14.04 Cape Kidnappers: A Tabulation of Tākapu

4.A The Saddle Colony of Tākapu at Cape Kidnappers

This past Saturday morning Jean and I visited Cape Kidnappers, about twenty kilometers (twelve miles) southeast of Napier. We wanted to see the cape and to see the cape's most famous resident: the Australasian gannet, also known as the tākapu. 'Tākapu' is the Māori word for this gannet. Most adult tākapu abide primarily in New Zealand. Some live in mainland Australia and Tasmania. Some of the adult birds residing in New Zealand and apparently all juvenile birds migrate to Australia during the Southern Hemisphere's winter. 


Jean and I were drawn to visiting the cape largely because of easy access. There are two tours that enable visitors to view the cape and its birds from late September into April. One tour takes the 'high' road and the other the 'low' to reach the tip of the cape. Cape Kidnappers defines the southernmost reach of Hawke Bay (The body of water lost the apostrophe in its name just a few years ago by government edict). 

The low tour, run by Gannet Beach Adventures, enables visitors to ride out on tractor-drawn trailers, to a place where they can disembark and hike up to the tip of the cape. If Jean and I revisit the cape we'll probably take the low tour—along and on the beach—just for a different perspective. The low tour only departs at times of low tide. As it happened we took one of the regularly scheduled, guided high tours, offered by Gannet Safaris Overland Ltd. The Safari guide took his bus-van riders through the Cape Kidnappers Station, which occupies some 6000 acres (about 2400 hectares) of the cape's headlands. The station not only serves as a sheep-and-cattle station (or ranch), it encompasses a high-end golf and eco resort called 'The Farm at Cape Kidnappers'. Here below are some shots taken in our travel overland to and from the head of the cape.

4.B Lodging at the Farm at Cape Kidnappers

4.C Grazing Sheep

4.D Faulted Cliff Facing Hawke Bay

4.E Grass and Brush, Cape Kidnappers

4.F Cape Kidnapper Slope Erosion -- Caused by Rabbit Burrowing

4.G More Evidence of Rabbit-Caused Slope Erosion

4.H A Flock of Clouds above a Flock of Sheep

The community of gannets on the Cape Kidnappers headland reportedly constitute the largest mainland gathering of any kind of gannet anywhere in the world. Before human beings showed up in New Zealand—apparently by best estimate in the late 13th Century A.D.—the islands were a veritable bird paradise. Before the human era the only mammals in New Zealand were bats and, along the coasts, seals. Some of the birds from the early human era in New Zealand are now extinct, most notably the moa. The five kiwi species, a modest bunch, have managed so far to survive. The kiwi name was eventually appropriated to refer not only to these nocturnal foraging birds but also to New Zealand nationals, be they Māori or non-Māori (See Blogpost 13.04). Numerous indigenous birds besides the kiwi managed to retain their Māori names in common New Zealand discourse. Not so the tākapu. 

But no matter to the tākapu or the gannet, an almost unflappable bird. 'Unflappable' would be a misnomer were I not using the term metaphorically.  The birds do fly, after all, and they fly and dive magnificently. They are unflappable in that they are largely unperturbed by human presence, at least if humans are on good behavior (no shouting, running, and so forth). And they're rather orderly in other obvious ways. 

For one, they're organized into so-called 'colonies'. There are four colonies on the cape and each colony has been given a name: Black Reef, Plateau, Saddle, and Whalebone Beach. For another, the colonies favor table-like areas, tabulae, if you will. From a distance each colony almost looks like the tent encampment of a Roman legion. I suppose the use of the term 'colony', derived from the Latin colonia, is at least somewhat appropriate. See more evidence of tākapu orderliness here below.

4.I Plateau Colony with Cape Kidnapper Navigation Light at Left

4.J Plateau Colony with Gannet Safari Tour Bus on Right

4.K Whalebone Beach Colony

The gannets are beautiful birds exquisitely designed to capture squid and fish in high-speed (100 kph) dives. Here in these pictures below we see not the diving but rather the nesting activity of the birds. 

4.L A Plateau Colony Tākapu 

4.M Tākapu and Their Nests in a Row

The chicks will all be out and about in December and January and then take their first flight in late April—by undertaking a 2800 km (1700 mile) journey that entails crossing the Tasman Sea to Australia. How's that for starters! The young gannets spend two to three years in Australia, then return to New Zealand, seeking mates. In their fifth year of life they settle down, as it were, mating and nesting in New Zealand. Most Australasian gannets spend the rest of their lives, twenty-five to forty years in length, in New Zealand. Clearly these birds are more Kiwi than Aussie or, rather, tākapu than mere gannet. 

How does one assess something like the Cape Kidnappers bird venture... I mean for those who like myself can't count themselves as avid birdwatchers? My only prior bird watching, perhaps unsurprisingly, was during the previous stay in New Zealand, when Jean and I visited New Zealand's first kiwi sanctuary in Otorohanga and visited the country's largest ecological island at Maungatautari (as recounted in Blogpost 13.08). Before the appearance of human beings in what is now called New Zealand or Aotearoa the avians were the predominate animal species. The avians are a link to the not-so-distant pre-human past of New Zealand. And in a place like Maugatautari one can begin to sense the magnificence of that past. To be sure, New Zealand is surely still a very beautiful country. But for foreigners with extended stays in New Zealand, I'd say bird watching, if but for part of a day, isn't just for the birds. It's to gain a better appreciation of where New Zealand has come from and what her people have managed to regain.

4.N A Red-billed Gull Comes Nosing Around and Is Watched by a Tākapu

The gannets at Cape Kidnappers seem to be doing well. Depending on the source, one learns there are 13,000 or 16,000 or 20,000 gannets in total in the four cape colonies. Whatever the number, with the efforts of the Cape Kidnappers Station and New Zealand's Department of Conservation the colonies are flourishing at the cape. In the spirit of James Lipton's Exaltation of Larks I'd merely suggest that a community of Australasian gannet colonies, such as at the cape, be referred to as a tabulation of tākapu. In any event and except for the post scriptum below this tabulation of last weekend's bird-watching expedition comes to a close with...

Warm regards,

Tim (& Jean)

P.S. Last Friday evening we attended a 'Tuscan Summer' concert performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the Napier Municipal Theatre. Napier was one of several venues in the last swing of the NZSO before wrapping up its 2014 tour season. This concert included a performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Op. 64, in which an American guest artist was to have been the violin soloist. Two days before the Napier concert that soloist canceled his appearance because of illness. The NZSO concertmaster,  Vesa-Matti Leppänen, stepped into the breach.  Leppänen performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto entirely from memory. The Napier audience was rather impressed, rightly so, I'd say. The critic for the New Zealand Herald, on the other hand, was unable to summon more than a perfunctory recognition of what was accomplished. Critics, I suppose, don't want to be seen to be in the business of saying 'Wow!' Yet I think we were right to be wowed by what Mr Leppänen accomplished. And we're right to be wowed by the beauty, elegance, and mystery of the world we've been given to inhabit and steward. The tākapu is another reminder of the wonder of this world, thanks be to God.

4.O Sunset over Cape Kidnappers as Seen from the Napier Marine Domain 

14.03 Napier: Rhythms Daily and Seasonal

3.A Morning Street Sweeper along Dickens Street near Clive Square, Napier

The photo above was taken on a recent morning in Napier’s CBD ('Central Business District') near a small park called Clive Square. I chose this photo as a lead to this week’s blogpost because in some ways it’s emblematic of the turn away from the stream-of-consciousness style of living characteristic of a tourist to the rhythms one joins when taking up residence anywhere. The morning street sweeper affords an opportunity to discourse on the domestic rhythms of life in Napier, especially in comparison to Te Awamutu (‘TA’), our previous ‘hometown’ in New Zealand.

When we lived in TA, our apartment was within an easy 10-to-15 minute walk of the CBD. It took that time or much less to reach a Countdown supermarket, up to a dozen restaurants or eateries, the Te Awamutu library, a Warehouse discount store, a Bunnings hardware store, the NZ Postshop (the NZ Post postoffice), and St John’s Anglican, which we regularly attended. It was an easy part of my morning workday rhythm to attend to domestic chores at various establishments in Te Awamutu's CBD. Here in Napier's Ahuriri district access to restaurants and tony shops is easy enough, but to reach a sizable supermarket or the library or the post office or almost any store, for example, one must be more intentional, arranging to have use of the family car, for example, or planning on a long walk.

To be sure, we have a small Four Square supermarket nearby in our Ahuriri neighborhood. And as is common in New Zealand cities and towns, our neighborhood has a 'dairy', which is Kiwiese for what Americans would call a convenience store. Dairies are typically family-run. As dairies go, the Ahuriri district has a nice one.

3.B Corner Store Ahuriri (83 Bridge Street)

And we have a plethora of cafés, as sure a sign as any that we are indeed in New Zealand (See Blogpost 13.18). But, as I say, if I've got more extensive or serious business to attend to I have to visit Napier's CBD, at least a 30-to-40-minute walk away. Serious grocery shopping would entail a visit to one of two Countdowns in the CBD (oddly just catty-corner from one another!) or to the local Pak'NSave. Here’s a pair of photos of the local Pak’NSave, like its mates, a warehouse-style, largely no-frills store. 

3.C Napier Pak'NSave

Once on a spur-of-the-moment visit to the Te Awamutu Countdown, I happened to walk past the town's Burger King drive-up window just as two ladies on horses rode up to order morning coffees (The Burger King was about 3 minutes from our TA apartment). I asked the ladies for permission to take photos of them having their morning coffees on horseback. They readily acceded. A photo or two of that occasion could have said much about the rhythm of life in Te Awamutu, but (alas) I failed to ask permission to publish the photos. So I didn't and won't publish them. And, in any event, probably no one or two photos could capture the elusive rhythms of Te Awamutu or any other place, including Napier. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a few words, I hope, can be helpful.

Napier's rhythms are not those of a rural town, but of a port and tourist town, moreover, a town with significant light manufacturing enterprises and a town that serves as the center for an agricultural district known for its vineyards, wineries, and orchards. Jean and I came to Napier not because of anything I've just mentioned but because of Jean’s work. She resumed work as an outpatient psychiatrist on November 10th, undertaking to serve the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board (‘HBDHB’) as a locum tenens for three months.  In Te Awamutu as a locum tenens she worked two days weekly in our adopted hometown, two days in Te Kuiti, and one day weekly in Taumarunui. So there was a good deal of travel involved in her work when we were based in Te Awamutu. 

With the Hawke's Bay District Health Board she’ll be working virtually every weekday in Napier (with about 60,000 residents). The town has no hospital. Rather, Hastings, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Napier, hosts the 400-bed Hawke’s Bay Hospital. Except for occasional staff meetings, Jean won’t be reporting to that hospital. Instead she'll ordinarily be reporting for work at the Napier Health Centre.

3.D Napier Health Centre (78 Wellesley Road)

3.E Artwork in Napier Health Centre Lobby Vestibule

3.F Services Offered at the Napier Health Centre

However, about once every three weeks she and other physicians are expected travel to a clinic maintained by the HBDHB at Wairoa, which like Napier is in the Hawke’s Bay Region. Wairoa is about 116 kilometers (or 72 miles) northeast of Napier on State Route 2, a trip that Google Map claims would take about 1 hour 25 minutes. My spiral-bound Kiwimaps North Island Complete Drivers Atlas predicts that that trip would take about 1 hour 50 minutes. The Atlas can be regarded as trustworthy, but I hasten to add that the imputed travel times the Atlas provides are probably predicated on the habits, practices, and experience of Kiwi drivers, not foreign drivers. Foreigners should add a ‘foreign fudge factor’ to any drive time derived from the likes of the Atlas. But I digress to the rhythms of travel. Let's go back to life in Napier.

Here in New Zealand it's late spring. I can't say that temperatures have decidedly warmed in the brief two weeks that we've been in Napier. But then seasonal variations, except in the high mountain regions, are moderated in New Zealand by its maritime climates. So the roller coaster ride of spring is somewhat less chilling and thrilling than the sort of thing one experiences in the middle of a continent. The great thing about spring is the lengthening days. That coupled with the observance of New Zealand Daylight Time insures that sunrises now are before 6 AM and sunsets after 8 PM at Napier's latitude (39.41 °S).

For Kiwis in school the exhilaration of spring is matched by the prospect of the school year's coming to an end. The school-year will be over by mid-December. Napier has four high schools, three of them state schools and one private: Taradale High School (a coeducational high school), Napier Boys' High School, Napier Girls' High School, and Sacred Heart College (a Catholic girls' high school). There are numerous intermediate and primary schools. Nearby here in the Ahuriri district, where we live, we have a primary school, the Port Ahuriri School, and up on Napier Hill there's another, Napier Central School.

3.G Entrance to Port Ahuriri School

3.F Entrance to Napier Central School

For the larger community, spring ushers in the main tourist season. Almost all the cruise ships that come calling arrive in the period from November until early April, though a few oddballs may arrive in October and May. About sixty or so cruise ships call on Napier during the cruise season. The primary attractions for the cruise tourists are the nearby wineries and Napier's Art Deco ambiance, subjects that I'm likely to turn to in future posts.

As for the sporting seasons, cricket is regarded as a summer sport but—no surprise—league play has already begun. There are several cricket leagues of interest to Kiwis, the most exalted being that to which the Blackcaps belong. The Blackcaps play against national teams from Australia, India, Pakistan, and so forth. Football or soccer is a winter sport, again with a pyramid of men's and women's leagues, the national top spots being capped by the All Whites (men's soccer) and Football Ferns (women's soccer). 

The top of the sporting heap is occupied by rugby—or 'footy' as Kiwis call it—and the top of the top is occupied by the All Blacks, whose very name plays a role in baptizing New Zealand teams in other sports, as the names 'Blackcaps' and 'All Whites' might suggest. As it happens, the All Blacks met the Argentina Pumas in a match at Napier's Maclean Stadium in September 2014. Obviously, Napier was proud to host this match and Air New Zealand, an All Blacks sponsor, was happy to promote the event—an easy sell in New Zealand. Here's a video from the June 2014 'selling' event in Napier.

And here below is a video of the outset of the All Blacks vs Pumas match. An All Blacks match couldn't get off to a proper start without the performance of a war haka.

The local rugby team is the Hawke's Bay Magpies. Unfortunately, the professional rugby season will just be getting underway about the time Jean and I are slated to leave in February 2015. 

The Christian liturgical season of Advent will soon be underway but, as is the case in the USA, retailers are touting their wares as requisites of a proper celebration of Christmas, a celebration with a decidedly Santa Claus cast to it. That's not surprising. But it is surprising that even here in the Southern Hemisphere Santa Claus begins his Christmas journeys from the North Pole. 

It remains to be seen what the Christmas season casts for religiously faithful Kiwis. This Christmas Day marks the 200th anniversary of the preaching of the Christian gospel in New Zealand. A pan-denomination effort, the Hope Project, is underway in part to mark this occasion and in part to stimulate a re-evangelization of the country. May that effort prove fruitful!

By reason of the International Date Line and New Zealand's occupying the first time zone to the west of the date line, the Waiapu Anglican Cathedral of St John the Evangelist (as the church's website notes) is the first cathedral in the world to greet each new day. Jean and I will probably be there to greet the onset of Christmas. And meanwhile, like other Kiwis, we will attend to our daily rounds. It is a blessing to be able to attend to those rounds in a land at peace and free of persecution.

Warm regards,
Tim (& Jean)

3.G Waiapu Cathedral Tower

3.H East Face of Waiapu Cathedral

3.I Waiapu Anglican Cathedral of St John the Evangelist (Hastings Street)

14.02 Napier: Ahuriri & Napier Hill

2.A West Quay, Ahuriri, Napier

Officially Jean and I are now resident aliens in New Zealand. She entered the country under a work visa. I entered under an extended visitor visa. Oddly, two years ago when we lived in New Zealand for six months, we both entered with work visas (though it was understood I wasn’t to seek gainful employment). I often wondered whether Immigration New Zealand had made a mistake in issuing me a work visa. In any event I've no work visa this time and here we are again. 

New Zealand hasn't changed, but our appreciation of her has. In our our previous stay we lived in a rural town, Te Awamutu (TA). But this time we're in Napier, like TA in the North Island but unlike TA in being a port along New Zealand's Pacific coast. When we came to New Zealand for the first time two years ago the country was somewhat exotic. This time because of the felicities of our previous stay we were returning to a friend, as it were. Anyone who returns again and again to a certain lake or wilderness, to a favored city, town, or country place, or to a long-established vacation retreat knows the feeling. There is a treasure of happy memories coupled with an anticipation of renewal and even novelty.

As I mentioned in my preceding blogpost, most cities in New Zealand have more the feel of a big town. The exceptions to this rule are Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and perhaps Hamilton and Dunedin. Be that as it may, Napier is regarded as a 'port city'. I won't argue with the port part of that claim. Given my interests in transportation, I was tempted to craft my first Napier blogpost around a portrait of Napier’s maritime face. I’ll probably eventually do that, but not in this post. For me to dwell on Napier's port and harbourage would be a self-indulgence. I'd rather not be like a tippling seaman unable to steer beyond the 'first bar on the right', an all-too-common hazard I discussed in Blogpost 13.09. 

We each have our habits, interests, and dispositions, which hopefully serve like gravity to keep us coherent and in our wonted orbits. While this gravitational coherence and ordered progress is generally helpful in a developed human being, our habits, interests, and dispositions can impair our ability to see anew and afresh what each day, each place, and each person presents to us or commands from us, thanks be to God.

Today’s post reflects the freshness of circumstance of the newly arrived. It doesn't present an overview of Napier. Nor does it even purport to offer what might be termed 'highlights' or 'critical takeways' about the town. For that one would be advised to take counsel for starters from the Napier i-Site, Napier's tourist information center. Instead, I offer up the peripatetic, ad hoc, and sometimes accidental views arising from the initial wanderings that Jean and I have made in the Napier district in which we now live—Ahuriri—and in the district to our immediate south and east—Napier Hill. 

We find ourselves living in a minimalist apartment building facing a fishing harbour in Ahuriri, a district on the north end of Napier. This district is the oldest part of Napier, serving initially as a fishing village but now hosting a veritable casserole of human activity. Art galleries, boutiques, web designers, adventure outfitters, bars, restaurants, and eateries often occupy buildings whose businesses were once solely dedicated to supporting the maritime trade. Here is a sampling of Ahuriri vistas.

2.B Morning Light on Waghorne St, Ahuriri, Napier

2.C Morning Light along Hardinge Rd, Ahuriri, with Port of Napier Beyond

2.D Early Evening on West Quay, Diners in the Background and a Few Vintage Cars in the Foreground

2.E Along Customs Quay, Ahuriri

2.F Old Customs House, Ahuriri

2.G West Quay (Left); Napier Sailing Club Docks (Right)

2.H New Ahuriri Housing along Domett St, with Hospital Hill in the Background

This past weekend Jean and I wandered around by car and on foot through the largely residential neighborhoods of the Napier Hill district. The district also contains the former Napier Hospital, still awaiting demolition (and site redevelopment) after being abandoned in 1998. The western end of Napier Hill bears the name 'Hospital Hill'. Near the old hospital are the Napier Botanical Gardens and the Old Napier Cemetery, which we happened upon. At the east end of Napier Hill is the Bluff Hill Domain and Lookout (‘Domain’ is Kiwiese for an urban park), from which one has a splendid view of the Pacific and, close at hand, the Port of Napier.

Here below are additional photos from our initial foray into the persona of Napier. These photos were taken on Napier Hill on Saturday 8 November 2014, two days following our rather cold, wet, and blustery arrival in Napier (Fresh snow had appeared on the highest hilltops!). Spring is a highly variable season even in New Zealand. But this Saturday was a glorious day.

Warm regards,

Tim (& Jean)

P.S. Napier's Hill's various parts have various names--Hospital Hill, Bluff Hill, for example--and often enough the locals simply refer to 'the Hill', which embraces the entirety. The entirety looks to be finally receiving a proper name, an old, Maori name that presumably antedates the arrival of the British. A Hawke's Bay Today article of 12 October 2015 discusses the prospect of the Hill's receiving the name 'Mataruahou'.

2.I Flowerbed outside Botanical Gardens

2.J Napier Botanical Gardens

2.K Two Bird of Paradise Flowers, Napier Botanical Gardens

2.L Exotic Palm, Napier Botanical Garden

2.M Old Napier Cemetery with Cape Kidnappers in the Distance

2.N In the Old Cemetery, Napier

2.O A Celtic Cross Headstone, Old Napier Cemetery

2.P Flora at Bluff Hill Domain, Napier

2.Q Flora with the Pacific Ocean Beyond

2.R MS Dawn Princess in the Port of Napier

2.S View of the Ahuriri District from Bluff Hill Domain, Napier