Friday was a more soggy day, raining and cloudy and cool. We mooched around in the morning – Michael had a go getting the satellite receiver to record properly – and went for a drive to Puketi Forest in the afternoon. This and the adjoining Omahutu Forest make up one of the largest native forests in Northland. Much of the kauri is gone, but there is still some good stuff left. It mightn’t have trees as big as the Waipoua Forest in the west, but there are wonderful groves of mature trees that still look big enough. We did the Manginangina Kauri Walk, a 15 minute loop track which was very impressive. Plus it is cool just driving along the road past kauri trees. We drove along to the Puketi Recreation Area to have a look at the camping area. There are tracks from here but we weren’t tempted. We headed back to the warmth of Suzi at Kerikeri.
Saturday was rest day, and a lovely rest day it was. It started clear and calm and sunny. I was up at 7.30am and it was only 4 degrees outside. It was cold. I ran my finger across the back window of the car and it seemed icy. I didn’t think that could be; maybe it was just dirty. So I tried a side window and it was icy as well. It still didn’t compute, frost in Kerikeri in September. There was a bit of a southerly breeze, but mostly it turned into a lovely day. The boys went for a walk into Kerikeri to shop round the shops. Wyn and I went for a bike ride; ending up down the river to opposite the Stone Store. Wyn was wanting to check out her adjusted gears. She was still having problems which we only sorted out by swapping bikes. On the way back we bought the Saturday Herald and back at the camp the task of reading it started in the warmth of the afternoon sun. That evening we made use of the BBQ area at the camp. It is a lovely facility, the only problem was that it was rapidly getting cold and fire wasn’t warm enough. We planned for a big day the following day so it was an early night for all.