We left Auckland on Saturday, February 6, heading south by
bus down the middle of North Island. This is beautiful, green, hilly country
with lots of small farms growing onions, asparagus, corn, etc. Our first stop
was at Hamilton where we explored the Hamilton Gardens which had been named the
International Garden of the Year in 2014. We spent a couple hours exploring the
many themed gardens with beautiful flowers and plants, statues, and interesting
water features.
Then we visited a dairy farm for a home hosted meal. It was
fascinating learning all about dairy farming in New Zealand. It is one of their
largest industries. The farmer sells organic milk and has found it a lucrative
business. I was particularly interested to hear that his largest markets were
to China and other Asian countries.
We stopped next at Mangatautari Ecological Island. New
Zealand had no mammals (except a couple bat species) before the Europeans came.
Thus, most of their birds are flightless and live on the ground. They were easy
prey for pigs, dogs, cats, possums, and other introduced predators. So, many
native species are almost extinct. To combat this they have formed predator
free areas by putting up a predator fence. Then the area inside the fence is
cleansed of mammals and they let nature take its course. This preserve was
established ten years ago and the recovery has been amazing. Plants thrive
because goats, rabbits, etc. do not destroy them. The birds come back and do
their part to propagate the vegetation. It was such a similar story to what we
saw at Daintree Rain Forest in Australia, but what a different solution! Our
guide was part Maori and had wonderful tattoos and also loved his job. It has
been very inspiring meeting these ecologists.
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| Maori tour guide in ecological forest |
We finally arrived at Rotorua, in the middle of a volcanic
caldera. What a day we will have tomorrow!
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