The Road to Marakopa

So this morning I went for a walk up to the falls at the Mangaokewa Reserve, a lovely little 20 min walk through some lovely bush to a small but rather pretty waterfall.

		Walk to Falls VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

From there headed off to Te Kuiti for a fuel stop as it was going t be quite a trip before the next fuel. The plan is to head through Waitomo to see various sights on the way through to Marakopa and then on to Waikawau.

So heading off from Te Kuiti, the weather was a bit fine, a bit rainy but nothing too bad. So first stop was the Free Parking spot of Waitomo Lookout. It was a tiny rest stop right besde the main road (Te Anga Road). The weather was not that good and the view was not there, but in fine weather, I believe that you can see across to Mt Ruapehu and the view is quite spectacular. So moving on form there to the…..

 

It was a lovely little 5 min walk on a well graded path and into the most amazing area.

		Walk to Natural Bridge VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It is the remnants of a cave system that had collapsed leaving the arch which is enormous.

		MangapohueNatural Bridge VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

From there the track loops out into some lovely pasture with some wonderful limestone rock formations. You can see the oyster shells still shiny and embedded into the rock.

		Limestone formations VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

From there it was off down the road to the Piripiri Caves. Only 10 mins down the road.

A nice 10 mins walk into the cave but something like 120 stairs up and down to get there!

But well worth the effort.

		Piripiri Caves VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The weird sparkles in the pictures are droplets of water falling from the roof of the caves. It was a lovely area with obviously more of a system than we were allowed into.

 

The pics above are the entrance from inside.

From there a short drive to the Marakopa Falls, again a 6 min walk to one of New Zealand’s nicest falls.

		Marakopa Falls VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It certainly was a lovely waterfall and again well worth the 6 min walk to get there.

From there a bit of a drive through to Marakopa itself on the coast. A lovely little town. A quick stop to look and then on towards Waikawau. The wind at this point was starting to pick up.

As we climbed out of Marakopa the view was spectacular so I stopped and took some pictures.

Quite wonderful!

So a bit of a wander along some gravel road to Waikawau where the wind was blowing a gale.

At the end of the road….

 

is a lovely tunnel to the beach…..

		Waikawau VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The wind was horrendous, rocking the Fredrock Cafe around quite a bit, but it finally settled around 6:30pm and a lovely quiet night was had.

It is a lovely spot and the cliffs are huge and it is pretty apparent why the tunnel was dug to get to the beach. Though it seems that there is no beach at high tide.

		Waikawau Beach VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It is a lovely area with a bit of a tidal lagoon where the river comes down to the sea.

I watched a bird fishing this morning….

		Bird fishing VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

So a much nicer day today and heading off towards Mt Damper Falls to have a look.

Safe travels.

Mangaokewa

So now back on the road again after a short hiatus in Auckland and a couple of days in Walton.

I am on the way to Taranaki. So leaving Walton this morning, I stopped off at Leamington (Cambridge) and with Brenda and Roger, headed off on our bikes towards Karapiro. A nice little warm up ride of 8km return.

		Ride to Karapiro VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It was a lovely ride along a cool concrete pathway that was laid by a machine at a rate of 800m in 4 hours.

When we got to Karapiro, the view was lovely as it was a perfect day and its a rather interesting spot with all the lovely buildings for the rowing etc.

		Karapiro VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

		Views on way back…. VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

So from there I headed west towards Kihikihi here lunch was had beside the lovely church there and from there I moved across to Te Kuiti and the Mangaokewa Reserve about 3km south of Te Kuiti (the shearing capital of NZ).

It is a lovely spot tucked in from the road with a railway viaduct over the entrance and then at the road end a lovely spot with campsites and two lovely streams.

		Mangaokewa Reserve VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

		Mangaokewa Rail Viaduct VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It will be interesting to hear a train going over the viaduct tonight…..

Tomorrow off towards Marakopa.

Catch up time again.

Well haven't done much over the past couple of weeks but the ear specialist visit was sucessfull. He put a telescope in my ear and I was able to see the inner of my ear. Quite spectacular and a nice pink colour. He was very happy with it. He did say he needs to go back in to check if there is any regrowth but he will do it through a tiny hole in my ear drum rather that full surgery. He wants to get it done before the end of November which is great.

So I've wandered back to Walton for a couple of days to get my COF done on the bus and grease it and get organised for a trip around Taranaki through to Palmerston North to deliver the workshop that was to have been delivered in Kaitaia.   Then who knows.......

Loving the weather, crisp and cool and there was a dusting of snow on the Kaimai Range this morning. 

So restocking on sweet chilli sauce, lemon cordial, and other bits and bobs.....then off again.

Safe travels everyone.

Safe and sound....

Well the past 48 hours were quite interesting!
I left Napier Airport on Tuesday heading for Kaitaia via Auckland.
There was a question over getting through to Kaitaia as the weather was pretty nasty. But leaving Napier where the weather was nice, I didn't realise just how ugly it was.
So flight was cancelled and I got on a flight to Whangarei and had organised with the person who had organised the workshop I was delivering that we would drive up together from Whangarei.
Well flying into Whangarei was a pretty white knuckle time, with the last 10 mins being pretty wobbly and hairy!  but safely on the ground and he plane kept rocking after we stopped, that's how bad the wind was.
So Tracey and I got into the car and headed north, only getting as far as Kawakawa when we decided we were being stupid. Got a coffee and turned around and headed back to Whangarei.
So stayed the night with my lovely sister and she took me back out to the airport to catch flight back to Auckland, but that flight was cancelled due to high winds and then she offered to drive me to Auckland,
I offered the back seats to another two heading to Auckland and so the 4 of us headed off. Had a bit of a detour around from Kaiwaka through Mangawhai and back out to SH1.
So got there in time for everyone to catch their planes....
Huge thanks to Lorna for that!
So arrived back in Napier then decided to start heading back to Auckland and got as far as Tarawera Cafe for the night. Nice park over property and apart for a bit of traffic noise very nice. Then headed over to Taupo this morning and arrived at the NZMCA property at Taupo Airport for the night.

Then off to Auckland for the medical check up on Monday.

Hastings and more….

Well it is really interesting hitting towns and meeting friends and family, nights get later and blogging goes out the window.

Anyway yesterday I did a great bike ride. Starting in Hastings, heading out to Havelock North, out to the coast via the Tuki Tuki River, along the coast to Clive and then back to Hastings. Over 35km and again a horrible slog back into a head wind!

Still a great ride.

After a quick shower I headed out to meet up with the Romany Ramblers, Jenny and Robin. They were staying at a park over property just out of Hastings, I decided that I would stay the night to give us a great chance to catch up and we had a lovely catch up and was great to see their new caravan. It still has the lovely new caravan smell… and lovely blue led lighting! They seem to be enjoying their new van but have a couple of minor niggles with it, which is so disappointing!

I have stolen the pic off their blog!  hehehehe

Saturday was a lovely day in the bay and I headed out towards Clifton to have a look and stayed at the Te Awanga reserve. Lovely quiet spot.

		Clifton Beach VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Before that I have spent time at the Evers Swindell Reserve in Clive, having a bit of a kayak, bike ride and walking. Its a lovely spot beside the Clive River.

		Clive VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

So I’m now heading into a very full and busy week. Will post again as I can.

Safe travels and keep safe everyone.