Rain rain go away

Well the next 3 days it is going to rain like crazy so I booked myself into the cheapest hotel I could find. Since my lovely air mattress decided to get a hole in it, that I couldn’t find I had to buy a new one, but this time just got a twin since I don’t have much time left here. But sleeping in a tent in the pouring rain for 3 days isn’t my idea of a good time. The rest of the time I am going to be here the weather looks great so I don’t mind.I checked into my hotel and decided to get some information from the visitor center. From them, I decided to check out the Haiku garden and a bird walk. The Haiku garden is a small path that winds behind the main street of town in Karikari and follows one of their rivers out to the ocean. Along the path there are boulders that have Haiku’s on them. I always found it hard to write a Haiku when I was in school and asked to do so, but along this walk I created 3 off the top of my head. Here they are:

Drops of rain

Pitter patter Pitter patter

Music to my ears

Wind blows

Smell of nature

Beautiful day

Gusty winds

Hang on butterfly

Mighty strength for little insect

I walked the whole thing and ended it at the beginning of the Bird walk. This followed the rest of the river right out to the ocean. Along this walk there were a bunch of sculptures dedicated to specific birds from the area, which were really cool. I got to see a bunch of birds, all of which I had seen before but it was a nice stroll through marsh lands to the end.I of course had to take the same path back, but as I was, it started to rain. Damnit! I didn’t bring my rain jacket because it was so warm out, and I have my lovely camera with me. At least it wasn’t pour buckets.

I made my way back to the main road. Karikari is known as the mural town, and the name sure lives up to it. There are different murals that depict the history of the town all over the place. I think there are 30 or so murals and a lot of them are wonderful. Some of them have faded, but it is still a wonderful to see.Now it really started to rain so I headed back to my hotel to get my plans ready for the start of my last week on Saturday. I am really looking forward to heading up to the top of New Zealand to round out my fabulous vacation.