I went over to the Mount to get Les and she had put jeans on as she was so cold but I still braved it with cropped trousers. First of all we went to Te Puns quarry and had a look around the park. We then carried on to Katikati and stopped for coffee before walking around the town to have a look at all the murals and took a walk along the Huika path looking at all the boulders with verses written on them which don't make much sense but is an old tradition from Japan apparently. We then went out and walked along the path through the salt marshes and saw lots of birds and plants. We had a good chin wag all the way.
We then headed out to the bird gardens where Les bough lunch for me. We bought bags of food to feed the birds and after lunch set off around the gardens. We walked past the lake and came into an opening and there were lots of fantail doves sitting around but as soon as they saw us they came over and we started to feed them and before we knew it we were covered in birds, sitting on our backs, shoulders and arms and feeding out of the bags. It was hysterical and we couldn't do anything to get them off us. I did manage to get a photo of Les with them on her and eventually we managed to get rid of them and walk on. They are lovely gardens with lovely plants and trees and it is so peaceful to walk around.
We then went looking for the track which leads to the biggest kauri tree in the Bay of Plenty. The book said it was a 40 min return walk of Hot Spring Road but it didn't say how far up Hot Spring Road and it turned out to be a long way right up into the hills but very pretty. We finally found it and set off but it was quite a difficult track and we ended up crossing a stream on stepping stones, very hairy, and then carried on up. We walked for 35 minutes and didn't seem to be getting there as so as it was getting late we turned back. We did find some young kauri trees which were pretty impressive but it was a shame we didn't get to see the main one. I think I might go again with Jon sometime and take a picnic and wear my trainers and hopefully find it. It is very isolated and I have to say I did feel rather uncomfortable being out there on our own. We managed to cross the stream again without getting wet and got back to the car and felt we had more than had our exercise for the day.
I dropped Les home and I got back about 4.30 and made a well needed cup of tea and Totty was ready for hers.
There were three messages on the answerphone from Kirsty who was very drunk and wishing me a happy St Patrick's Day!
I am still having problems with the computer and can't upload more than five photos at a time onto Facebook as i can't download the plug in to do more and it is all driving me mad.
Jon has now set up yet another account for me so let's see what happens now!!!!!
After a very chilly start it was bright and sunny for the rest of the day.
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