The Burnhams in Kiwiland 2001-2

Continued from Episode 1: Page 1 Auckland to Russell

Friday we were off again, heading north through fog and kiwi mist. Of course, we took one of the side roads leading to the sea, this time to Matauri Bay. We parked and walked along the beach, popular with surfers, more than 1 K of crushed seashells with the waves rolling into shore. The beach was striped with white lines of jellied foam that seemed to mark the progress of the tide. One of the surfers told me this was plankton, a favourite of fish and whales.

Matauri Bay is the site of a monument to the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, which was bombed in Auckland harbour in 1985. The ship had been about to sail to Moruroa, near Tahiti, to protest nuclear testing by the French. The French, in their wisdom, sent secret service agents to stop them. The ship was blown up and a Portuguese photographer on board was killed. The skeleton of the ship was towed to the Cavalli Islands and sunk, about 3.5 K off Matauri Bay. It is now a favourite diving spot. We walked up a hill at the end of the beach to see the monument, built of large rocks, in the shape of a rainbow. It was a lovely peaceful spot and very moving.

We stayed that night in a backpackers hostel in Kaitaia, the largest town before Cape Reinga. It poured rain overnight, but the next morning it looked as if it was clearing so we drove up the Cape to Waitiki Landing. As far as I could tell, the town of Waitiki Landing, where we stayed, consisted of a backpacker motel, restaurant and gas station. That is all.

It was still early when we arrived so we set out to try one of the 'short' walks in the area, to Pandora's Beach. The first ½ K was fine, but the road quickly became a muddy track with all the rain that had fallen in the past few days. The red mud stuck like clay to our boots and I swear I grew a few inches in height.

Part way down the trail we branched off on a side trail to see a small Kauri bush. These huge trees, native to NZ, only grow in the north island. Some reach heights of over 50 M and are thousands of years old. We had been walking steadily uphill, following a ridge with reputed beautiful vistas on either side, now shrouded in cloud, but the side trail went downhill, sharply downhill. It was so steep and slippery we had to hang onto the trees to keep from falling. Near a stream at the bottom of the hill, we did find several Kauris that were quite impressive to us. Just as we were admiring them, the heavens opened and we scrambled to get our rain jackets on and seek shelter under a fern tree. We nibbled on our lunch until the rain stopped and made our way up the hill again. Luckily it was easier climbing up than the descent.

We decided to continue on to the beach and as we got nearer and could hear the surf, the visibility improved. Pandora's Beach was several K of deserted beach, just the thing for a hot day, but not that day. Ray went down the beach looking for a no-longer-there hut while I took my boots off and rested my feet. By the time we had retraced our steps and reached the car, we had hiked five hours, a little more than a short walk.

That night it rained, and it was still raining in the morning, even thunder and lightning. We wondered if we should just call it quits and move on or wait another day. We did want to see the fabled 90 Mile Beach, so we opted to have a lazy day and hope it cleared soon. We were in luck. After lunch, the rain stopped and the skies cleared enough to encourage us to drive to the northern most point in NZ, Cape Reinga. By the time we were in the car park at the point, the clouds were gone and we had a lovely view from the lighthouse of the distant islands and the waters, where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet.

On the way back to Waitiki Landing, we tried, without success, to tramp to a beach. First we followed the signs to Te Werahi Beach, but turned around as the path led us into a swiftly moving river, once a boardwalked swamp. We tried a second path to Twilight Beach. This path looked promising at first as the promised boardwalk was passable, but the bush beyond it was now a swamp. We managed to navigate several detours at first by jumping from one grass tussock to another, but we eventually gave up and contented ourselves with a walk back across pasture land.

Near Waitiki Landing, we decided to have a look at Te Paki stream. This is one of the entrances to sand dunes and the 90 Mile Beach. We had been told that tour buses could navigate the stream at low tide, but that rental car companies have a clause in their rental agreements cancelling insurance if the cars are taken on the beach. We had thought that the tour buses just had to cross the stream to get to the beach, but we found out the buses drive about 1 K down the middle of the stream to get to the beach. We knew Alice wouldn't like this, so we parked and walked across the stream in our bare feet to the sand dunes on the other side. They were huge and extensive, just like the Sahara. We hiked up to the top of one of highest dunes to have a look around. We could see nothing but more dunes between us and the sea, about 1 K distant. We watched a jeep arrive, drive part way down the stream, park and unload small surf boards. A favourite activity is surfing down the dunes on boards or plastic sleds. We watched the jeep passengers hike up the hill and slide down, but they didn't get very far. The sand was too wet. Not good for sliding, but easier for walking. We had no trouble leaping down one of the steeper slopes. It was great fun.

Ray on the sand dunes

Alice drives on 90 Mile Beach

On Monday we left Cape Reinga, but not before taking Alice to the beach. Further south from Waitiki Landing we took an easier access road out to 90 Mile Beach to have a look. The white sand beach is actually 105 K long, but that is longer than any beach I have seen. The tide was quite low and there were a few cars parked on the beach near the water's edge, so it looked safe enough for Alice. She loved it. The sand was hard all the way to the water, so we drove a short distance down the beach and back again. Then it was on the road again, back south.

We made one stop near Kaitaia to visit the Ancient Kauri Kingdom, a commercial kauri woodworking shop. Their claim to fame is a huge kauri trunk, found submerged and perfectly preserved in a swamp. The owner of the shop carved a staircase in the center of the trunk and it is used as access to the second floor in the shop. All the wooden furniture and gift items in the shop are carved from kauri stumps left over from long ago logging operations, or found in swamps.

We were headed for the little town of Omapere on the west coast and the most direct route looked to be across country to an inlet from the sea where we would take a short ferry ride to the other side. We asked at a gas station if we were on the right road, and were reassured but warned to look out for fallen trees. Sure enough the hill sides beside the road had slipped onto the road in several places and taken trees with them, but were now cleared away. The inlet, fed by inland streams, was running high, fast and was very muddy, evidence of the recent rains. The ferry, when it arrived, had to take two tries to get into the dock to pick us up. It was running against the current and didn't turn to get into the dock far enough upstream the first time. Needless to say the return trip across the inlet was twice as fast.

After we reached Omapere, we found out we were lucky we had taken the alternate route and had waited the extra day to head south. The owner of Globe Trekkers, a small backpackers hostel we stayed in, told us the guests the day before had tried to drive by the usual route, but the water on the road was almost as high as car windows and they had to return to the hostel and wait until the next day.

We woke up the next day to almost blue skies for our drive through the Waipura Kauri Forest. The road through the forest reserve on sharp switchbacks. Near the top was the entrance to see the largest Kauri tree in NZ. The Tane Mahuta, at 2,000 years old, is 51 M high and 13.5 M in girth. Truly a giant tree, the NZ equivalent of the California redwoods. A little further on, we stopped to hike down well maintained paths to see more giants of the forest. We spent about two hours admiring the trees and enjoying the peaceful atmosphere. It made us glad that all logging of the Kauri has been stopped.

With an overnight in Warkworth, an hour north of Auckland, and a brief stop in Auckland for chores and lunch, we made it to Thames, on the southwest coast of the Coromandel Penninsula. Our goal was to do a three day hike in the nearby Kauaeranga Valley. On Wednesday we stopped at the local information bureau where we were able to phone the DOC (Department of Conservation) office and reserve the next night at Pinnacles hut. The second night was to be camping in our tent at Moss Creek as there was no hut. After getting our food supplies ready and loading our backpacks with everything for three days, we set off Thursday morning for the DOC office to inquire about the condition of the trails. As we had feared, Moss Creek was not an option due to the wet and muddy condition of the trails. That meant we could leave our tent, stove and thermarest mattresses behind at the DOC office, thus lightening our load. If the weather was good, and we could find some other good trails, we left our options open to stay at Pinnacle another night.

The trail up to Pinnacle Hut took us under three hours and was over well maintained, quite wide paths. The weather was perfect for hiking, not too many clouds but not too warm either. We had good views of the valleys and hills all day. We followed the Web Creek track up, which entailed crossing Web Creek four times over sturdy suspension bridges. A large section of the trail climbed rather steeply up the hill on steps, cut into the stone. These were constructed in the 1920's to enable pack horses to carry supplies to kauri loggers, working in the forest up to six months of the year. Pinnacle Hut was large and well maintained. Trampers are housed in two dorms, each with 40 beds. There were less than 30 trampers that night. Everybody shares one cold water shower, a few outhouses and a large kitchen. Surprisingly, it works very well. A school group of two teachers and ten 13 year olds arrived for a school end outing. The rest of us were glad when the Hut Warden relented and housed the kids by themselves in the second dorm.

First you walk up the steps

Then you climb the ladder

The day was still nice and sunny, so after lunch on the pleasant balcony, Ray and I set off to hike to Pinnacle Summit. To reach the base of the hill, we had to negotiate fifteen minutes of mud. We were glad we had our high, waterproof boots and gaiters on. Other people with sneakers or short boots ended up with muddy soakers. Once the trail started uphill, we left most of the mud behind and clambored up the steep rocks instead. The top section had two ladders bolted to the rockface to aid in the ascent. Despite this, there were plenty of hand and footholds and we had no problems. The views at the top made the climb worthwhile. We could see in all directions, including towns on the east coast of the penninsula. We were told we struck it lucky with the weather, as it is often windy and cloudy at the top. We knew this was true for the clouds started to descend on the mountains that evening.

By night it was raining again and the next morning we decided it was time to leave. It was raining lightly, but steadily when we left, but about half way down it stopped. We decided not to press our luck, so there were no breaks on the way down. Two hours saw us back at our car. Soon we were back to town, just in time for the rain to start again. I think we made a good decision.