Once again we found a lovely Holiday Park right inside the town. After unpacking and setting up the tents, we took a short walk with intentions of going down to the main beach but then spied a small path heading off in the opposite direction. Being brave explorers, we decided to follow this alternate trail and were rewarded with a lovely secluded cove. We only saw two other adults strolling up the beach while two girls played around in the water at the far end of the beach. Our kids amused themselves by hunting for the most unique and beautiful seashells. As we left, we could've sworn that the other girls were sans clothing. When we got back to our campsite, we consulted "NZ Frenzy" and sure enough, the cove is known to be a nudist beach. The kids were just thankful they were not subjected to viewing any naked elderly tourists!
We then hiked to the top of the highest hill in Russell and were impressed by the gorgeous 360 degree view of the Bay and Pacific Ocean. On top of the hill is a flagpole erected by the British after the signing of the Waitangi Treaty (the founding document of modern New Zealand). The British flew the Union Jack from the pole instead of the agreed upon NZ flag, and the Maori people responded by cutting down the flag not once but 4 times!
Also at the top of the hill was a large sundial, which sat on a incredibly detailed mosaic tile map of the Bay. Who knew that the shadow of a sundial in the southern hemisphere goes counterclockwise! (On the northern hemisphere it goes clockwise.) We do now that we have seen a huge one! It took us about an hour of using physics to figure out why that is...but we will leave it to you to figure this out yourselves! Instead, here's a pic of the girls lounging on the sundial...
As the forest surrounding the sundial is known to have several kiwi living in it, Jen and I planned to get up that night and go hunting for the birds. However, the weather turned unpleasant so we opted for keeping cozy in our tents. The sound of the rain was a pleasant way to drift off to sleep. In the middle of the night, I woke abruptly to the sound of snuffling and something rooting around outside. Being from Colorado, my first thought was "bear!" Once I got over the initial adrenaline rush, I remembered that we were now in predator-free NZ. So I bravely poked my head outside the tent flap and spied a little brown animal rummaging around near the picnic table. It was a little hedgehog!
The following day we drove along a part of the coastline nicknamed the Million Dollar View Road. It more than lived up to its moniker. Being a clear day we had gorgeous views of all the beaches and shoreline as well as the scenic hills and dales. Every five km or so we encountered yet another beautiful sheltered cove, with its accompanying quaint village. It felt like we had gone back in time and traveled across the world (hey, we are actually across the world)! We only passed a few cars the entire day. Here is a pic or two from that drive.
We stopped at the furthest drivable point of the area and walked down onto the beach, where the girls scrambled around the rocks and tide pools hunting for starfish, shells, and other little creatures. Living in landlocked Colorado, the beach is a foreign wonderland to us! It was fairly windy so Jen tried to warm up by running up and down the beach, while singing the theme music from "Chariots of Fire." It was quite apropos, because that scene was in slow motion and that is actually how fast Jen runs in real life!
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