AKA, a spot Mar1sa missed!
I had been at the Community Celebration and associated events for the weekend, and as the weather was ideal (overcast, but almost no wind) GSEL and I decided to make an attempt at the series of caches placed up on the link road, and see how many we could locate before we ran out of time and needed to head back to Wellington.
I have provided parking coordinates at the closest sensible location to leave your vehicle. DO NOT attempt to drive further - as Mar1sa said, "Please come prepared for the conditions, the weather can change and become pretty nasty - do not try this with a 2wd you will not make it."
The road is uneven, very rutted, and even in late summer had big pools of water / mud that we had to edge our way gingerly around, so I'd not want to attempt to drive it in anything less than a Tractor! We walked, but you could also use a Mountain Bike if you didn't mind carrying it at one or two points.
As we walked along, a Pipit joined us for part of the Journey - flitting from post to post,and keeping an eye on what we were up to.
This is one of the locations it rested at for longest, and when we reached it, we could see why - the view from here was well worth it - you can see for miles all across the Wairarapa!
As we paused to catch our breath, we noticed that we were JUST far enough away from the nearby caches to be able to sneak one in here, and I discovered I had a green bison tube with a log sheet in it in my bag. GSEL used his GPS to confirm the coordinates, and,there you have it!
So what is a Pipit (or pīhoihoi)?
New Zealand pipits are slender, small to medium-sized, long-tailed songbirds that are predominantly streaked grey-brown above and off-white below, with brown streaking on the breast. They have a prominent pale eyebrow stripe, and white outer tail feathers. Their crown is streaked grey-brown, lacking any crest (cf. skylark) The bill is fine and dark, and the legs long, slender and pale brown. Pipits are often confiding, allowing closer approach than most open country songbirds and often running a short distance in front of people, and walking, rather than flying away.
New Zealand pipits are widespread in rough open habitats from the coastline to alpine shrublands at c.1900 m. They are often seen along coastlines and rivers, in alpine areas in the South Island, and coastal margins and alpine areas on Stewart Island. Some home ranges are occupied all year and others are deserted in the late summer.
Pipits are omnivorous, consuming grains, seeds, and small invertebrates. Flying invertebrates taken include flies, mayflies, small butterflies and cicadas. Foraging methods adapt to the types of prey being targeted. They range from pecking at mat plants, to dashing along the ground and into short flights when after flies, to rising up into the wind over lakes to catch mayflies passing overhead.
Information Credit New Zealand pipit | New Zealand Birds Online (nzbirdsonline.org.nz)