Saturday we left Ahipara and headed for Trounson camp ground just outside Dargerville. On the way we stopped to see the largest and second largest kaurui trees in New Zealand (yes more trees!!!), but after seeing the giant sequoias in the US they didn't seem that impressive.

On Saturday night we went with 3 others (two Germans and an Austrailian) from the campsite into the forset nearby to search for Kiwi birds. We were all creaping around in the forest in complete darkness with red film over our torches not the frighten the Kiwi's.

After almost 3 hours we abandoned our search, which was just as well as while standing there in complete darkness with all sorts of sounds of things moving about on the forest floor, I was thinking thank god I wore my boots, and also wishing that I had worn sock long enough to tuck my trousers into.

On Sunday night we went out agian in search of Kiwi's, this time I wore just about all the clean clothes I had and tucked my trousers into my socks. We had been abandoned by the Austrailian guy but had been joined by a couple from Israel. This time we only lasted just over an hour and gave up as even with all those clothes I was still cold, the couple from Israel gave up to, but not the Germans they stayed out for another 2 hours but they did finally get to see a kiwi.