Friday 3rd April 2009
Despite a day at work, today was still the start of our holiday. We left the dogs and house in the (hopefully) capable hands of Lee, the house sitter, and headed off into the sunset.
We got as far as Wellsford before stopping for dinner. Nothing special, we got a foot long sub each (Subway) and drove a bit down Highway 16 to the first lookout. We ate half the sandwich, leaving the other half for lunch the next day. The views are awesome from, and we werent the only ones having dinner there. Another camper van was parked up, and by the looks of it were planning to stay longer than us.
We kept going south after dinner to meet Kirin, our couch surfing host for the night. He is one of the two Auckland ambassadors, and a really nice guy too. We spent a great few hours with him, talking travel and couch surfing. He is about to set off on a six month trip through Central Asia. Big time jealousy coming from these two travelbugs! It sounds awesome.
Saturday 4th April 2009
We didnt get quite the early start we'd hoped for. Mainly because we slept in a bit, but also from still talking travel with Kirin.
We headed south then east, along the Pacific Coast Highway, a road we will follow for a while. We took the longer, more scenic route round the Hunuas down to Thames, travelling along the “Seabird Coast”. We stopped for lunch between Kaiaua and Miranda, at the opposite end of a long beach from all the big motorhomes. One end of the beach is set aside for freecamping, if you have a self containment certification. We are almost ready to take the wedge to get certified, but there are still a couple of bits to sort out. Like the rest of the plumbing.
We didnt see much in the way of seabirds, some gulls mainly, and a few oystercatchers in the distance. But its a lovely place to stop for lunch!
Next stop was Thames, where we met Mel and Dave. Mel couch surfed with us ages ago, came back later with her Mum, and now we finally got to meet her Kiwi boyfriend Dave. We didnt hang around in Thames long as Mel and Dave already had their car packed ready to go camping somewhere. Mels suggestion - and a good one too! - was to head down to Athenree and camp at the hot pools.
Its not a long drive from Thames down to Athenree. Through Paeroa (stopped for petrol as cheaper than Thames!), the Karangahape Gorge (must go back and do more hiking one day soon), and the Athenree Gorge (not very gorge like really, nice wide road!). The campsite seemed a bit pricy at $20 each, but that did include the pools. We are just used to paying little or nothing for camping.
Mels friends down in Athenree had told her there was a band playing in Waihi if we wanted to join them, and it sounded like a great idea, until we hit the pools!!! The water for the hot pools comes from a bore about 270m down and comes out at about 35C, if I remember my temperatures right. This water goes into the larger pool which was nice at first as it was getting cold outside. Didnt last long though when you just sit there! They use a heat transfer system to take the energy from the water being discharged from this pool to further heat more water that goes into a smaller (adults only) pool. This is a much warmer 39C, heats you though nicely. We sat in there debating whether or not to drive back into Waihi...the heat had sapped all our energy though so we stayed put until kicking out time then made dinner. Lazy?
Sunday 5th April 2009
We got caught out by the clocks changing, despite having talked about it yesterday. I'd got up and gone for a walk round the campsite (limited) and out along a small headland, only it was earlier than I thought, no wonder it was quiet. There were good views across that end of the Tauranga Harbour to Bowentown and Matakana Island. The tide was out so most of it was just mudflats, and all the black swans that Mel went after before were well out into the harbour. I could see them...but they were just black specks on the mud. As opposed to the white specks that were some other birds.
I got back in time for breakfast, a good camping concoction of scrambled eggs, beans, tinned tomatoes, the rest of last nights sausages and a home grown melon. At last one of the melons was ripe! And this one was delicious! Lets hope Lee doesnt eat all the others before I get home. Althought there are a load in the garden, and Colin doesnt like melon...
It was too hot for another dip in the pools, even being an hour earlier than we thought. So we packed up and headed for the Bowentown end of Waihi beach. We parked up at the base of the domain and headed upwards. With Mel and Dave obviously being like us, we didnt take the main path or any other paths that looked like they were heading upwards. We picked a well formed path, albeit only a 10m long well formed path that started and finished no where logical, and followed that. There was a bit of a dirt track that followed on from the metal path up over a small rise then the path kind of petered out. We wandered along a track going round the hill with some neat views through the trees to the harbour bay, before our “track” ended up on some rocks - fishing spot? So we struck out upwards, cleared the tree line, took some “photo opportunity” stops (aka breathing breaks), and reached the summit. Great views out over Waihi beach, Bowentown and the ocean to Mayor Island, but the scrub hid the harbour. It was so hot by then too!
Back down the other side of the hill to the cars and off to Waihi Beach. We followed Mel and parked right at the far end - just round the corner from the Top 10 holiday park we'd stayed at a few years ago on a WASPs trip. We did the walk over the headland to Orokawa Bay. Awesome! The views were spectacular, coastline, beaches, rocks, bays, endless ocean, Mayor Island...and the sea, what a colour...our pics wont be able to reporduce it anywhere near good enough, it was such a warm, inviting, gorgeous turquoise colour. I doubt it was very warm though!
Orokawa Bay is a really pretty beach, mix of black and white sand (making a dark grey sand I guess!!), pohutukawa trees overhanging the beach and rocky headlands, waves gently crashing...ok, the waves were good enough for surfing, hence all the surfers we saw hiking over with their boards. The waves were better on Waihi Beach though.
We'd have loved the time to hike further to the waterfall and Homunga Bay, but thats another next time. We had other plans for the afternoon... (whats this about making all these plans on holiday? Whats up with just going with the flow?)
After the obligatory “been to the beach” ice-cream, we said our goodbyes, our see you laters as we'll be seeing Mel and Dave again at some point, and headed off further south along the Pacific Coast Highway.
We checked out some of the murals of Katikati from the van as we drove through, kept going past numerous beach turnoffs, sped through Tauranga on the expressway, went slowly over the harbour bridge (roadworks of course!) and into Mount Maunganui. We didnt want to spend too long at the mount, it was only a quick visit before the “real” trip began. We probably missed heaps - bars, clubs, cafes, spending money...!!! We parked up at the foot of Mauao, got really lucky with a parking spot right outside the campground at the start of the trail, and headed off again.
We took one track up the side of Mauao, the mount in Mount Maunganui, to the summit (232m), where we found heaps of people lazing around (hot and sunny still) watching the paragliders. We stopped and watched one guy try and take off. He was still with an instructor and it didnt sound like he really knew what he was doing. Still, he finally got airborne and was swinging in the updrafts along the side of the hill just like the others. We then took the 4WD track down the other side of the hill to meet the base walk. Rather than walk the road back to the van, we took the much longer (3.4km) base track round the outside of the mount. Great walk, tired legs! Great views too, out over the harbour entrance to Matakana Island (the opposite end from this morning) and out to sea. The views over Tauranga were good too, if you like that industrial / city look.
Back at the van, we ummed and aahed about walking along the beach, but ended up driving! We took the marine Parade / Ocean Beach Road / Papamoa Beach Road all the way to Papamoa, stopping briefly to look at the house where Colin lived for a while. Colin reckoned the house looked about the same on the outside, but the section had been subdivided and there was another house in his old back yard.
Next stop was the final one for the day. We had highlighted Maketu on our map as a place to camp, but we werent sure why. There were two campgrounds marked...which one had been recommended? Coming into the village, we were faced with a choice, a flash sounding campground 2km inland, or a tatty sign pointing further towards the beach. We took the beach option, and found a great campground. Beach Holiday Park. Also Beech Holiday Park on a couple of signs! Run down and full of seasonal workers, but right on the beach with some really awesome views across the bay to Mount Maunganui. We paid our $25 for the site and headed for the hot showers. After all our walking in the sun today, we couldnt face sitting in the van with each other for much longer!
We made it out, clean and sweet smelling, just in time for sunset. Pretty good, but I'm sure there are better. Its a bit like at our place, great spot for sunsets, all depends on the clouds at the time. Tonight, still worth taking a bunch of photos! We sat there and chatted with the English couple in their rented Maui VW kombi (those krafters make great campers!!), sharing some beer and suggesting a few places for them to visit on their last couple of days in NZ. Great campsite, great views, great day all round really. Just really hot. Cant really convey here how hot and sticky it was, bit of an Indian summer going on maybe, or just a great autumn. Great beach weather, if the water was a bit warmer. But saying that, we didnt try the water so who knows. We'll have to stick our toes in some time and find out.
Monday 6th April 2009
We headed inland today to a different kind of waterfront camping. After breakfast and a walk along the beach peering into the rocks pools (one small starfish, lots of hermit crabs - shells with legs) and watching the oystercatchers having their breakfast, we packed up and took off towards Kawerau.
The road followed the beach for a while before turning inland at Matata. There were a couple of possible freecamping spots along the beach there, we'll have to check them out later. There were several other campervans / motorhomes parked up so it looked as if it was ok to do so.
At Kawerau, along with getting something for dinner and filling up the gas bottle, we got a permit for entering the forestry land so we could visit Tarawera Falls. From the forest, there are two ways to visit the falls, the 20 minutes walk and the 1.5 hour walk. We, of course, did both! Technically we didnt quite complete the second hike, but more of that later.
The road in to the falls carpark was unsealed but on the whole really good. There were just a couple of patches where the corrugations were terrible. The forest was a mix of nearly ready for harvesting trees and recently planted trees, with some native bush here and there for good measure. We saw a few hawks take off from the roadsides as we drove past, but nothing else.
The 20 minute track to the base of the falls followed the river through some native bush. The water was again a beautiful colour, green and blue and turquoise, deepish and very fast flowing. And also a bit chilly, we got as far as dipping hands, feet were safely in our boots. The falls were neat, but a bit of a let down. We'd seen pictures of water falling from a reasonable height, higher than they actually were. I guess it depends on how much water is flowing, and from what hole in the cliff it comes out of. The attraction for these falls is that the water doesnt actually come over the top of the cliff. The river disappears underground a short way before the cliff and comes out again part way down the cliff, out of a hole in the rocks. Even the picture on the leaflet shows the water coming out higher than it was today. Still impressive. The full drop over the cliff is about 65m, the waterfalls only about 10m maybe.
We sat in the bush and had some lunch, then wandered back to the van. We drove round the the DOC campground on Lake Tarawera (Tarawera Outlet), paid our money and parked up. We tried to get a view of the lake, and we did, kind of, as we can see some blue between the trees. There is only one site with a decent view and that of course was already taken.
After a second lunch (what are we, hobbits?!) we refilled the water bottles, packed some snacks, and headed off for the other track to the falls. We stopped at the lake first, but you cant see Mt Tarawera from the shore. We got a good view from the bridge over the river though.
The track meandered alongside the river through the bush for a while, then up through some scoria scrubland before going back into “real” bush. In the scrub we saw three little creatures that we werent expecting to see here - wallabies. The first one we werent sure what it was - big rabbit, possum??? The next two we saw clear enough to figure they werent either. The river was again that gorgeous mix of green, blue and turquoise, deep in places and fast flowing. There was one swimming hole marked, and plenty of signs warning about not swimming in other places. One such place was a big pool at the base of a small waterfall. Apparently there is a hole in the bottom of the pool that is one of the entrances to the underground river leading to Tarawera Falls. I can see why they dont want people swimming there! Even that small falls was neat, the water coming out from under ar ock slab at the top, giving the impression that it was also from an underground river. And when we climbed round the side (on a well worn, unofficial path) we found little side streams where the water had gone underground from the river up top, one was like a spring with the water forcing its way up out of the ground, another was a big crack in the rock with the river rushing along the base. Hope the pics of that one come out ok!
We did all of that second track up to where the river finally disappears underground in a very unspectacular way. It rushes round a corner into a pile of rocks and logs and doesnt come out again. Its also really hard to see where it does disappear into the ground as the path doesnt go too close. You kind of walk over the top of the hole rather than in front of it. So all we missed of that track was the climb down (then back up) the cliff to the base of the main falls.
Walking back, we saw the wallabies again, and also a deer. We heard plenty of birds but didnt see many. Talking to a guy back at camp, he'd been out looking for deer in the pine forests (rather than native forests) for a few days but hadnt found one. I think he was a bit miffed that we were just wandering along and found one. Course, we couldnt have hunted the one we saw even if we'd wanted to, wrong forest. So he turned round and called us cheats for seeing the falls from the 20 min walk end oand not completing the 1.5 hour walk!!
There wasnt much to do at the DOC camp after dark, except some of the puzzles in todays paper and catch up with blog writing - until my laptop battery dies. We'd had dinner, read some book, written some blog, and decided we were tired enough for bed. Checked the watch and it was only 7pm! It had gotten dark an hour earlier than we were used to thanks to changing the clocks yesterday morning! Oh well. We'll get used to it! Cant pay out for a powered site all the time, especially if we want to use DOC sites and get back to nature (lots of animal noises out right now...)
