During our Lost World tour i spoke to our guide about some other things in the area i had heard about. I had wanted to visit a small coastal town nearby but the road was closed, so he told me about a nice black sand beach down another nearby road. It was our last free afternoon in New Zealand, and although the Lost World had been a good workout we were motivated to do as much as possible.
This was a very cool waterfall, one of the best i've seen anywhere. You could go swimming if you wanted, but it created a large amount of cold misty wind.
A short distance from the Waitomo Caves area are numerous points of interest. There are several great forest hikes, and i wish i could have done one of them but our time was running out. We did stop at a place called Marokopa Falls. A five minute walk through the forest opens up to a fantastic view of an impressive wide cascading falls. It reminded me of Rescuers Down Under. We wanted to go swimming, but getting down proved the area to be more rugged than it looked from above. The official trail ended at the overlook so we had to carefully make our way down a steep, muddy, eternally wet path to the water. At the bottom the rocks were less inviting than i'd expected and the pools a bit less calm than i'd prefer. And i was no longer hot, so swimming was less important.
Nobody around to the south or the north.
We left the pools and went to nearby Mangapohue Natural Bridge. The trail to the bridge was short and completely level, with a suspension bridge and an elevated pathway. It too, turned out to be really cool. The funny thing about it was that this bridge was in the middle of a small hill that could easily be walked around. The tiny little stream just chose to cut straight through it. There were two weird men there who got into a debate with me about whether or not that waterfall up the road was worth seeing. They hadn't seen it but claimed to have seen many waterfalls, and were extremely suspicious about my own claims that i'd seen a lot of waterfalls too, and that the one down the road was worth seeing. They almost seemed angry about it, which was just crazy. I think they were just tired.
The double bridge from below next to a viewing platform, with Maree in the upper window.
Switching positions, Maree is down on the lower platform and i'm standing on top of the lower bridge.
A grove of fern trees.
We decided to check out the beach. It took much longer than i'd guessed from looking at the map. Even though no one was on it, it took us forever because the road was extremely twisty. Eventually it opened up into farmland and deforested hillsides populated with cows and interesting limestone pillars. The road ended in a tiny community with no services right on the beach. As we got out of the car a little Jack Russel Terrier jumped out of his yard over a white picket fence and began to run next to us. He was super friendly, and i started to wonder if he jumps out of his yard and gives himself walks with whoever comes by walking along the shore.
The beach was very relaxing and entirely vacant except for a local who seemed to be meditating on a big rock. The waves were large and violent. We walked way down it until our little companion gave pause and started looking back at home. I got the sense we were taking him past his routine boundaries. He came along the whole time. He was an exceptional patrol dog, and took endless delight in not allowing seagulls to land anywhere.
Nobody around to the south or the north.
The tide began to come in, and local on the rock headed home. Just as we got back to the car and an old lady was furiously yelling her dogs name out her front door. I can't remember what is was anymore, but the doggie got that i'm in trouble look on his face, and jumping over the fence he went back inside to get scolded. I still had the feeling he did that all the time. The old lady was certainly unable to give him enough exercise.
I had a great time in New Zealand, and with some superficial modifications to my lifestyle, i think i could be happy living there. It's a great vacation destination, and not as expensive as i had imagined. Things have already changed drastically since then (way back in February), but at the time the most expensive element of the whole trip was the plane ticket. The rental car was reasonable, the hotels, which almost always had a kitchen (and included milk!?) came out on average to around $85 U.S.. Food was cheaper than it seemed at the time, once i got my credit card statements. Tours were not cheap but in most cases they were well done with exceptionally friendly (and likable) guides. If i personally were to go again i'd like to spend a week doing a multi-day cross country "Track" in Fjordlands and spend time visiting some of the nice northern beaches and forests. We came away having done almost everything we had planned on, but now that we've been there we know of many more things to be done.
Good memories.
