After, we went to Trounson Park so that we could enjoy the thick, New Zealand bush and towering kauris in the daylight. On the way, we encountered a huge herd of cattle in the road that were being moved from one paddock to another. We sat and admired them, thinking this was all great fun. However, when they finally passed and we proceeded on, we noticed that they had left plenty of mud and you know what all over the road. When we got out of the car later, we discovered the bottom of our vehicle was plastered with a layer of excrement. Boy, did we stink!
We took our hike as planned. Xavier and Gerard spotted a morepork, a small indigenous owl. He flew across the trail in front of them and perched on a branch, perfectly camouflaged with his surroundings. We admired him for a quite a while and tried repeatedly (and unsuccessfully) to take a photo of him.
We enjoyed a short break at a nearby holiday park where the kids ran and played while Beth and Gerard prepared dinner. Immediately after eating, we hopped in the car and drove back to Trounson. With torches in hand, we entered the dark forest. We heard a couple kiwi in the distance, but sadly didn’t see any. We did see lots of glow worms, wetas, kauri snails, kokopus (a small native nocturnal fish), a monster eel and surprisingly, a sly possum who is a most unwanted guest in a kiwi forest. It is a lot of fun to walk in the woods at night. A few times, we turned off our lights and just stood in the blackness and quiet, spying a few stars in between the treetops. As soon as we got into the car, it started to rain and we drove home, a long but satisfying trip to Trounson.
