Mist clearing from the Veronica Channel near Opua before a lovely Autumn day


We're hanging round Opua fiddling around with last minute jobs and doing what everyone else is doing - watching the weather! The mist rolled down the Waikare Inlet (the well protected inlet to the east of Opua) so thick a couple of days ago that we were forced to stop and wait for it to burn off, a harbinger of the coming winter. It's not cold here yet, but the nights are getting longer.



Mist rolling down from the Waikare Inlet near Opua

We are following in the wake of the kuaka (bar tailed godwits), thousands of which have already left for Alaska where they breed. They fly here in one fell swoop, non-stop for 8 days in the southern Spring. It's a feat that both Alaskan Airlines and Air New Zealand would be hard to match. They then use the long summer days to gorge themselves on worms and pipis. The return flight back to their breeding grounds involves a stop-over for kai in East Asia, China and Korea. More's the pity for their long term survival. Climate change and the steady replacement of East Asian wetlands by concrete is affecting their numbers.



Godwits (kuaka) taking off back to Alaska

The arrival of the kuaka was something that Maori observed in awe. They couldn't work out where the birds were nesting (Kua kite te kohanga kuaka? / where is the godwit's nest?) and assumed that they were spiritual visitors from Hawaiiki, the Maori mythical original departure point. So much for mythology, as it doesn't seem that godwits went anywhere near the modern day Society Islands where Hawaiiki is presumed to lie! However, Maori myths and sayings about the kuaka do at least indicate just how in tune with nature were the earlier inhabitants of Aotearoa. One wonders how many people today even know what a godwit is, or the fact that it holds the world bird record for long distance non-stop flight!

The kuaka and other migratory birds wait for a southwesterly or southerly before taking off. Sensible practice. That's what we will be doing too!