2022 Tiritiri Matangi Holiday - Day 5
Our final day on Tiri, and the first day that the ferry has been able to get to the island.
We have been so lucky to have one of Aotearoa‘s premier bird life sanctuary’s to ourselves for five whole wonderful days, but like most good things it must come to an end.
Luke and I were the first ones up of course, and we headed out to hear the dawn chorus which was not as good as yesterday. I think that Luke and I talking disturbed them, which was a shame.
Luke and I did the water troughs around the wattle track which are those furthest away while Julianne and Robin did the trough’s around the lighthouse. Then the rest of the morning was spent tiding up and packing, with Julianne in charge.
We then visited the gift shop which was now open after being shut during the week with no ferry visitors with the boys handing in their completed Kiwi Ranger booklets, Robin did super well as he had completed the whole book. The latest kiwi ranger badges were handed out.
We also of course brought some small souvenirs before having our lunch up by the lighthouse for the final time. The DOC ranger ute was then loaded up with all our stuff and we headed back to the beach to spend the next several hours relaxing and swimming.
Luke just wants to keep practicing his floating and he is getting super confident – amazing how he has progressed from me doing most of the work at the beginning of the week, to him now fully in control.
And Robin has really progressed in his photography, taking control of the large SLR camera to get some good photos of the birds, which you can see below.
Great upside down saddleback photo by Robin
Robin getting a photo of a Bellbird
The ferry then arrived, we boarded after loading all our stuff and saying goodbye to Tiritiri Maitangi.
Robin had been really excited to get the latest Wings of Fire graphic novel which of course came out while we were on Tiri, which really upset him. So on the way home we stopped in the Whitcoulls in Silverdale to pick it up for him. I have never seen him so excited over a book – it was wonderful to see. When we got home, instead of wanting to jump onto a laptop or watch TV – he spent the evening reading his book, which made me so happy to see.
Robin reading his new Wings of Fire book
And Luke straight onto the ipad