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Read Previous Episode Coromandel to Waitomo or Next Nelson to Arthur's Pass
Episode 3 Page 1 of 2 Rotorua to Waikanae
Monday, 7 January 2002, Nelson, South Island New Zealand Skip to Episode 3: Page 2 Wellington to Kayak Trip What have we been doing since you last heard from us? Just before Christmas, the weather started to improve so we have been enjoying more sunny days than rainy ones. We have been tramping through forests, driving the New Zealand scenic byways, celebrating Christmas and New Year's, kiwi style, visiting new friends and kayaking in Marlborough Sound. We discovered a good source of tramping information at the Map and Track store in Rotorua. The owner sold us maps of the local area and recommended a few good day-walks. With the weather still so unsettled, we were not willing to try another overnighter yet. Instead, we found a trail, just out of town that led to the top of a hill where we had a great view of the town on Lake Rotorua, the adjacent Lake Rotoiti and far in the distance, the Bay of Plenty. We had not realized we were so close to the sea, but I guess no place in New Zealand is very far from the ocean. One of the bonuses of this walk was that we had the place to ourselves, just the trees and us. The Map and Track owner talked so highly of the Whirinaki Forest as a great place to hike that we booked into a small, rustic "resort" run by a forest guide and his family. We should have stopped and taken a photo on the road sign on our way there. It was the typical NZ twisty road sign, but it warned of 120K of the same to come. As we discovered when we left, only the first 20 K of that road were paved. Ray always tells me he gets bored driving on super highways, so he must consider the roads in NZ a dream come true! Anyway, we had a small cabin, complete with kitchen all to ourselves and we had the forest tracks almost all to ourselves. The Whirinaki Forest Reserve is one of the most recently created in NZ. During the 1970s it was the center of a bitter fight between Conservationists and Loggers (sound familiar). The Whirinaki is a podocarp forest, which means the trees are the same as they were thousands of years ago. It is one of the last forests like this in NZ and was being heavily logged. The Conservationists especially took issue with replanting the area with non-native trees, mostly pines. Anyway, the Conservationists won, but the locals, mostly Maoris, lost their logging income and don't have much to replace it. By the time we booked into our cabin and had lunch, the skies were blue and there wasn't a cloud in sight. We figured we had better take advantage of the good weather, so we started out by taking an hour hike through a Forest Sanctuary, near the Maori village. There were huge stands of Rimu, and Kahikatea trees, amongst others. The Rimu, or red pine tree, has pendulous needle-like foliage and grows to 50 M. It truly was a peaceful spot.
We figured we still had time for another walk, so we found the road leading to the Aranaki Lagoon. The sign said it was a 3 hour return walk but we usually make it in less than the advertised time and those clouds in the sky didn't look too threatening yet, so off we went into the forest again. About an hour down the trail we heard what sounded like a lot of sewing machines, whirring away, as we came closer to the lagoon, the sewing machines turned into a full-blown textile factory. We soon realized that was the music of thousands of frogs, all happily communicating with each other. The lagoon looked like a mangrove swamp, except that the trees were much higher. The trees ringing the lagoon have developed above ground roots to support the tree in the soft bottom of the lagoon. Just as we were starting to explore more of the lagoon, we heard the rumbles of thunder in the distance. It started to rain, softly at first and then steadily harder. We hoofed it out of there and made it back to the car in 40 minutes, but not soon enough to avoid getting completely soaked. It had looked so promising when we started out that we didn't bring our rain jackets or gaiters. We had plastic bags to sit on in the car, but I was feeling so soggy and chilled in my wet clothes that I took them off for the ride home Ray thought this was a riot. I figured since there was no one else around I was safe. Besides, the car was so steamy no one could see in anyway. We were glad to get back to the cabin and get into a hot shower. There are several long tramps in the Whirinaki, lasting three to five days or more. Some of them involve fording streams, repeatedly, and the condition of much of the trail was reputed to be very muddy, so we opted to follow just the first day of one of the tramps. That made for a very pleasant day, and it didn't rain. We followed the Whirinaki river through the dense, native forest passing a few waterfalls and gorges on the way and ate our lunch in an empty tent site.
December 23 found us on the road again. We opted to take the scenic route to the coast, the rest of that 120 K of twisty road. The road was only paved to the turnoff to our Whirinaki Resort, so we had 100 K to get used to the narrow, twisty route up and down the hills. The last third of the trip was the best as it skirted Lake Waikaremoana, one of the most beautiful lakes on the North Island. The road finally led to the ocean and the town of Wairoa, where we stayed overnight in a camping grounds. Besides tent and caravan sites, NZ campgrounds also have cabins or motel units to rent. Ours shared bathroom facilities with the campgrounds but the unit had its own kitchen and patio. On our exploration walk of the town we noticed that Lord of the Rings was playing at the local theatre and since it was filmed in New Zealand, we decided to go that night. I read the books some years ago, so some of the plot came back to me, but it is a complicated story. Ray was not pleased with the ending. Of course it doesn't wrap up neatly because you have to see Parts II and III when they come out. It was interesting trying to identify where the filming took place and have a preview of the scenery we would see on the South Island.
Ray had talked to a fellow camper, Guy, from Belgium, who had just completed a four-day tramp around Lake Waikaremoana, one that we had considered. He was hitchhiking his way around NZ, so we offered him a ride to Napier. We all ended up staying at Criterion Backpackers for the Christmas period. Napier, on pretty Hawke Bay, was a great place to spend some time. An earthquake and subsequent fire in 1931 decimated the downtown area, but the locals rebuilt the town within two years, all in the popular Art Deco style. Napier has very wisely retained and restored the Art Deco buildings and the town is a popular tourist destination for people who are interested in architecture. We spent Christmas morning following a self-guided walking tour of the downtown. The colours and decorations on the buildings impressed us. We had visited our daughter Erica when she lived in Chicago and took an architecture tour of the downtown and Oak Park, the one-time home of Frank Lloyd Wright. It made it even more interesting for us to see the influence of the Chicago architects in Napier. Guy had mentioned he was interested in visiting a gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers, not far from Napier. There was a tour to the bird colony the very afternoon we arrived in Napier, so we all signed up. We took along another fellow, Peter, who was staying at Criterion, and drove out to the start of the tour. The gannet colony is at the end of an 8 K beach at the base of sheer cliffs. The route out is only accessible at low tide, so our tour started at 4:30 PM to take advantage of the tides. We weren't the only people on the tour. About 100 people boarded three flat bed wagons, each towed by a tractor, for the trip down the beach. Our personable guides/drivers stopped several times down the beach to tell us more about the topography of the area and about the Australasian gannets. At one spot on the beach the rain had caused large boulders to come tumbling down from the rock face and block the way. Our guides had to stop and break up the boulders with pickaxes and roll them out of the way.
The gannets are large white birds with yellow heads and black-tipped wings that live on the top of cliffs overlooking the sea. After wintering farther north in NZ, the gannets arrive at Cape Kidnappers in late July to build nests and lay eggs that hatch sometime after November. Many of the nests had a parent perched atop a fuzzy chick. The babies stay with their parents for 14 weeks after which they fly to Australia, leaving the parents behind. They stay in Australia 2 - 3 years before returning to NZ. Only 20% of the young gannets survive the trip, not a very high survival rate. At the end of the beach, everybody got off the wagons to walk up a path to the top of the cliffs where the largest colony was. You can smell them before you can see them, especially if you are downwind. We were so interested watching the mannerisms and routines of the birds that the smell soon ceased to be a problem. Whenever one bird returns to its mate sitting on the nest, there is a little 'Honey, I'm home!" routine with inter-twisting of necks and mutual preening. We were sorry to say goodbye to the gannets and walk back to the tractors for the return trip down the beach, but it would soon be dark. (A bonus for travelling in the NZ summer is the long days. It doesn't get dark until close to 9:00 PM)
Boxing Day dawned clear and warm, a perfect day for the beach. Our hosts suggested Ocean Beach, about 30 K south of Napier. We took the side roads through orchards and horse farms. Several bicyclists passed us going in the other direction and I made the mistake of thinking that the route made a nice relatively flat loop for cyclists. We turned the corner and the hills were there. We were soon following the contours of the land, making sharp hairpin turns around deep ravines. A challenging, but quiet route for cyclists.
December 27 found us on the road again, heading for Waikanae on the West Coast north of Wellington. Before we left the area, we had two stops to make. The region of Hawke Bay is one of the prime winemaking areas in NZ, so we had to visit at least one winery to sample the local produce and to buy a few bottles. We chose the Lombardi winery where we bought their specialty, Sauvignon Blanc. The other stop was a drive up to Te Mata Peak, at 399 M, for a dramatic view of the area we were leaving. You can see almost all of Hawke Bay and if the clouds hadn't been gathering in the west, we could have spied Ruapehu in Tongariro Park. On our way up the hill we passed two cyclists coming down. To our surprise, they were just approaching the top parking lot when we were leaving. This must be a training run for hill climbers. Before we left Ottawa, I had been introduced to two women who had both completed an exchange work term in the Library of Parliament in Wellington. My sister Mary introduced me to her friend, Elizabeth Reicker, and I met DianeThomson playing tennis. Diane had given me the email address of Nedra Shand, who had befriended both women when they were in NZ. Nedra had been sending me suggestions of places to visit and had kindly invited us to stay with her and her husband Gordon, and their three Staffordshire terriers, at their home in Waikanae. We were given a warm welcome and enjoyed their hospitality for two nights.
Nedra was looking forward to taking us on some of the many trails in the area. In the morning, Gordon drove us south on the coast past Pukerua Bay and let us off at the beginning of a coastal walk. We had the whole trail to ourselves. At one point we were in danger of being attacked by two gulls. We discovered we were coming to close to a gull chick that had strayed from its nest. We saw several blue herons, but none of the penguins that live in the area. Nedra figured the surf was too high for the penguins to come into shore. Gordon met us at the end of our walk and drove us back up the coast to a picnic spot at a historic Maori battle site. After a pleasant lunch beneath the trees we returned to Waikanae via the Paekakariki Hill road to view the coastline from the top of the cliffs. Once back in Waikanae and fortified with tea, Nedra led us off again to explore a bushwalk in a Reserve just back of their house. The walk reminded us of the Gatineau hills, but a little higher. It was straight up to a ridge top, with a good view as a reward. Like most of NZ, this area has hundreds of paths for hikers to explore. Thank you, Nedra and Gordon, for showing us some of your delightful area. |
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