David's trip to Muriwai

On Sunday my family drove about 45 minutes to Muriwai to see the gannet colony.

It was about a ten minute walk to the first viewpoint. We stayed there for about 5 minutes. It was near to the end of the cliff. You could see the gannet colony just below you. There were lots of little humps on the edge of the cliff, and gannets sitting on them.

When the gannets flew, they glided. Despite the fact the wind didn't seem to be changing, they could change direction only by moving their wings. They were mostly white with a little bit of black, white wings and body. The ,most stunning part was around their head, where they had a light golden patch. There were about a hundred in total.

We walked for about three minutes to the second viewpoint, down a natural dirt path with some stones. You could see the gannets quite well from there. This part of it looked like the bow of a ship. The lookout had hard-wood posts and rails. There were some smaller wooden posts further down which were part of another viewpoint. A sign told me that gannets can dive at 145 km per hour - that's faster than you can go on the motorway.

There was a small island like a steam-ship's funnel, jutting up out of the sea. There were quite a few gannets on it. There also a smaller bit with seagulls nesting there.