hunt on Zoonie Zoologist Ruby examines rare kiwi with chick and a day at the beach

Zoonie
Mon 1 May 2017 22:30

Easter Egg Hunt on Zoonie, Zoologist Ruby examines a rare kiwi with egg and a day at the beach.

Early on Easter Sunday Rob and I laid out the Easter Egg hunt on Zoonie. Rather than have the children competing with eachother Rob set the clues for Henry going forward from the saloon and I set slightly easier ones for Ruby leading her aft. Gary and Emily sat in the saloon and watched the excited event unfold as the tally of eggs increased until they both had found all seven, not the biblical seven but there had been 15 in the box and allowing for puzzle masters’ tax that made seven each.

Armed with a picnic lunch we all squeezed onto Vicky and drove to the car park half way to the Whangarei Falls. At last the weather was warm and sunny and the family were impressed by the pretty falls just on our doorstep. It was too crowded for the picnic at the foot of the falls where we had sat before with Charly and Tom and Tony and Gail on two separate occasions, so we climbed the hill to the top and found an empty table in the park area beside the river.

The walk back down to the car park was sunlit and beautiful. The children saw a Kaori tree but they were too young to be interested in the details of the North Island’s most magnificent and rare tree, maybe they will just recall Granny’s enthusiasm.

Grandad was leading the troop at one stage when he disappeared for a few minutes. On his return he signalled for the children to be very quiet as he had just made and extraordinary discovery. Not one but two Kiwi were hiding in the grass, each with a single egg, just to one side of the pavement. We couldn’t believe our luck especially as Kiwi are usually nocturnal. Very gently the children took the birds from their grassy home and carried them carefully back to the car.

Back aboard Zoonie we had supper before Emily and Gary left Henry and Ruby with us for their sleep over on Zoonie and caught a taxi back up to the campervan for a rare, childless night.

Early the next morning we took the children to the challenging and safe park next to Zoonie for some fun and exercise before Gary and Emily arrived and we made our way to Matapouri Bay on the Tutukaka coast just north of Whangarei for a classic day at the seaside. The swell off the South Pacific Ocean rolled into the bay and gave the more adventurous some thrilling fun and grandad spent ages lifting Ruby over the breakers while the rest of us looked on. Of such things are the best memories made.

Back at camp we telephoned ‘Hell’ takeaway and ordered some of their well reputed pizzas. They were good, and we tucked in hungrily, looking back on our lovely day at the beach and looking ahead to tomorrow when we would collect Lauren from Keri Keri Airport and once again our family would be complete.

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