We departed Napier, and headed into the woods. Te Urewera to be exact, a remote area that escaped the forestry that took most of the native trees in New Zealand. It is also the only area that has remained consistently under Māori control. The Wikipedia link above is an interesting read. Te Urewera was the first natural resource to be recognized as having the same rights as a person in the world. Didn’t know that was a thing? Here’s some more Wikipedia for you. Environmental Personhood. It is skipped by most tourists due to its’ remote nature. We also ended up with about 200km of driving on “unsealed” roads by the time we exited the park. Pretty good repair, maybe a bit narrow, steep, and corrugated in places, but absolutely gorgeous in there.
We spent the first night on the shore of Lake Waikaremoana at Rosie Bay. We promptly put the boat in the water and had a very nice paddle. Our map showed a cave on the shore relatively close by, but we were unable to locate it. It was a quiet evening, with a few other vans joining us. Very quiet, just a couple of black swans with a baby to share the bay with us.
Our explorations the next day took us on a hike to Lake Waikareiti, a truly spiritual place, really the first place where we were just floored by the old growth with all of the varieties of podacarpus trees, in addition to the beech trees that dominate the South Island. Our pace slowed significantly as we were ever more entranced by the changing light created by the increasingly foreign and ancient forest.
I think our hike to Lake Waikareiti was the first place that we encountered the kaka, the other parrot in New Zealand that one can encounter. We ran into the Kea and the Yellow Crowned Parakeet in the Fiordlands.
The lake itself is a sacred place, formed by a massive landslide some 50,000 years ago, it is home to Rihui island, which boasts a recursive lake. Huh? What can that be you ask? It’s a lake that is on an island within a lake. I’m not sure what poindexter came up with such a catchy way to describe it. Sorry to say, I don’t have anything better to offer. We thought of hiking the boat up to the lake to paddle to the island to hike to the other lake and paddle it, but do to it’s pristine nature, and lack of pests, bringing an outside boat in is not allowed. We learned, too late, that you can get a key from the visitors center to take out one the row boats that are parked on the lake. It was pretty windy, so it was probably a good that we didn’t put the effort it.
We kept moving, and ended up missing where we were headed to camp for the night, The Sanctuary Camp. It has a trail that you can hike at night that is marked with reflectors. A great spot to see glow worms and try and spot Kiwis. Google took us up the road to a nice spot on the Okahu stream. No complaints. Very quiet, and we had the place all to ourselves. Pretty sure we could hear kiwis talking overnight when we got up for our evening micturition.
We cruised up the road a little bit to the Whirinaki Conservation Park. It lays outside of Te Urewera, and was faced with logging in the 70’s, but was saved. On the drive in, we were faced with the managed logging that was happening right up to the very border of the preserve. Humans have gotten very good at harvesting trees. We sat entranced watching as one person could pick up 50 foot trees, debark them, and cut it them into manageable logs that were loaded and taken off.
Once we got to the park, and took off into the woods, it was amazing how slowly we could move through the forest. It was the first place that had all of the varieties of the podacarp to check out in one place. We tried very hard to learn the different varieties, but I sure didn’t do very well at telling them all apart. We moved so slowly through the forest, we barely got out before sunset. We ended up just staying in the parking lot overnight. There weren’t any signs saying that we couldn’t, and we were the only ones there. The next morning, hunters started showing up before dawn. Beyond the loop trail we took, there were red deer to be had.
The next day was a big one, as we headed to Tongariro Park. A quick stop at Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland ended up surprising us with our own private soak right next to the road. I think we may have been lucky, but maybe all the tour buses just cruise right on by. We didn’t pay to go into the park and just looked at the boiling mud that was free to see.
A stop at Huka Falls, even though a tourist “must do” it was pretty amazing.
We did pay to go into Craters of the Moon. If you have been to Yellowstone, this pales in comparison. But, if you’ve got some time to kill…
The day was slipping away from us, so Taupo was just a drive through and resupply on our way to Tongariro.
We considered setting ourselves up to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, but after talking to many of the locals during our trip, and our experiences so far with the “must do” tourist attractions, we opted for the hike to Tama Lakes instead. Nobody downplayed the views and experience of the Alpine Crossing, but “March of the Penguins” was a popular way to describe the line of 4000 people joining you on the trail. Well, that’s the peak season number, it was probably going to more like 1000 on the day we could have gone. The Tama Lake hike is almost as long, and the vistas are quite similar.
Camping at Mangahuia worked out very well. If the visibility was better the next day, we would have taken the gondola up Whakapapa, but it was pretty socked in up there. There are webcams, so we could see there wasn’t much of a vista to see up there.
Next we headed to Rotorua. We bypassed Taupo by taking the route to the west of there – our previous drive through Taupo didn’t leave us with a strong desire to go back. We skipped a stop at Pureora Forest Park. There’s logging history and a really long suspension bridge.
We beelined it to the thermal holiday park in Rotorua. Nice spot, not very many people at that time of year, good kitchen, and showers. We were in need of showers, I think Napier was the last we had. There is a pool, which Barb headed off to knock out some laps. It was little disappointing that the thermal baths were just warm, maybe 101 degrees.
Without a clear plan, we set off the next day to the Rotorua’s redwoods, Whakarewarewa Forest Park. We were becoming forest snobs, and walking amongst the giant redwoods was unique from the redwoods in California in the fact that it has native species of ferns and trees interspersed throughout the redwoods. Unlike old growth redwood forests, it’s only 100 years old, and it feels pretty manicured. We didn’t take advantage of the tree top walks that were offered, seemed kind of expensive, but the nighttime walks that went through the tree tops would probably be a pretty unique experience. When asked, most people said that the mountain biking in the forest was the best to be had in New Zealand. The Blue and Green Lakes are gorgeous. Besides Whakarewarewa Forest Park, everything surrounding Rotorua for miles was managed forestry. Miles and miles of identically sized trees line the highways. I always found it super creepy seeing everything covered, up and down every mountain, with tree stubble. No matter how tall the trees were, it always had an appearance of stubble. Wish I could get my beard that uniform.
Nothing really held us in Rotorua, so we moved on after the one day and night, and started heading to the Coromandel Peninsula. We stopped for the night at the Opoutere Holiday Park. Very nice spot with a good hippy vibe, killer walk to the beach, espresso, a stream that we could paddle out the Wharekawa Harbor. Even at high tide, it was pretty shallow, but it was still a nice way to spend a morning.
We were faced with weather that was moving onto the island, so we left our little holiday park sanctuary to go check out the much touted Hot Water Beach, where we would be camping at the Top Ten park there. Since we were Top Ten members, we saved the $10 NZD on the shovel rental. If that isn’t worth it right there, I don’t know what is. The park is situated so you can walk to the beach in about fifteen minutes. A couple hours before and after low tide was the perfect time to go dig yourself a hole in the sand that fills with thermal hot water that you can luxuriate in.
Ha! Again, we were foiled by the tourist hype. I know several hundred (thousand) people make their livings from the scores of people coming in on busses to dig, and dig, and dig, only to end up with a hole that is about six inches deep at the most before the wet sand collapses in. With a butt crack full of sand, we walked back to the camp to take a soak in their hot tub. However, the holiday park there is quite simply the best we stayed at on our trip. Huge kitchen, lots of covered space, pool that Barb could get her laps in, pizza and bar!
The storm was building up, and the following morning had quite a bit of rain. The forecast called for large rainfall, huge winds, and an all around miserable outlook for the next week. We reluctantly took our leave of Hot Water Beach, and the Coromandel Peninsula after a quick peak at Cathedral Cove – Hahei’s other big money maker. We headed to the Top Ten in Auckland, thinking that since it had the same rating and high price as the Hot Water Beach Top Ten, it would be a good place to weather the storm. Turns out, it just had the high price, a tiny kitchen, and no indoor space to hang out. Even though we had a fairly sheltered spot, we spent the first day and night being rocked by the wind. The next day, we braved the weather, and headed into the city for a trip to the Auckland Art Gallery. We were quite surprised by the collections that were on display. I really need to start a spreadsheet so I can keep track of what museums I have visited and what I have seen. Copying and pasting from the museums website – Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Paul Cezanne, Salvador Dalí, André Derain, Henri Fantin-Latour, Paul Gauguin, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso. Ngā Taonga Tūturu: Treasured Māori Portraits, a large gothic collection, and of course, no art museum isn’t complete without way too many portraits from the 15th – 17th century.
Man, I really thought I could get the rest of the North Island covered in one more entry, but there is just too much more to cover. Be sure to check back for Part Three – more beaches, more trees.
