Cape Kidnappers and the Gannets

On Sunday we went to a local craft fair and they had a coin-operated tractor. Leo's mom held him on the tractor while I put in the coin - you should have seen the look on his face when it started up! He thought that was pretty cool!



After the craft fair we all went back to Steve and Marianne's for a big bar-b-que lunch before we headed off to Cape Kidnappers for a trip to the Gannet colony. Steve fixed chicken, steak and burgers and we had lots of wonderful side dishes, too. After that, we NEEDED to go get some exercise, and the gannet trip was the perfect way to do it.



Cape Kidnappers (named by Captain Cook, as this is where an attempted but unsuccessful kidnapping on his ship happened) is close to Clive.



The trip to the gannet colony is on trailers pulled by tractors, at low tide, along the beach, and frequently in the water! The tractors and trailers drive over all kinds of terrain, even really large rocks, and when they shout the "hold on!" order, they mean it! The trip out on the tractor was a blast!



We drove past some amazing geology, including clearly visible fault lines and the shifting of the earth, as well as beautiful ocean scenes, and gannet nests.



When we got to the end of the beach, we were able to hike up to the topmost gannet colony and the light house. It was quite a hike - a series of switchbacks - but we were all determined to make the trip, and we all did! The view from the top was amazing!! The gannets were amazing!!



The tractor trip was a BLAST!! We highly recommend this trip to anyone who visits the Napier area!

Leo on the tractor! Isn't he adorable? He and Nick would have had so much fun!

The tractor and trailer, heading along the beach

More tractor scenes

If you make this picture bigger, you will see that one of the tractors is in the water, near the large rock. Yes, we got wet! But just a little. : )

Some of the sea cliffs along the beach

Here's one of the fault lines

More cliffs, along with some erosion

Another shot of the cliff side

In this shot of the fault line, you can see how much the land mass shifted.

Climbing up to the lighthouse and big gannet colony!

Climbing higher.....

And higher still!

And at the top!! Billie and Jo, taking pictures of the gannets! There were hundreds of them, along with fuzzy chicks. They are quite large birds, with a huge wingspan.

You can see some of the chicks in these shots.

More gannet parents and babies. Gannets mate for life, and share in the chick-rearing duties.

Coming in for a landing!

There was another colony on the flat area of these rocks.

Gannet chicks learn to fly at 4 or 5 months. On their maiden flight, they fly straight across the Tasman sea to eastern Australia where they remain until they are 4 or 5 years old, and ready to mate. At that point, they fly back to Cape Kidnappers, choose a mate and make a nest and never leave again! It would be a hoot to be in Australia when the chicks fly in!

Billie and Jo on the trail down - which was much easier than the trail up!

And here we all are, safely back at the tractor, ready to bounce our way back! What a fabulous experience!! As you can see, it was another beautiful day - and this was about 6:30 pm