(photograph © Kiwidutch)
You are peaking peeking into the pages of Kiwidutch’s retrospective journal as I document our December 2011-Janurayy 2012 trip to New Zealand.
At the moment we are staying with one of my oldest friends in Northland (at the very top of the North Island) and whilst my friend attends to some things that need her attention at home, we are taking her girls on a day trip around the region.
The kids voted to walk up Tokatoka peak so here we are at this odd looking hill on a baking hot day in January.
Naturally it’s not a track I could even remotely think of navigating on crutches so I got to stay by the car whilst Himself and the kids scrambled to the top.
“Scramble” is definitely the operative word here because although it’s hot and dry here today, it’s been bucketing down rain in recent days and this track already has a reputation for being slippery. It’s very quiet out here in the countryside so quite soon after they left the van and disappeared into the trees and scrub I could hear squeals, shrieks and laughter for quite a long time after they departed and then all repeated again as they got closer when returning. When they finially re-emerged from the vegetation I saw the reason… every kid bottom was caked in mud.
Apparently some parts of the track are so steep that the kids steadied themselves with their hands and picked their way down on their bottoms to avoid even more slipping and sliding, so back at the van I got a series of lovely photos for the two family’s albums that consisted of back-shots of a row of kids of various heights sporting wonderfully muddy backsides (clothes).
Naturally I’m not posting photos of my own children here or those of my friend on the Internet so you’ll just have to imagine how funny they all looked, as well as the strange boasting that ensued around the idea of : “ I got dirtier! ” and “ No!!! I got more mud than you ” or “ ha ha …(name) is even dirtier than you are!“.
I had some time of my hands whilst they “conquered” the track a so I carefully picked my way a few meters down the road in both directions and let the zoom lens on my camera do the rest as I took photographs in a wide circle around me.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
A young Kauri takes centre stage…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Typical small shingle (gravel) road, often labelled on maps as “not tar sealed”, both an unfamiliar term and a type of road that’s caught out more than a few unsuspecting tourists who have no clue how to drive on gravel.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
A diverse range of trees for my drawing studies…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
This one’s a Cabbage tree (yes it really is called that!)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
In this next photo a look at the Peak from slightly different angle that better shows the “point” that sticks out to the front at the top…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Whoa! Where did he come from!?? I was distracted by the shrieks and laughter on the hill so I startled when all of a sudden I realised I was being watched from very close range…seems someone is curious as to my presence…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
