Day Eight: The Miranda Coastline and Misfortune

So... we set off from Auckland once again, heading toward all points south, but stopped for a caffeine refueling first:

That's Mark, our intrepid driver and leader, and Sharon from our group.

So, first stop was the Miranda coast, where there is a shorebird sanctuary. After a few minutes in the visitor centre we drove to the small car park on a hill above a hide. It's a few minutes' walk down a wooden boardwalk to the hide, where a volunteer had a couple telescopes set up.

The world's rarest wading bird, the New Zealand Black Stilt; it used to be called the Common Stilt, until it was no longer common.

Other birds were too far away to photograph, but the wildflowers along the path were nice:

After about half an hour, we returned to the car park to find that someone had smashed a window in the van and had made off with a lot of bags. (We were too far away and looking the other direction to hear the breaking glass, but even if someone had spotted this, by the time anyone would have made it up the path the thieves would have been gone.) I was very lucky, as anything of value was either on my person or locked securely in the trailer... Doubly lucky, as until that day I had been stowing my backpack in the back of the van and only that morning decided to put it in the trailer. But others lost seven passports, hundreds of dollars (I myself take out small amounts of local currency from cash machines but it seems most of the others brought cash to carry about and exchange), cameras, phones, ipads, prescription glasses and prescription drugs, bags, jackets, birding notes...

I should have taken a photo of the gaping hole but I didn't think of it. But here's a shot of the temporary repair job:

We had to cancel our visit to the geothermic mud pools of Rotorua, and spent most of the afternoon at the local police station and hospital. (Some people had to get emergency prescriptions.) When we did hit the road, a coffee stop put us across from this fabulous building. (We need more buildings in the world shaped like dogs!)

And I'm sure more people would attend church if there were more big men such as this enticing them to come in!

We finally arrived at our lodgings in Taupo, the site of natural hot springs. Our motel had a private hot springs bath in each room, and because it took two or three hours to fill the bath, the proprietor had set each one up so it was ready once we rolled in. I can't believe that only two of our group (that I know of; everyone else claimed to have been too tired... Too tired to slide into a steaming hot mineral bath?!) took advantage of this; it was wonderful!!

A little smelly, but not overpowering...

A good night's sleep awaited...