29/11/2017 - Waterfall, Parrot, and Co.

Today was another travel day - we had to drive to the campsite in Hihi. Since the supermarkets in the far north have only a limited selection of food and sell it at a very high price, we stocked up on non-perishable food items.

After shopping and a 30-minute drive, we reached our first stop - the 'Rainbow Falls'. They are located just outside of Kerikeri and offer a beautiful natural spectacle. On sunny days, as the name suggests, a rainbow forms in front of the 27-meter high waterfall. Due to the cloudy sky, we couldn't see the rainbow. Nevertheless, this waterfall is one of the most beautiful ones we have seen so far. Once again, we took the opportunity to take some pictures.
Next, we headed towards Kerikeri. Our next excursion was to the 'Stone Store'. It is the oldest stone building in New Zealand and was built in 1836. The house is in almost perfect condition and is now used as a souvenir shop.
Not far from here is a small bird park. 'The Parrot Place' takes care of many parrots and other bird species. After quickly buying a bowl of nuts, we went to the bird aviaries. At the beginning, the owner put a bird on each of our arms. They walked around on us and played with our zippers for several minutes. After we released the birds, we explored the rest of the park. The tour led us through a walk-in outdoor aviary. It didn't take long until each of us had three birds sitting on our arms, shoulders, and heads. Not all birds were only interested in our nut shells - one of them was particularly persistent and pecked at our watch, cap, and backpack. After lots of laughter and goosebumps when the little parrots ran around on our shoulders and necks, we decided to leave the aviary and continue the tour. In the end, our visit to the Parrot Place was a lot of fun and we still laugh about the experiences today.
Since no day can pass without a hike, we had also chosen a challenging track for today. So our drive took us to Whangaroa to the 'Saint Pauls Rock'. The way to the starting point turned out to be more difficult than expected as we had to drive all the way to the end of a gravel road. Once we arrived at the parking lot, we put on our hiking shoes and filled up our water bottle. We could already see the destination from here - a huge rock stood out clearly. Motivated, we hiked the first meters towards the mountaintop. This time, the path was not made up of fixed stairs but only of trampled grass. With the goal constantly in sight, we fought our way up the steep path step by step. For the last meters, an iron chain was anchored into the rocks to enable ascent and descent. After successfully mastering this passage as well, we were finally on St. Pauls Rock. The view from up there was unique. The many different shades - the blue sky, the vibrant green of the forests, the turquoise sea - all of this made the view something very special. The many bays and the boats in them emphasized this great view. We quickly agreed that this was the most beautiful view we had seen in New Zealand so far.
Few tourists or backpackers venture into this area, so we were the only ones on site with another Israeli backpacker.
This track and the associated view will stay in our memories for a long time.

Due to the many stops, the time was already quite advanced, so it was time to drive to our campsite for today.
After dinner, we took a walk along the beach until the day said goodbye with a beautiful sunset.