Curtis Falls

Cary and I wanted to try out our new gators and walking sticks so we headed up the mountain to the start of Curtis Falls Trail. It was about 15 C but we found snow! It was first white stuff we'd had seen since last March.

We have been following a book called Day Walks of the Taranaki. It tells you how hard the trail is by giving it a grade, telling you how to get there and what to look for along the way. The Curtis Falls walk is a grade 3. The hardest trails are rated grade 4.

This 2 hour return tramp was up and down and up and down again. Who needs a stairmaster! It had beautiful goblin trees which are the Kamahi trees with a moss covering the entire tree. They are spooky but wonderful at the same time. There were also a few ladders and many stairs.

Along the way there were a few traps. This one had a rat in it. They use eggs for bait.  The traps are after mice, stoats, possums and rats. NZ has lost 37 species of birds apparently due to these pests.

When we reached the Manganui River we had a beautiful view of Mt. Taranaki.

We walked upstream towards the Curtis Falls. The banks are vertical lava walls capped with lush forest.

The Falls are 8m high and named after the three Curtis brothers who discovered it after a tramp through the woods back in 1888.

After returning to the trail head we drove further up the mountain to the plateau where cars park for the ski hill. It was heavy with mist when we parked. We felt like we were the only ones up there when suddenly the mist lifted and we looked around and saw there were 15 other cars !

We then had to drive back to Hawera for a quick supper and to get ready for our Netball game. It's the coolest game! New Zealand Silver Ferns just won a gold medal in the Commonwealth games. I had been watching the games all week trying to get the strategy down. It must have worked because I scored a goal! More on Netball another time.
Thanks for reading!