(Written on December 26th from notes taken previously)
Got up and ate breakfast and then ran into a bit of difficulty finding a bathroom. Most freedom camping places have bathrooms available on site, but I didn’t see any this time, so I looked on the map and found a public restroom not too far away and drove to it.
I ended up having to park in a private business’ parking lot because all the street parking next to the bathroom was taken.
Spent some time doing flight research, As I’m going to have to leave New Zealand before January 27th, so I don’t break my visa rules.
My biggest question is whether or not the Cook Islands counts as leaving New Zealand. They use New Zealand money. They have a military treaty with New Zealand, saying that New Zealand will defend them, and they have New Zealand to citizenship. But technically they are another country?
That’s the big question. The last thing I need is to find out after the fact that it doesn’t count as leaving the country for my visa requirements, and then I get turned away at customs and not allowed back into New Zealand. 😅
Anyway, from there, I headed over to the Waitawheta Waterfalls, a beautiful area in the Karangahake region. It was an easy hike from the campground that included crossing the river a couple times and then going through probably a 100+ meter tunnel excavated through the hillside next to the river.
Coming out on the other side of the tunnel, you see a very large and very deep pool of water below the falls. It’s probably a good maybe 50+ meters across? I don’t know. Could be more. Could be less. I don’t know.
On the far side of the pool from the path, the edge of the pool is surrounded by little mini cliffs, ranging from maybe three or four meters to as high as six or eight maybe?
Having done a fair amount of cliff jumping, the little ones aren’t quite worth it for me. 🙃 6 or 7 m is probably my minimum to really enjoy it. 😅
I think that’s probably also about the max my back can handle these days, though I might give it a go again at Hokitika Gorge again in the South Island (about 13 meters). Just because that was… epic. 🙃
We’ll see how the back feels and what seems smart when I get to that point.
Anyway, shortly after you exit the main tunnel and look at that view on your left, you can choose to continue following the main path for who knows how far, or you can Walk just a little bit further and then take a left toward the pool where you’ll run into a very large log, maybe two to two and a half feet in diameter and maybe 40 ft long? That was deposited on the high ground rocks around the pool after the last flood, or you can take an immediate left and follow an unofficial little path between the pool and the cliff side on your left.
That little walk-ins in another tunnel, smaller than the original, that goes back up river from the pool to above the falls. It’s a much shorter tunnel, as well as being smaller.
Of course, me being me, I headed over to that little tunnel to see where it went, and then I walked up the tunnel through the stream that was running down it to the end where another large log had been wedged at the very beginning of the tunnel from the upstream side, and over time had turned itself into a damn. So the water below the dam was maybe ankle deep, if that, and the water above the dam was probably waste deep.
I poked around just a little bit above the falls, but the falls are tall enough and rocky enough and the current swift enough that I didn’t try to do anything more than just look around.
Took a handful of pictures above and below the falls, and then an older gentleman named Cedric came by, and we chatted for probably 30 plus minutes.
Really nice guy. He had recently purchased the adjacent property to that waterfalls area, so his property line, something like 240 acres, goes all the way to the woods that then go down to the pool and waterfalls area below.
I’m jealous. 🙃
It’s an absolutely gorgeous area.
Before we started talking, I had noticed that he had walked up to the huge log that was there and was kind of trying to shake it or move it, which I found out was because he was gauging whether or not he felt it would be safe for future swimmers. During the height of summer, he said there can be up to 100 people down there enjoying the water and jumping off the cliffs and what not, and lots of them sat on a previous log that was washed away, and now there was this new one, he was concerned that maybe if a bunch of people sat on it, it might destabilize and roll over causing serious harm because of its massive size.
I think he was the one who told me about the higher up cliff jumping spot just around the bend from the smaller tunnel?
After he left, a group of a few guys arrived, did some swimming and some cliff jumping from the shorter cliffs–early 20-somethings, I’d guess.
They also mentioned the higher-up jumping spot, so I went and checked it out.
To get to it, you had to swim around a half-circle shaped portion of the little mini cliff on that side of the river next to the smaller tunnel, so I jumped in and swam around, found the climb-up spot, complete with rope, and climbed up.
I’ve probably mentioned this before, but one of the rules of climbing is to avoid trusting any rope that was installed by someone other than yourself.
Granted, I’ve never had any issues with a rope that someone out secured in place, but still, it’s a sound rule, so as much as possible, I have waited using the rope to climb up the little mini cliff.
Is there a word for different elevations of cliff? 🤔
It seems weird to use the same word for something that’s like 10 to 30 ft tall as you would for something that’s 100 or 500 ft tall. 🙃
It wasn’t a hard climb, and it wasn’t very tall, maybe 15 feet of rock and then maybe 5-10 of scramble after that?
And the water was deep below, so if you were to fall while climbing, I think there was really only one spot that would have potentially caused injury
After the 20 something’s left, a group of I think four teenagers showed up and started jumping off the same place that the other guys were jumping off. I think I did a couple more jumps from the taller spot on the other side of the big pool and then I swam across to their side but instead of joining them started exploring upriver to see if there were potentially even better places to jump from.
The water was super clear, and the rock formations along the rivers edge above the waterfalls were rugged and beautiful.
The way the sun was glaring, despite the water being clear, sometimes it was really hard to see the bottom. I did find one spot that was probably 20 to 25 feet above the water that I was able to jump into when the light shifted so that I could see the bottom and what I was jumping into.
There was another spot that looked like it could be really good that was a little awkward to climb up to on the other side, but I made the climb, and got to the top only to find that the reflections off the water were so bright but I couldn’t see the bottom at all. I think it was probably really deep there, but I couldn’t see anything, and didn’t want to risk getting injured just so I could jump from a cool rock, so I climbed down the awkward climb, great police safely, and swam back across the river and then made my way back down all the rock formations to the huge pool below the falls.
Fun little swimming hole and cliff-jumping spot. 😊
Gorgeous area.
And I don’t think I really noticed any sand flies at all? Of course, this time around I travel with long pants and long sleeves just about everywhere I go. It’s massively cut down on the number of bites I’ve gotten. I think I’ve only really gotten bites that one time at Waipu caves that first time when I was going barefoot.
I mean, I’ve probably gotten a bite here and there that I don’t remember, but it’s been pretty awesome going with long sleeves and long pants. Sure, I stick out like a sore thumb because most everyone else is in summer attire, but whatever.
I also have come to learn that if I do get Sam’s flight, yes, there is an intense itch within seconds of getting bitten, but if I just grit and barrett without scratching it, by the next day or so, the itch is pretty much gone. 🥳
At least that’s the case with the species of sandfly so far. Who knows what my reactions might be to different species of sandflies. I think I have different reactions to different species of mosquitoes. Often times the bites will only itch for an hour or two or three, and then it’s like I never got bent, and then other times, I end up with these large red spots that turn purple and can be pretty bad.
🤷
Did a little journal catch up work and then walked back to the van.
Put deodorant on I think for the first time since coming to New Zealand? 🙃
Grateful that despite the fact that I’ve got the super duper sweaty gene, at least it’s not a smelly sweaty gene. 😅
Every great ones in a while, I’ll have an armpit that stinks for some reason, but I still don’t know what causes it. If it’s just something that I ate or stress or some combination those things. 🤷
Oh, and super pungent deodorant. Holy freaking crap. 😶
I guess it’s actually antiperspirant. I don’t like antiperspirants because of the chemicals in them and just the entire idea of blocking your body’s ability to sweat.
From there I headed over to Owharoa Falls. The road to it was supposedly closed, but they were letting people through. The waterfall itself was also closed because there was construction right in front of the car park, so I ended up driving down to the main road, parking along the side of it and then walking up.
That, apparently, wasn’t allowed, but the construction worker manning the traffic went ahead and let me through anyway. 🙃
So I walked down to the waterfall, snap some pictures, took the scenery in for a little bit, and then walked back to the van.
I was in need of groceries, so though I wasn’t near my preferred store, Pak ‘N Save, I went shopping anyway, stopping off at the local New World grocery store.
Prices can be comparable if you have the New World membership card and catch items better discounted for members only. Otherwise, things are often more expensive at that store.
Bought a whole bunch of stuff without the card, but when I went to check out, the cash register person asked another shopper if they’d be willing to use their card for me, so I was able to get the discount anyway. 🙏
Headed over to Waihi Beach for the night, happy to find an open parking spot. 🙏
Hung out for a bit, and then saw a guy playing the guitar on a bench overlooking the water and went over to say hello.
We chatted for a bit. He was in the area from Raglan to do some surfing but had relatively recently had open-heart surgery and wasn’t technically supposed to be surfing yet. 😅
His name was Doug, and small world, he actually knew Darcie, the Australian surfer girl I met a few days ago. 🙃
I’m glad I met him because as we concluded our conversation, he was telling me that he thought that this particular area where like 15 or 20 different bands were parked was only open for three, and that anyone else was risking getting fined.
Sure enough, back at the entrance to the parking lot, in the shrubbery such that I didn’t even notice it, was assigned saying that Freedom camping was only allowed in three of the stalls in the whole parking lot, and the fine for infractions was $800.
😶
Needless to say, I fired my little van up and got my butt out of there. 🙃
Doug made some suggestions about places I could go just down the road come as I headed down the road. The first two spots I tried were also overcrowded, but fortunately come all the way down just about at the very end a super duper skinny Peninsula South of Waihi Beach, I found a place with an open spot and crashed for the night after doing a little more journal catch-up work.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 