Today was basically a driving day with some birding included. We did about 7 hours of driving starting outin the south western coast of the North Island of NZ and travelling almost to the north east coast of the North Island (almost we had to stop in the land of thermal springs and geysers in Rotorua. We left the farmlands of the west coast and drove north in scenery that looked much like farmlands at home (only if you looked at the big picture) and then drove into the mountain passes and then into the mountains and ski country. The route we wanted to do was closed (snow, ice, landslide or consturction, we never found out) so the detour took up some time. We went through ski country and some impressive moutain ranges, then over the mountains we ended up in Turangi which was our last chance for the Blue Duck. We bumped into an elderly gent who told us exactly where to do as he had seen two of them yesterday and kept track of the ducks. We followed his directions and drove down this dirt road, took the right hand Y to the end. It was deserted and we saw a couple of California Quail there, parked looked around at the water. The whole shore by the river was composed of these grey boulders the same colour as this Blue Duck. We went to another "pool" after some rapids of the river (these are diving ducks) and looked for them. I was still looking at the water and saw one fly up river and then down again and had an excellent look at the mottled white on the face and the pale bill with the reddish on the chest. It was so bright. Colleen was looking at a Tui and once I shouted for her amid the roar of the rapids the bird was gone. It was the Blue Duck !!! We went to two other places looking for the Blue Duck for Colleen but no luck. We had to move on as we wanted to see the geysers and the steam and we had a one and half hour drive before the sun set.
We drove by Lake Taupo and it was awesome. No other word to describe it. It is a huge huge lake and if you didn't know it you could all it an ocean, with mountains and islands in the distance. There is nothing like it. Then we had no time left for forest we wanted to see but had to continue to Rotorua for early evening as the roads are hilly and cliffside and we had decided at the beginning of the trip that we would not be driving through the mountains in the dark. We arrived in Rotorua to see the steam and geysers of the thermal pools and the smell of sulphur.
We bought supper to eat at the motel and Colleen found us a great place. We were really roughing it tonight a two room suite with two TVs and free internet AND our own thermal spring hot tub!! We filled up the tub with the steamy water and they had given us some oil to put in. This place would be great for a couple's weekend. We had a great supper, seafood stirfry, new asparagus and carrots and salad and NZ wine (this is the kind of roughing it is great). The thermal nature of the water and the supper has each of us in bed now in our own room and on our respective compter devices. Tomorrow we are going to the Firth of Thames about a two hour drive to the east coast for shorebirds. So it was a long day but great. We also saw a mystery bird, and Colleen has sent her photo of the bird to Nick for a confirmation on the ID. We are thinking White-winged Triller. But everday has been great. Colleen has gotten used to the bed warming pads that each of the places in NZ has. It is so cozy and she loves it and talks about buying one for home or for one of her homes. Why am I typing in italics, it hit control I and nothing happens. We had several other birds today which we had seen before so we are getting good at the IDs.
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