The weather forecast called for more rain and indeed we had more rain. Luckily, as often is the case in New Zealand, the rain came in the form of fairly short showers and after each shower the weather was fine again, be it with strong wind gusts throughout the day. The temperature was pleasant enough. It was easily shorts and T-shirt weather when the sun was out, but quite comfortable in long sleeves and long pants when a shower came through or when the wind picked up.
This morning we extensively strolled through the always cute centre of Russell, noticing that most flowers on trees had finished blooming. When we were in Russell in 2018 we were about three weeks earlier and all flowers were in full bloom at that time. The water was definitely choppy today and unless conditions were better way out at sea we doubted that any boat would be attempting to go through the famous hole in the rock.
When we were done strolling we drove out to the Tapeka Track not far from Russell. The track leads to Tapeka Point. It's not long, definitely has some ups and downs but is well worth it as it offers very nice views of the ocean, islands and coastline. After that we visited the Flagstaff Hill historic site followed by a very pleasant, be it somewhat windy, picnic lunch at a nearby beach. Back at the campground we explored the kiwi trail in the bush behind the campground where one can apparently spot real live kiwis at night or early in the morning.
Later in the afternoon we were able to move into a different cabin at the same campground where we did some blog work and trip planning. (Yes, I hear you say: I thought you were going tenting... We will but decided to treat ourselves to one more cabin night until the weather is more stable.)
Supper was another salad, a modest piece of lamb on the BBQ, veggie mix and a few small baked potatoes; it all tasted very good. After supper close to dusk we ventured back out into the bush where we were hoping to catch a glimpse of a kiwi. We patiently waited in various areas, pretending to be trees (which was very hard with our hands being bitten by mosquitos causing them to feel very itchy) for a kiwi to appear for close to an hour. We finally heard movement and animal noises in the bush, and this animal semi-appeared fairly close to us, moving through the undergrowth, and it was the right colour so we spent the next five minutes or so trying to capture it on camera (covered with red film provided by the campground so as not to startle the kiwis). When it fully appeared we realized that our "kiwi" was in fact a very cute hedgehog. O well.
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