@oCDo@mastodon.nz
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oCDo

@oCDo@mastodon.nz

Away missions exploring the galaxy in our vanship, one planet at a time. Engage Curiosity Drive!

“You learn something new every day—but still die stupid”

💛 Be kind | 🤔 Stay curious

🇳🇿🇩🇪

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oCDo, to Vanlife
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Dawn view of The Watchman, an outcrop jutting deep into Karekare Bch & site of a pā built ~1750 (📷1). Accessed down the hill in Piha by walking up Glenesk Rd (closed to non-resident 🚗), 3-tier 40m Kitekite Falls (📷2). Above the falls youths were manu back slap training in large swimming hole—seeking combo of style, splash size & acoustics (📷3)! Others chilled in infinity-edged smaller pool (📷4).

🚐 🇳🇿 📷

Three-step waterfall cascades into a pool at its base
Boys jump into a large swimming hole above Kitekite Falls
A bather cools of in a small swimming hole near the edge of rock above the “proper” waterfall

oCDo, to Vanlife
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A Piha sunset, from Mercer Bay Loop Track.

🚐 🇳🇿 📷

Piha Beach and cliffs to the north illuminated by a low sun
Wide shot from lookout area just into the Mercer Bay Loop Track, with setting sun left of frame & Piha Beach right of frame
Closer view of Lion Rock, at the south end of Piha Beach

oCDo, to Vanlife
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Took Adventure Highway nth, again admiring Mt Ruapehu (📷1) & flat-topped Mt Hikurangi. Then onto Forgotten World Highway/ SH43 from the King Country town of Taumarunui. Initially it follows Whanganui River, beside bluffs of alternating coarse sandstone & fine mudstone (papa), former seabed up to 1.3km thick (📷2). Rugged farmland (📷3) gives way to bush in erosion-resistant Tangarakau Gorge (📷4).

🚐 🇳🇿 📷

Alternating layers of sedimentary rock seen in a bluff beside the road & Whanganui River
Scattered trees in an otherwise grassy landscape of folded hills
Bridge across the Tangarakau River in the bushy gorge bearing the same name

oCDo, to Vanlife
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Didn’t get $47 value from this hāngī meal & pie at Whakarewarewa: boiled dead vege, chicken & 3cm cut of lamb: flavour free! When B was a lad, hāngī food had distinct smoky earth taste. Anyone recommend an authentic outlet in Central Nth Is?

Such was our disappointment we skipped the Māori village tour.

Whittaker’s Choc Cross Bun captures taste well: perhaps a petition for a 🍫Choc Hāngī edition?

🚐 🇳🇿 📷

An opened packet of Whitaker’s Choc Cross Bun chocolate

oCDo,
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@Rjdlandscapes Agree re Whittaker’s. Used to get Almond Gold bars sent in food parcels to the UK! The Xbun flavour is good enough to trigger the olfactory memory of a bun from the toaster dripping with butter, I promise 😀

Maybe there are rules about mass catering from earth ovens that prohibit a proper hāngī? If so they should call it something else e.g. “steam box”.

oCDo, to Vanlife
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Took Thermal Explorer Highway/ SH5 towards Taupō, passing through the remains of Eskdale (📷1)—piles of silt, abandoned homes & banks of wood debris—the road under active repair. Scars from man-made erosion & logging don’t bode well for the next cyclone. Mohaka River nr. Te Haroto (📷2). Waipunga Falls drop the Waipunga Stream by 40m (📷3&4). We left Hawke’s Bay, heading for NZ’s volcanic heartland.

🚐 🇳🇿 📷

River seen from road bridge, with land profile sloping down from left to right making it look as if the photo isn’t level (the trees left of frame say otherwise)
Waterfalls dropping from streams running through bush
Long exposure effect, closer view

oCDo, to Vanlife
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🌳🌲🌳 B last entered the Whirinaki Forest in the early 1980s, on a high school field trip, counting seedlings and making observations with pencil and paper as a junior member of the school’s ecology club. With the aid of digital technology, we can share the 👁️ sights and 🔊 sounds of this ancient forest with you.

👀 More? See https://curiositydrive.org/2024/01/15/into-the-forest/

🚐 🇳🇿 🤔🌲🧭❤️ 📷

oCDo, to Vanlife
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(2/2) Peach Cove & Te Whara Tck. Once below the summit enveloped in ☁️ we had hazy views from Bream Head | Te Whara towards Hen & Chickens Is (📷1). After a rough & slippery descent the remains of a wartime radar station can be seen before continuing on towards Ocean Beach (📷2). Lifeguards are on duty here during the summer months (📷3). The 9.3km loop took us 4.5h (📷4).

🚐 🇳🇿 🤔🌲🧭❤️ 📷

White sandy beach disappears into distance—due to both extended length and reduced visibility
Lifeguard station on white sandy beach; in background people ascend a steep sand dune
Topographic map & GPS track of our route

oCDo, to Vanlife
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Back on the road after 🎄 with family/ T-out for life admin & a bout of 🦠 Covid.

Whangārei Heads owes much of its distinctiveness to the extinct volcanoes that shape its skyline. Mt Aubrey at 216m, seen from McLeod Bay (📷1). Mt Manaia at 420m, seen from Urquharts Bay (📷2). WWII gun emplacement at Home Pt on Busby Head (📷3), w/ mural inside battery observation post (📷4).

🚐 🇳🇿 🤔🌲🧭❤️ 📷

“Mount Manaia is the tūpuna/ancestor and chief of Ngātiwai and many Iwi and hapū (sub-tribes) of not only Whangārei, but the Northland region. The craggy peaks represent his family who were turned to stone through karakia (ritual chants) in a dispute over the infidelity of his wife.” (DOC)
“Building coastal defences daring WWII was a huge undertaking. In 1942, virtually all building materials and available labour were directed towards this task. This emplacement, which cost £3,450 to build, included wooden accommodation huts as well as the concrete buildings you see today. The Bream Head gun only ever fired three test shots. Apparently, one of these travelled a massive 12 miles although the rated range was only 17,000 yards. The complex was carefully designed to look likel a farmhouse with out-buildings. The 'house' was actually the armoury and accommodation for the officers. The battery observation post was disguised as a rocky outcrop. The building site was blasted into the rear of a boulder, and small rocks cemented onto the roof completed the effect. The gun emplacement itself was supposed to blend into the hillside, due to a camouflage net fastened onto steel loops embedded in the walls. Armament: The battery was allocated a US 155mm field gun, which ended up at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea (inside the ship that was carrying it). Instead, a 5-inch 51 calibre US naval gun was installed. The gun was a standard secondary armament for US warships, built in 1912/13. It was quick firing, designed to counter fast-moving destroyers and torpedo boats. There was a limited supply of 5-inch ammunition available, which is why this gun emplacement does not have the usual magazine.” (DOC)
“This Battery Observation Post (BOP) is special because of the mural painted on the concrete above the window. This is a rare survivor, one of the last military murals in the country. The mural was painted by soldiers rather than artists. The subject is a panorama of the view through the BOP windows measured off in degrees. Its purpose was to allow those directing fire to quickly estimate the bearing of a sighting. The symbols painted on the window frame are to aid with semaphore signalling, a low-tech communication system using hand-held flags representing particular letters or numbers. The painting is a snapshot of the Whangarei Harbour in 1942, when there was no oil refinery and few houses. The armoury and officers accommodation building is painted in the right-hand corner, disguised as a farmhouse. Painted directly onto concrete, the mural was never meant to last. In 1995, it was painstakingly restored by art conservators. They cleaned the fragile surface, consolidated the paint layer, and re-touched areas where paint was lost. The building was made weather-tight, with polycarbonate windows and a door, in an effort to protect the mural.” (DOC)

bananabob, to nz
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Anybody know where I can get a iCal feed for Matariki and Regional holidays?

#NZ

oCDo,
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@bananabob This includes Matariki and regional NZ anniversaries etc.

https://calendars.icloud.com/holidays/nz_en.ics

oCDo, to Travel
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A view into Mātiatia Bay from the 3km/ 90min Mātiatia Headland Path (📷1); #Auckland’s Sky Tower is 21km as the crow flies from Waiheke’s Mahuehue Point. On that path we came across this orange #fungus—a spectacular rustgill/ Gymnopilus junonius (📷2). From Little Oneroa Bch another short path to the point affords views back into the secluded cove below Ocean View Rd (📷3); a lookout peers into Sandy Bay (📷4).

🚗 #Travel #RoadTrip #Nomad 🇳🇿 #Aotearoa #NZ #NewZealand 🤔🌲🧭❤️ #CREWmission 📷 #Photography

Orange-coloured mushroom-like fungus
A sandy cove with rocky outcrops either side separating it from Little & Big Oneroa Beach; red pōhutukawa flowers in foreground
A yacht in foreground l; small sandy beach across the bay behind it, backed by trees & homes

oCDo, to Travel
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Waiheke’s Stony Batter fort was built in WWII to defend against feared Japanese invasion (a sub did launch aerial recon & a German raider mined the Gulf). Excavated by hand, the base housed ~200 soldiers & labourers under strict secrecy. A DOC concession allows $ entry into restored tunnels & chambers; free to walk around 8M yr old basalt boulders above. The 9.2” naval guns had a range of 34km.

🚗 🇳🇿 🤔🌲🧭❤️ 📷

Colour illumination of concrete-lined tunnels; this one descends 7 stories to the bombproof plotting room 200m below ground
The red line on this chart marks the range of the 9.2” naval guns; target positions were plotted by combining information from several data sources
2 of 3 planned naval guns were installed; this is No. 3 gun position, which was never completed to save costs once it became clear the tide had turned against Japanese advances

oCDo, to Vanlife
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Market offers street foods, produce & displays of artistic flare, such as the steampunk-inspired creations from the workshop of an “Old Coot” (📷1) & upcycled metal sculptures that Bruce has been forging for 12 years (📷2). In , Russel bends spoons into a stunning kōtare form (📷3) & the “Nut Job” ice cream donut at Hamish’s is a work of art in its own way (📷4).

🚐 🇳🇿 🤔🌲🧭❤️ 📷

Petrol tanks upcycled into penguins
A kōtare/ sacred kingfisher made of spoons, resting on a wood & steel bull rush
Donut, ice cream, marshmallows, Maltesers, 100s & 1000s, nuts and sauce. How’s your blood sugar?

oCDo, to Vanlife
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Ward Beach on the eastern coast hosts one of our favourite NZMCA park-over properties; there’s no ⛺️ camping in the adjacent reserve (📷1). The sway of NZ bull kelp/ Durvillaea antarctica with the sea swell is mesmerising (📷2). Spring beach & shore decorations include yellow-horned poppies/ Glaucium flavum (📷3) & naturalised bunnytail grass/ Lagurus ovatus (📷4).

🚐 🇳🇿 🤔🌲🧭❤️ 📷

Leathery bull kelp is green, large & tough; an incoming swell makes the long strands dance to the rhythm of the tide
Yellow-horned poppies/ Glaucium flavum have four golden petals and the plants leaves have a furry crinkly appearance
Bunnytail grass/ Lagurus ovatus is no named due to it’s physical resemblance to the tail of a rabbit

iangriffin, to NewZealand
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Yeay! The Moa Footprints Paper has been published today! Otago Museum Team, in conjunction with some brilliant scientists and Researchers have now dated the footprints at 3.6 million years! https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/11/scientists-reveal-fossilised-moa-footprints-in-otago-are-at-least-3-6-million-years-old.html

oCDo,
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@iangriffin Judging from the footprint and other “bird sign”, guessing this impression on the beach the other day probably isn’t moa… 😆

oCDo, to Vanlife
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🚴‍♂️ Cycled a mix of Te Araroa, Alps 2 Ocean & local cycle trails around Lake Tekapo; see www.tekapotrails.nz. Willow Bay (📷1). 🌲 Pine cones on Takapō Regional Park trails were hard to ride over! Tekapo River & Control Structure/ SH8 bridge (📷2), seen from Cowans Hill Trail. Further up the hill are many tarns (📷3) & good views over the Mackenzie Basin & adjacent ranges (📷4).

🚐 #VanLife #Motorhome #CamperVan #RV #Travel #RoadTrip #Nomad 🇳🇿 #Aotearoa #NZ #NewZealand 🤔🌲🧭❤️ #CREWmission 📷 #Photography

A concrete dam/ control structure across the residual Tekapo River; the lake is seen beyond; green vegetation including pine trees to either side
A tarn set in tussock grassland, upon which two Canada geese rest; mountain range beyond
Multiple tarns in tussock grassland, which is edged by the foothills of adjacent mountain ranges

KissAnne, to showerthoughts Finnish
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I got an to make "Once in a lifetime to and/or . One of my friends promised to come along if I drive the car. (She doesn't have a driving license). There is a left hand traffic in both countries!! How will I cope with that? I heard that the spring time is worth seeing in both of the countries, so maybe we'll travel in Nov/Dec 2024! What do you think?

oCDo,
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@KissAnne If you can drive a car you can drive a camper van, which is a good option in both AU & NZ. If you’re coming for longer, look into buying one cf. renting & sell it before leaving. In NZ the winter season esp. in South Island (the more scenic one) is May through late Oct—although technically winter is Jun, July, Aug. Hiring a vehicle will be cheaper off season & it will be quieter; the downside is that some attractions will be shut & it will be colder, but that need not stop you touring!

oCDo,
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@KissAnne It really depends what you want to see e.g. spring flowers are blooming now in Central Otago (thyme, lupins, etc), but we also came through here in autumn & the colours were magical. We had a mild winter & such reasonable weather that we didn’t stop touring. Last summer 2 ex-cyclones (= hurricane in Atlantic) disrupted our plans. Summer sun can burn you with 15 min exposure. Worth comparing cost of flights & hire car by season too. NZ temperate year-round; see https://www.newzealand.com/int/feature/new-zealand-climate-and-weather/

oCDo, to Vanlife
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(2/2) Bannockburn Sluicings, Cromwell . The loop walk overlooks several vineyards nestled along the flats beside the flooded Kawarau River—part of Lake Dunstan & seen here with purple thyme (📷1) & red sorrel in foreground (📷2). The original ground level of the Carrick (alluvial) Fan indicates just how much gravel was shifted (📷3). An example exploratory dig (📷4).

🚐 🇳🇿 🤔🌲🧭❤️ 📷

Red tinge to grass due to red sorrel in foreground; orderly vines in mid distance with ranges in background
Original ground level to left & right of frame; a path crosses the remains of gravels blasted away in search of gold
A tunnel into an exposed gravel face; with a tin pan inside & thyme growing outside

Gina, to australia
@Gina@fosstodon.org avatar

is planned! 🥳 Visiting Perth, Sydney and Melbourne and driving down the Great Ocean Road. 🇦🇺

Now my assistant and I have to book stuff for and .

After that, idk the or ? Any suggestions from the ? Leaving beginning of Nov, no end date yet 😁

oCDo,
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@Gina We’re actively populating a guide by area at https://curiositydrive.org/2023/04/08/discovering-new-zealand/. Hiring a camper is a great way to explore, especially for the more remote locations—of which there are many!

oCDo,
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@Gina NZ is bigger than the UK in land area. Just as you could drive the length of UK in 6 days, you can do so in NZ. But does that count as “seeing the country”? Clearly not to the extent of, say, 2wks South Is & 1wk North Is—the split I’d suggest. Hard to make specific waypoint recommendations as different things appeal to each of us. That said, Tongariro Crossing would be top day hike! Often said “Driving in NZ is different” & it’s true; you will overestimate what you can see & do in 6 days.

oCDo, to Vanlife
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After a last look at (fully exposed) Mitre Peak (📷1) in Milford Sound, back to DOC’s Cascade Creek Campsite. A pleasant evening (📷2) was followed by a pleasant morning (📷3); these views from pitch are hard to top. We made a third attempt to find the elusive mohua that lives in the beech forest here; only the NZ robin/ Petroica australis was breakfasting in public (📷4).

🚐 🇳🇿 🤔🌲🧭❤️ 📷

Golden clouds over snow-capped peaks at sunset; view through van window from pitch at DOC camp; smaller camper vans visible in mod distance
A waterfall drops through bush on the mountains overlooking camp
NZ robin on branch, with worm in mouth

oCDo, to Vanlife
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Milford Sound | Piopiotahi cruise (6/6), . Perhaps the most enduring memory of a Milford Sound cruise won’t be of specific features, nor anecdotes told to tourists, but of the sheer cliffs. Looking upwards from the foot of a 2,000m wall of rock that disappears into the clouds can’t help but rescale your world. Amazing plants manage to cling to smallest footholds.

🚐 🇳🇿 🤔🌲🧭❤️ 📷

Mountain sides don’t come any steeper than this
Close to vertical rock walls
A photo can’t do the view justice; this wide shot attempts to capture a 2000m rock wall the ascends from the sound into the clouds; vegetation clings to it in seemingly impossible footholds

oCDo, to Vanlife
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Milford Sound | Piopiotahi cruise (5/6), #Fiordland. Harrison Cove is a safe harbour, flanked by dark shape of 1,302m The Lion (📷1). Some tours call at the underwater observatory here, while others have an overnight option. Mt Pembroke at 2,015m & it’s glacier sit behind (📷2). The steep Mitre Peak at 1,683m is iconic (📷3); we got only a fleeting look at the summit (📷4).

🚐 #VanLife #Motorhome #CamperVan #RV #Travel #RoadTrip #Nomad 🇳🇿 #Aotearoa #NZ #NewZealand 🤔🌲🧭❤️ #CREWmission 📷 #Photography

Closer view of Mt Pembroke & its glacier
Mitre Peak: an iconic upside-down V shape
The peak of Mitre Peak, emerging from cloud

iangriffin, to NewZealand
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I love Dunedin. 20 degrees at midday now it’s 8 degrees! My garden weather station shows the front coming through! #Dunedin #NewZealand

oCDo,
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@iangriffin Yup, from t-shirt to fleece with the heater on! I guess you’ll know those gusts have increased in intensity when your weather station stops sending data…

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