Waipu Caves- Day 22

Since Jeff is a caver and I only want to explore caves I have never seen before, Waipu Caves is our next stop. As we get close, ancient limestone boulders that have been worn down by running water start showing up in the fields we pass.

A housing subdivision (one of the few we have seen) has lined up a bunch of them as part of their entrance fence.  There are also big bird- nest- looking epiphytic plants perched in some of the trees.

The Waipu Caves parking area is in a meadow and has an outdoor shower attached to the outhouses so you can clean up after getting all wet and muddy in the cave.

We knew we would be getting wet on this trip so we put on our water shoes and shorts and grabbed our headlamps, cameras and flashlights. It seems a shame to go underground on such a sunny warm day.

The entrance to the main cave is huge and open with a shallow stream running down the middle that disappears under a ledge further in. Nice big Stalactites are hanging from the ceiling and Stalagmites are growing up from the floor. We wander around in the big room, impressed with the condition of such a well known cave. There is no graffiti or trash and the formations are still in good shape.

I can hear people splashing through the water on the other side of the overhang and we duck under to explore the rest of the cave. We have to wade through fairly cold water about knee deep for about 4 meters to reach dry passage again. The people we heard have disappeared. We turn out our lights to look for glow worms and see only a few so we turn the lights back on and keep going.

Eventually we find a room with an entire “sky” full of Glow Worm “stars”. My camera will not take a good photo in such a dark place but Jeff gets it on his. Before we turn the lights out we can see where they are by their glistening threads that dangle down from the ceiling. Once the lights are off you can see their luminescence . They are yet another endangered species that occurs only here in New Zealand.

There is a trail going up the hill that might go to more caves so we go for a walk. Jeff checks out every cavey looking spot he sees and I sit on rocks and take off my shoes and enjoy being in the woods barefoot. The track goes somewhere eventually but we turn around and go back to the van for some lunch and to finish checking out the other cave spots. One has a flooded entrance and you would have to get fully wet to explore it so we pass.

Back on the road again we pass more of what we call Moldy Marshmallows- round bales covered in green plastic. We have seen alot of these.

Then there is a giant tree stump in a yard that looks like someone is going to make a tree fort with,

Rainbow Falls

The next stop is strange because we have come out onto sort of flat ground, and there is a sign for Rainbow Falls. We are trying to figure out where it could possibly be in such a flat looking place. It turns out that this area is like parts of Missouri, where the river valleys are all below the main body of land instead of having hills rising up from them. The trail meanders around through a small woods and suddenly the bottom drops out and there is a huge waterfall below us. There is a bench near the top of the falls and we talk to some local folks while their grandkids splash in the shallows nearby. This couple has come across to the mainland to visit after serving as caretakers at a wildlife preserve  out on an Island  for many months. That is something I would consider doing.

We followed the trail down to the bottom of the falls where there was a deep swimming hole that the Maori used  as a fishing trap for tuna (eels), which at one time was a major food source.

Today, the eel populations in New Zealand are seriously threatened by over fishing from commercial fleets, hydro electric dams which prevent their migration, draining of wetlands and loss of native forests. Sigh. It seems to be the same all over the world these days.

Whangarei Falls

We stopped at Whangarei Falls town park and walked a trail along the river to a wooden walkway through a Kauri Forest with some 500 year old trees .

On the way there were kids jumping off a rope swing into the river but the water looked like grey water from a washing machine and was not appealing to me. It was the first water we had seen that actually looked and smelled polluted. The falls were still pretty and the walk was beautiful.

Kerikeri-Day 23

Later,after driving up to the Bay of Islands, we got a camp site at Kerikeri Holiday Park where the woman manning the the registration desk went out of her way to help us find a  sailing trip on the Bay the next day. We ended up with a spot on the  Gunga II, a forty foot sailboat that would feed us lunch and take us out to an island where we could get off and explore.

In the meantime, we set up down near the river and enjoyed the last bit of warm sun for the day before going up to the kitchen to make dinner.

I was cooking noodles and throwing shredded up carrots and cabbage in with some bottled sauce while a Korean guy was cooking nearby. He offered me some Kim-chi, which I did not know how to use, so he came over and looked at what I was making and told me it was basically the same, only fermented. My food took about fifteen minutes to throw together and he was getting all complicated, so it took him a lot longer. In the end, the two dishes looked pretty close and he said he was going to try my quick way next time. I told him I would try his way as well. It was fun to have this exchange while cooking. There were other people in the huge kitchen as well . The young French contingent was pretty rowdy, teasing the heck out of their boyfriend,  and we were all drinking wine and having fun while we cooked.

Sailing the Bay of Islands

Early the next morning we went down to the dock in the village of Paihia to meet our sailboat and 10 people joining us for the day. We stopped at Russel, across the bay, to pick up two more.

There was not enough wind at first so we motored out with a Dolphin escort. There had been Orca whales hanging about the last few days and the dolphins were just starting to come back. Orcas eat dolphins.

We motored close to some small volcanic islands and then into the middle of a very windy part of the Bay. There were islands everywhere and lots of sailboats . I helped raise the sails, which were harder to crank than I expected, and we started moving fast through the water, relaxing to the sound of the sails and lapping waves. The sun was shining, it was warm on deck, popcorn and beer was passed around. I would like to do this more often.

Some of the islands were just volcanic rock  homes to birds, one had a few houses on it, others had gorgeous sandy beaches and green hills.

The Captain had been living on his boat for 23 years and had just recently bought a house on land. He told us a story about a round the world trip where one of his fellow captains had relied on satellite connection and a PC to navigate and got seriously turned around because the computers could not negotiate the Maori names of places. Some Maori words are different by only a letter or two and I can see where this might be a problem. There was a story in the local paper yesterday about a guy who tried to sale his new boat up from Wellington and wrecked it on some rocks. when he called 111 for help he gave the wrong place name and  took the searchers many kilometers in the wrong direction. He nearly died from hypothermia before they finally found him.

Waewaetoria Island

We were headed to Waewaetoria Island, which had hiking trails and a half moon beach and looked like a magazine spread, with clear aqua marine blue water and a clean bottom.

We anchored the boat and got the dinghies and kayaks ready to launch. The water looked so inviting! But it was still cold and it was driving me crazy.   We rode in a small dinghy to the beach but I swore I would swim  back to the sail boat after we hiked to the top of the hill and got warmed up.

The views from the top of the hill were amazing and we got nice and warm from the climb. The grass looked like it would be prickly and we were all barefoot walking around but it was actually soft and knee deep. We were assured there was nothing that would bite or sting us here and it didn’t even make our legs itch. I would have never walked in stuff like that otherwise, but they have no snakes or poisonous critters to worry about here.

Once we got down to the beach again, I waded around in the shallows until my lower legs were numb, thinking I could get used to the cold long enough to swim to the boat.  The breeze, when I got out of the water and waited to dry on the back platform, was going to make me totally miserable and cold. I bailed out. I hate being cold.

I took the dinghy back, while only one brave soul swam, and we boarded the boat, ate lunch and sailed away from the island. It was a hard place to leave and a well spent day on the water.

We hit the road and drive North on Coastal Route 10.

Tonight we are staying at a camp further up the coast on Karikari Peninsula-not to be confused with Kerkeri, where we stayed last night. This place is one of those Top Ten Holiday Parks and is filled with really loud and annoying Chinese staying in the cabins above us, who do their best to keep us up. Tomorrow, we drive up the skinny northern most neck of the island to Cape Reinga lighthouse.

Our New Zealand trip is almost over and I wish we could stay longer.

-Wendy lee, writing at Edgewise Woods Gardens and Critters