Days 8 - 11 of NZ 2022
DAY 8: Breakfast in a carpark didn't sound wonderful so we made an early start and headed to Ahipara, the southern end of what is known as 90 Mile Beach. One of NZ's travel attraction is to drive up this beach. Somehow don't think our camper would have fared well!
It was coolish and the wind blowing quite strongly but two brave souls went for a swim while we were having breakfast.
We learned later from one of the women that, at 60, she was about to get her Maori facial tattoo done today. The swim was a bit of a 'cleansing' for her. She was very excited, with all her extended family having come to Ahipara for the occasion.
Since we weren't invited to the festivities, we decided to continue our journey toward today's destination, the Kauri Coast, ending at Trounsen Kauri Reserve. A lot of the driving was through farmland again, mainly dairy or beef cattle country. We decided to go down the coast road and are so glad we did because we visited Hokuangi Harbour. This required crossing of the harbour on a car ferry.
We arrive at Reware on the other side at a very convenient time for morning tea which we had at the Boatshed, hanging out over the water. Unfortunately it was a bit too chilly and windy to sit out on the deck with the water visible underneath.
The drive onwards led us along the north of the Hokuangi Harbour to near the heads, with pretty wild looking seas. A 15 min walk got us out to where you could see the entry and the massive sand dunes opposite. I can't imagine a boat entering this harbour from the sea but they must do at times. There seemed to be no break in the large arc of waves that stretched from north to south.
This area warrants more exploration, but not for us this time. Our next stop was prompted by a sign on the road, a place called Koutu Boulders, where on an otherwise sandy or mangrove shore were marble shaped boulders growing larger over the space of about 1km. All were in different stages of weathering. Lovely.
From the boulders we could see an interesting looking building and so drove past it in our way north. It turned out to be a school, a Maori one. I wonder whether everything is taught in Maori there. There are very real attempts in NZ to ensure that the Maori language (te rao maori) lives in but there are relatively few speakers of it as a first language.
Our main destination for today was the Kauri Coast and I was glad to be driving (as opposed to being a passenger) around the winding road to get there. Very slow travelling. First stop, the Waipoua Forest. This did not disappoint, even though a couple of the walks there were closed.
Myrtle rust - a fungus - brought over from Australia, has sadly become a major problem in kauri forests in NZ. Any walks in kauri forests begin and end with a boot cleaning exercise - a very good idea that must be helping a little.
Waipoua Forest has the oldest known surviving kauri tree. Approximately 2000 years old! Absolutely magnificent. As you can imagine photos don't do it justice.
Waipoua Forest has many more kauri trees and we did another walk that passed many along the way to another ancient one. Their bark is beautiful.
Another half hour's drive took us to Trounsen Kauri Reserve where we camped. This 'inland island reserve' is an attempt to keep feral animals like possums, stouts and rats out (not that we could see anything to prevent them getting in). It was the noisiest (in a good sense) forest I have yet been into in NZ with many birds feeding and singing in the trees. I saw my first kererū, a large native dove.
Again there were many beautiful kauri trees including one estimated to be 1700 years old.
I can't believe how lucky we've been with the weather thus far but our luck seems unlikely to continue. Heavy rain is forecast for a few days. Luckily tomorrow is a long driving day so rain won't impede us much, just make for horrible driving.
DAY 9: Nothing much but driving on the menu as we headed towards Waitomo, on the western side of the North Island south of Auckland.
As expected we drove in rain all day. We saw our first dirty water river at Dargaville, passed Gibbs Farm (a private sculpture park I had wanted to visit but that isn't open when we're in the area), and saw a town where letterboxes are out near the road on the nature strip instead of along the house fence line as would be the case in Australia.
Finally, we reached Waitomo where we decided to camp at the YHA there. We were greeted by piglets. Apparently they are of the Kunekune (coonycoony) breed, a small but good meat producer. They are cute! Even the dads were cute.
Funny story - some of the backpackers at the YHA suggested that, as there are seven piglets, they be named after the days of the week. The answer was so typically 'farmer'. No, they are all called Sunday - Sunday Roast!
DAY 10: We enjoyed a lazy start this morning, with a Waitomo Caves tour we had booked not starting till 9:30. As it was only 2km away there was no need to hurry.
Although the tour we ended up with wasn't the one I had hoped to go on (no availability), it was good. The guide was very informative and the time in a boat floating silently in a cave with glow worms was lovely. Unfortunately tourism, unsurprisingly really, is having an impact on glowworm numbers but the operators and owners of the cave are now realising this and may even have to close the caves temporarily to let the numbers recover. The only photos allowed are at the end of the tour.
The building that houses the caves reception area, cafe and shop is worth visiting in its own right. It has won NZ's top architecture award and performs its function admirably. These pictures just give you a hint of what it is like.
Later, we did a short but rather beautiful walk not far from the caves, the Ruakuri Track. It was drizzling on and off, but this forest is meant to be wet! The lichens, ferns and mosses were enjoying their shower. The walk led to a tunnel of limestone where the roof of a cave had partially broken through. I would thoroughly recommend this little walk to anyone coming to Waitomo.
In this area I saw another bird I had not seen before but have discovered is yet another introduction species, the chaffinch.
We continued our day by driving out to Tongariro National Park. The drive was through lush rural green as usual. Unbelievable!
Unfortunately, our planned Tongariro Alpine Crossing walk for tomorrow has been cancelled due to a forecast of gale force winds. Very disappointing, but hopefully we can do it when we return up here next month. We do not want to become rescue statistics!
As we continued driving we could see the weather building on our destination mountain range.
We stopped in at the information centre at a town called Taumaranui. Could have been an old Australia country town. Not sure how the verandah of the pub holds itself up ...
It was cold when we arrived at our campsite so we holed up inside and just glimpsed the full moon from the warmth of the camper.
DAY 11: Our alternative walk for today was an easy 2 hr hike to Taranaki Falls. Although the start was only about 5 mins drive away, the drive itself was a bit hairy. The winds were blowing our camper around and Pete had to keep a very firm grip on the steering wheel to steady it.
We rugged up and prepared for the worst for our hike.
No wonder the Tongariro Crossing was closed! Some of the way we walked with a lean because of the strength of the wind. You could see how easily a gust might blow you off your feet.
This video was taken in the most sheltered part of the walk up to the Falls.
Nevertheless, the walk was great. On the way we were rewarded with views of the snow-capped Mt Ruahepu (skiing heaven in winter).
None of the other mountains/volcanoes showed themselves - the clouds were too low. The colours of the alpine heath (we were roughly 1200m asl) were gorgeous.
The falls were a lovely reward at the end of the gentle upward climb.
We sat and relaxed here for a bit. I went down to sample the icy water (and get wet from the spray). Brrrr.
Another reward was just down the track on the return part of the loop - another fall. I hadn't realised there were two.
On the return walk you walk through quite a bit of forest, all beautiful with ferns lichens and mosses.
After the walk we headed towards Lake Taupo. The weather reports for this area were not looking good. The road down was pretty with what I'm pretty sure is Scotch Broom, a feral pest but oh, so pretty. It is a real problem in Tongariro National Park but they are keeping it at bay with incredible targeted spraying by helicopter. The second photo shows its infestation in a new little pine plantation.
We reached the town of Turaana where there is a public thermal pool and an area of thermal springs.
We went for a walk around the springs, so we'll hidden in ti-tree scrub.
We had the public pool to ourselves for close on 40 minutes. At 37.5 degrees C it was heaven!
Onwards along Lake Taupo to the town of Taupo itself where we will stay at a free camp on the outskirts of town.
Lake Taupo is massive.
This is the view from Taupo.
We will explore more around here tomorrow - weather permitting.
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