Ruahine Forest Park and an Unexpected Surprise

Sarah and I set off Saturday morning with the Honda Jazz loaded up for a camping weekend. We car convoyed with Stacey and Terrance ( and Elliot, their 5 year old) to meet Sarah B., Paul and her folks for lunch in Palmerston North. Terrance is an American who has been doing an ER locum in Hawera over the past 6 months and will be returning home next week.

We had a long lunch at the Church Yard Cafe close to the Square in Palmy. Here is the unexpected part, as we were leaving Paul placed something in my hand which I initially thought was a candy. In fact it was a greenstone necklace from the South Island. Its' design is attributed to leaders ( chiefs). He told me that no one could touch it without my permission, except Sarah. What a spectacular gift. A thousand thank you's Paul.

We headed out from Palmerston North to the Totara Reserve where we had some walks picked out.
As it was getting late we decided to set up our campsite first as it looked as if the Met service was going to be correct and we were in for some rain ( a warm rain I might add for you folks in the minus Celsius side of the thermometer.)

The campsite was a DOC ( Dept of Conservation) and Basic, no drinking water, no picnic table. The only facility was the dreaded 'longdrop', and one has to bring their own toilet paper at that. Fortunately we knew about that possibility in advance, however we did have a back up, 'The Interlake Spectator'. This being our local Manitoban newspaper. Who said the Spectator is good for nothing?
What the campground lacked in facility was more than compensated by its' location beside the Pohungina River. It had a tremendous current and hard 'S' turns and sheer rock cliffs.

We decided to check out the trail head we were going to hike the next day.
Yikes!
It was a 22 km hike into the A- frame hut. It was terrifying just driving  to the park boundary. See the Jazz at the top of a hill. It suddenly got very, very windy ( gale force) and sideways rain up there. We turned the car around and carefully beat a hasty retreat for the campsite.

We had a wonderful meal and sat out under our tarp in front of a campfire and then read the paper.
When we were both in our sleeping bags we each shared an ear piece from the I-Pod and listened to a pod cast of Laugh Out Loud.
The wind stayed strong and it rained all night.
At 7 am we broke camp and went looking for a warm breakfast. We usually make our own meals but we were chilled and damp.

 We drove by The Chelty but it was still so early so we pushed on to Fielding and had a complete breakfast, including delicious "flat whites " for under 10 bucks NZ.

                                   The Waimarie

We then stopped in to the Whanganui RiverBoat Museum. I have always wanted to see the Centre but it  has never been open when we were driving by. Sarah had to drag me out of there. The vessel Waimarie was salvaged from the river bank and rebuilt by volunteers over a 19 year period and relaunched in 2006.

                                      The Aviary in Virginia Park

 On our way out of Whanganui, we stopped at Virginia Lake and took in the "Winter Garden" and the Aviary.

We both had hot showers at home and a cup of tea. I think we will wait for the rain to stop before we think about emptying the car.

Cary

Dam Dropping

New Zealand is known for it's extreme sports. NZers are always jumping off things. They bungy jump off bridges, they roll down hills in big balls (Zorbing), they skydive,  cliff dive and dam drop. What's dam dropping you ask?

We can do this just up the road from Hawera. The Wiangongoro River drops 7 metres over a cement wall and winds it's way towards the ocean. It is a favourite summer activity to throw oneself over the wall to ride down the steep surf to the pool below. We did it just in our swim suits and suffered some bumps and scrapes, but  we had a thrilling time just the same. Some locals showed up with tubes, boogie boards, and wet suits to strut their stuff.

                                Jake showing his style

                                Jake, Cary holding onto Jake and Lindzay (American doctor)

                          A local, showing lots of skin!

                     Chantelle and Mark (U of M med students) Mark is in the surf!

Everyone had a blast and it is an activity we will be sure to repeat before we leave this country.

Thanks for reading!

The Bridge to Nowhere and the River to Somewhere

We went on a historical trip this past weekend. We traveled on the Wanganui River. It is one of NZ's 'Great Walks' even though it is a river trip. It starts on Mt. Tongariro and winds it's way along for 329km until it spills into the Tasman sea. It is New Zealand's longest navigable river.

It was used first by the Maori then by Pakeha (non-maori) to haul goods and people from the interior to the sea and back again. At the lower end of the river near the city of Wanganui there is a riverboat still chugging daily.

There are also rowing teams, water skiers and jet boats.

We had a jet boat meet us (two U of M med students and Cary and I) in Pipiriki to take us up river to the head of the trail to The Bridge to Nowhere. This was a 30km trip and I lost count on how many rapids the jet boat climbed with ease. A few times our driver, Joe, would stop and point out hazards for the canoeists on board (us).

                                  
                                 Joe

Everyone piled out and the other passengers went off on their hike and we got sorted out packing our barrels and loading up the canoes.

We then set out to the Bridge to Nowhere too. It sounds like a sad monument because it represents a sad part of NZ history. When the WW1 servicemen returned to NZ, the government of the day wanted to thank the soldiers by granting them land they could clear, farm, and live on. This land was almost in the middle of the island, it was very steep and thick with natural bush. A bridge was built in the middle of this bush across the Mangapurua River that fed into the Wanganui River.

The clearing proved impossible for the soldiers and after a few years of trying they left the land as is and really in the end said to the government, 'thanks but not no thanks'. They were not really compensated for their service in the war.
So in the end there sits a bridge in the middle of bush that comes from nowhere and leads to nowhere.

After this 1.5 hr hike we returned to the canoes and headed down river on our adventure. It is a beautiful river and there is a strong current that pushes the canoe along. The cliffs on each side are so high one has to crane their neck in order to see the top edge. Every now and then we would hear a tropical bird sing it's song or a bird of prey would majestically swoop along the cliff walls.

We landed at our campsite after 2 hours of paddling. Across the river was a Maori marae. It is their meeting place and if we wanted to camp there we would need to give them a koha (gift) and they would welcome us in. Across from the marae was Joe's Lodge which had accommodations and a bar.

We chose to stay where we landed and set up camp.

view across the river

We left the next day with 4 hours of paddling ahead of us. We were having wonderful temperatures, light winds, and sunny skies.

There were some caves to explore. There were deep, ice cold pools, gushing water- falls and the cave walls were thick with ferns and moss.

Cary went for a naked swim in a cave pool and after 30 sec became completely numb. When he was climbing out I saw a huge eel slime its' way under a rock. That was cool!

The rapids were thrilling and took a bit of negotiating to maneuver safely. We were quite winded and sunned when we returned to Pipiriki. It was very satisfying to complete such a historic trip.

Thanks for reading!

Three Sisters Rocks

The Three Sisters Rocks are near the town of Tongaporutu on the west coast just north of New Plymouth. They can only be reached on a low tide and this was our 2nd attempt at trying to see this marvelous beach.

reflections

                                          elephant

                                         Willy, Jake and Simon hunting for crabs

It was a great day but we have now learned (learnt- as the kiwis spell it) that there is another cave we must see just down the beach from where we were. Just south of the Tongaporutu rivermouth are two rock stacks with a cave. There are ancient footprints 4m up from the sand floor. For many years the Maori would use this cave for shelter when travelling by canoe between the Waikato and Taranaki Regions. Local lore states that the infamous chief Te Rauparaha and his female companion rested here to recover from his debilitating attack of boils.

When the companion lanced the boils, the chief braced himself against the cave wall. There are impressions of his hands and feet that can be seen clearly today. The chief was reputed to have 6 toes. As evidence, 8 footprints in the cave have 6 toes. A must see for sure!

Thanks for reading!