Gold Coast (top of the South Island)

20 March (Friday): Lewis Pass and a cheeky robin
I woke up in Pioneer Park after a night full of bizarre dreams. Throughout the night some animals, somewhere nearby, were making odd sounds I hadn’t heard before. I incorporated the strange sounds into some creepy dreams! Other than that, I slept well in my tent :-) I hung my tent fly up to dry while I completed the same walk I had done the night before – 20 minutes through the bush to an old homestead site. I took pictures of the colorful leaves and then packed up the car and headed out.

There isn’t much to write about the actual drive. I drove along the outskirts of Christchurch and didn’t stop at any cool landforms. I did take one break, somewhere between Hanmer Springs and Lewis pass, where I found a break in the trees to look down this picturesque valley and found a few tasty blackberries.

I continued on to a free DoC (Department of Conservation) campsite at Deer Valley. I found a flat, grassy spot, set up my tent, and had an early dinner. The camp/picnic site was nothing to flash, but it wasn’t bad either. Being right off the highway traffic could be heard coming and going, but traffic was intermittent and generally the sound of the stream and birds were more prevalent. Sand flies were also prevalent, so I cooked my dinner in my long sleeved coat (despite the sun) and ate in my car! It was early, right around 3pm, when I arrived at camp. I was at a bit of a loss on what to do! I decided to head up the road a bit further and check out the walkway nearby.

My map had marked “Cannibal gorge” as a point of interest, and the St. James Walkway looked to pass through the gorge. I parked at the trailhead and was pleased to find a sheltered area with a walkway map and route times! I found that it was 3.5 hours to reach the Cannibal gorge hut, much too far for this evening but I could consider a day hike tomorrow. Before stretching my legs on the beginnings of the trail, I first stopped and had a look at the tarn (mountain lake/pool). It wasn’t a spectacular pool, but this picture is taken looking towards the mountains that would turn into Cannibal gorge. I started down the St. James walkway, but a “nature trail” sign side tracked me. I followed the loop trail through the sub-alpine growth, taking lots of pictures of the plants and landscape (of course). Eventually I found myself back at the carpark and shelter. There was a sign indicating distances to the toilet and water. I was curious if there was a water tap here or if it was a stream, so I headed down that trail. I passed a very, very small stream and kept going. I never encountered a spigot, so I guess the water was from the stream – obviously you would need your own treatment/filtration system to drink it. As I wandered further down the path, a flicker of a bird caught my eye. As I stood still, the bird gradually hopped and glided closer to me – from tree branch, to bush, to trail. Soon, the thing was right in front of my feet! It was grey and robin sized. I decided it must be a NZ robin!!! I was relatively sure I hadn’t seen one before! This little bird was quite brave! I couldn’t figure out if it was used to being fed or what, but it certainly wasn’t worried by me. It hopped around the trail and flew to nearby trees. I got a few pictures and then some video too. Eventually it flew away. I walked a tad further down the trail and spotted a clearing in the trees just off the trail. I decided I would sit in the clearing and see if the bird came back – worth a try! Well, my try paid off! Soon the bird (I assume it was the same one) was perched in a nearby tree, then it was hopping around me, and then it even hopped up on my SHOE!!!! It was a real brief perch on my shoe, so the picture is far from good – but still, it’s proof! The little bird kept hopping around me in circles, sometimes digging in the ground and sometimes darting towards me and away. It took me ages to figure out what it was doing, but after it flew towards my leg and away again several times it clicked – this little bird was feasting on the sand flies that were swarming around me!!!! Ha ha ha, I was its own personal buffet! Funny as! I took another video while I was sitting in the clearing. It’s pretty good – shows the bird hopping around me, eating the sand flies, and even sitting on my shoe a couple of times. It’s much too long a video to try posting here. Eventually, the bird flew off and didn’t return. So, I went and had another walk around the nature trail and then headed back to camp before the sun went down.

The tall mountains and trees in the camp prevented a good view of a sunset, but the clouds above did get a bit of color before bedtime.


21 March (Saturday): Waterfalls and a beach
As I ate breakfast I noticed several robins hanging around. Apparently a lot of these birds are accustomed to humans, as my walking around the car didn’t disturb them in the least. Two of them kept flying under my car and hopping around it. I saw one find a worm in the grass nearby. After I finished setting my tent in the sun where it would dry, I checked around and underneath my car to clear the birds out – I didn’t really want to start my car with them under it!

I returned to the St. James trailhead for a morning walk while my tent dried. I had decided the night before that I definitely had time for the 6-7 hour return to Cannibal gorge, but that, in the end, I wasn’t terribly interested. The bit of the gorge I could see the day before didn’t look to be anything terribly dramatic and I was really kind of antsy to just keep heading north. So, I just had a nice wander down the valley and back. When I arrived at the trail head, the sun was still behind the mountains and a thick, low layer of mist was settled in the valley. The mountains were totally obscured by the mist when I looked out over the tarn again. I tried a couple of times, but I wasn’t able to capture the lite mist rising up from the tarn itself.

I returned to camp an hour or so after departing. After waiting a bit longer for my tent to dry, I headed up the road. I didn’t expect any short walks along the way, so I was surprised to see a DoC sign for a waterfall walk. I couldn’t pass that up! It was a nice bush walk that passed a small stream and falls before ending at a tall, though narrow, waterfall. It was a nice way to continue the day.

I stopped for lunch at Maruia Falls. It wasn’t a terribly tall falls, but it was fairly wide and came off a rock cliff shelf. It was quite popular with both locals and tourists.

I took a small side trip down the Buller river, trying to find a waterfall, but was unable to find any signage for Ariki falls. I passed the longest swing bridge in New Zealand, but couldn’t be bothered to pay for crossing it! So, I turned around and headed on my way towards Golden Bay and Abel Tasman National Park.

I was heading for a town called Murchison. I had noted a couple of walking tracks from my guide book in the area. I was still undecided as to where I was going to camp. When I arrived in town I stopped at the visitor information center and had a chat with the guy there. Neither walk really sounded to terribly impressive and I was feeling a bit lazy. So, I decided to just keep driving. I had asked him about free camping and he had no suggestions, so I was quite annoyed when, a bit later (Gowanbridge maybe?), I drove past an obvious campground on a river. It was marked as a domain, so it was most likely free! However, it was far too early in the day to consider camping and I already had alternatives rolling in my head, so I continued on my way.

I had noted the campground at Kawatiri in my DoC pamphlet, but had early on decided that camping right at the fork of 2 highways would be very noisy and not terribly relaxing. However, I did stop for an afternoon stroll along the old railway line. It was a short walk, and traffic could be heard (if not seen) as the trail paralleled the highway. The main attraction of the walk was an old rail tunnel. I opted for walking around the tunnel first and was a tad surprised at how much elevation I gained in the process, I had to walk down tall wooden steps to reach the tunnel on the other end. I decided I would be acting a total pansy to walk back the way I came, so sucked in my uneasy feelings of walking into the gloomy, damp tunnel and headed through it. It wasn’t anywhere near as long as the tunnel back near Thames (the Karangahake gorge tunnel I walked through with Andy took AGES to complete), but something about being in dark spaces alone really creeps me out! I hate to admit it, but here it is in black and white. I’m going to chalk it up less to fear of the dark and more to fear of enclosed spaces. I mean, New Zealand is still geologically active! What would happen if an earthquake hit when I was in a tunnel or a cave!!!! Ugh, I shudder to think….

Anyway – back to my trip ;-) I continued on my way to Motueka, where I stopped at the information center. I enquired about travel times to and within Abel Tasman National Park. I chatted with the friendly lady about other local attractions I must see and places to stay. When I left I was a little dazed, as I hadn’t actually planned to be in the park for another day or two; yet, I was about to spend the night at one of the great walk campsites! I stocked up on some groceries and then flew down the road. I knew it would take about 2 hours to reach the Totaranui campsite, and once I started up the windy mountain highway I knew why! I felt a little guilty of my haste as I passed a couple scenic overviews, but I wanted to arrive at the campsite before dark – and I would be passing the same way on my way out of the park.

I turned off of the highway at Takaka, drove some beautiful coastal roads through small towns, and then turned off onto a gravel road that wound through the mountains and down to the Golden Bay beach of Totaranui. Totaranui is one of the end campsites on the Abel Tasman Great Walk. My guide book had said that many people start at Marahau (eastern end) and tramp to Totaranui before catching a water taxi back. The guide book mentioned that, due to rough seas, water taxies don’t pick up further west than Totaranui; therefore, the section between Totaranui and Wainui inlet was less crowded with hikers. The guide book also said this section had some the most spectacular scenery on the trail! Since an 80 plus dollar water taxi ride was far out of my budget, I opted for camping 2 nights at Totaranui and just doing a day hike of the coastal track and out to the seal colony and light house of Separation Point.

My first impression upon arrival at the massive Totaranui campsite was complete awe at how golden the beach really was! The sand was actually yellow orange! It was a coarse sand; not rocky, but not fine grain either. I sat in the sand and just, for the first time in days, relaxed. I was in Abel Tasman National Park! I had been dreaming of this since I’d decided to come to NZ! I had arrived late in the evening, so the heavy clouds added to the dimness of the light, but I still had plenty of time to drink in the view. I walked the beach and campground to find the best spot for my tent. I opted for an out of the way location where no other people were. After setting up my tent and having dinner I was quite happy to walk back down to the beach and appreciate the beautiful, though not spectacular, sunset. As I said, there were heavy clouds when I arrived, so when they started to spit rain on the tent I could only hope it would clear up by morning.

22 March (Sunday): Abel Tasman National Park
This morning was beautiful. The rain had cleared in the night and the sun was clearing off some clouds. My tent was in the perfect position to catch the first rays of morning light (and heat). I had packed my day pack the night before with lunch, rain coat, and lots of water, which meant that I was on the trail by 8am!

The night’s rain was still clinging to the foliage, sparkling like diamonds in the morning sun. I headed over the stream and up the bush covered hillside, giving me an excellent view over the tidal wetlands created by the mouth of the stream. I continued through the bush, hiking over and around a few ridges to the next beach and campground. Anapai campground was another golden stretch of sand, with rocky outcrops on either side. Or, at least I thought it was a golden beach. As I walked down to a piece of drift wood, I noticed that someone had been writing in the sand – and their letters (I couldn’t decipher them) were quite black! Underneath the coarse golden sand was fine, black iron sand. This black sand was very noticeable where a stream was washing the gold out to sea. Or possibly, it is actually the stream washing the black onto the beach? Hmmm, the exposed cut through the sand on the stream bank showed a thick layer of gold beneath layers of black and gold sands.



After crossing the Anapai beach, I looked back for a last good look before heading back into the bush. I had noticed the rocks at this end of the beach since I had arrived, but it occurred to me that, from this angle, the tall rock looked a bit like an angular statue. The rock looked like a stone man sitting on the water and looking out to sea…. Does anyone else see it? (Yes, he is wearing a tall headdress – as if he is the chief of these lands)

The trail didn’t immediately head back into the bush as I had expected. It only took me around the rock outcroppings where the tiki sat pondering his sky and ocean. I had another short stretch of golden beach to cross before I started climbing over the ridges again. I had a few brief glimpses of the ocean below before I was again on gold sand. The beaches were well walked, with tracks covering the sands above the tideline. However, some birds were still able to leave their own obvious tracks, and I was able to leave my own in the sands exposed by the receding tide. The large pine trees of this campsite – Mutton Cove (DoC believes the cove got its name from ships resupplying from a local farmer) – were very out of character for a coastline otherwise surrounded by native bush.

I continued over the rock outcrop and across a rocky shore to cross yet another gold sand beach. I was treated to a break in the bush as I climbed over the next ridge on the trail. The vanatage point allowed me an excellent view of the last few beaches I had crossed, as well as the ridges that separated them.

From here, I walked through the bush on what I thought was a loop path! However, it wasn’t until I found myself overlooking the coast on the west side of Separation Point, on a trail that was marked for Whariwharangi Hut, that I realized I had missed the one way side trial to Separation point and was on the northern section of loop (I thought I was on the southern trail, with the Separation point side trip coming later). Oops! Nice that I had a GPS to help! :-) Anyhow, I started down towards the hut and beach, but then realized that I would just have to walk all the way back to the top of the rise I was currently on. That seemed really silly – given that the beach I would be seeing would yet again be covered in gold sand (now – if it was covered in green or red sand…. That would have been worth the effort!). So, I opted for going back the way I had come and saving my energy for the trip back to camp.

The view from Separation point was spectacular – especially before descending to the lighthouse. I had a view all the way across Golden Bay. On the horizon, a line of land gradually melted into the sea, until just a thin line was visible. If you followed this barely visible line, bits of land – almost like rocks or ships – seemed to appear out of nowhere. This bit of land was Farewell Spit, a 25 km bit of land jutting into the ocean and made up mostly of sand. The lighthouse at the end of Separation Point, I must admit, was a bit of a disappointment. No tall, round tower; just a square white structure with a small bit of light at the top. Hardly worth a picture really! The wildlife on the other hand, was quite entertaining. There were shags on all of the rocks surrounding the point and a few seals were basking on the sunny rocks. Ha, I generally missed seeing any of the seals until they either moved or loudly coughed/barked! They blended right in! I chose a spot that would allow me to watch the few seals I spotted while also seeing a group of shags and a bit of Farewell Spit in the distance (it was harder to see the spit from the less elevated point – the bush covered bits that were tall enough to be noticed kept made me wonder if I was just seeing ships).

As I ate lunch, a shag landed quite close in front of me. He preened himself and allowed me to take many, many pictures of him. I’m not sure what kind of shag he is, but since I spotted some very obvious spots on its wings I am probably safe in guessing it’s a spotted shag! Ha – a brief internet search shows the spots on the wings, as well as the crazy curled back hair style I photographed of one bird, confirms a spotted shag! The way the feathers seem to curl up and forward makes me think of men’s pomade hair, in what – the 50s? Elvis maybe?

Hmmm, interesting. This cropped picture of my Elvis bird shows me that it has blue around its beak – under its eyes….. The above link also shows this blue/green coloration. However, the bird that landed close to me and allowed such great pictures doesn’t have this coloration (or cool feather style). I wonder if the bird close to me was a juvenile? Ha ha – I just finished reading the above link; the plumage and coloration are for mating purposes……

Anyhow, it was a good lunch in the sun. The clouds had threatened to rain at the beginning of the day – and had dropped a bit of mist at Mutton Bay – but the sky had cleared up beautifully for this section of my hike. Though I was enjoying the day, I decided I best get heading back down the trail. I took pictures of Farewell Spit, plants, and even a butterfly on my off the point. The Able Tasman water hadn’t been anywhere as turquoise as I had expected, but I think that was because of all the cloud cover. As I was hiking back through the bush, the water below the manuka trees seemed extremely blue.

As I crossed Mutton Bay beach, I saw a couple of shags coming out of the water. As you can see in this picture, the coloration is quite different than the spotted shag I had been having lunch with. Its not obvious in this picture (since I like the wing spread pose better than the closed but visible), but there are no spots on the wings. The color is darker all around and the feet are black – not pale. Hmmm, I can’t really be bothered trying to figure out what species it is right now! Ha ha ha, I’m a bit behind schedule on writing this as it is!

Back on Anapai beach, I spotted a REALLY nice bit of coral washed up. It looks like had grown on a scallop! That seems like a bizarre place for a sedentary structure to grow! So, I got this picture of the coral and the shell top. Hmm, maybe the scallop shell was lodged in some rocks when the coral began growing….. hmm?

Anyhow – that’s pretty much my adventure through Abel Tasman Park. When I had first envisioned my tour through the park, I had thought I’d be hauling a pack or maybe hiring a kayak. However, I am quite pleased with the way things worked out. I got to see some great scenery, encountered cool wildlife, and did a bit of hiking. Ha ha, and to be honest I passed several groups of people on my return to Totaranui. They were all carrying big packs and looked tired. I was really content to not be them! Ha ha, I’m not a big fan of walking through sand; so walking through sand with a pack would pretty much be less fun that it sounds!

23 March (Monday): Snails and a goodbye spit
It sprinkled and rained throughout the night, but by morning the sky was clear and the sun was bright. I enjoyed the sounds of a bell bird and tried to catch a picture while I waited for my tent to dry. I took one last picture of the sandy Totaranui shores and then got a fairly early start out of the park - as I had heaps of places to see but also wanted to reach the Farewell Spit at low tide (which was to be around 2:30pm).

My first stop was Wainui Falls. While waterfalls are quite common here in NZ, I just checked the Golden Bay website (to find the name of this falls!) and found that waterfalls in this lowland area are far less common! Hmm... The waterfall itself wasn’t massively impressive. The information center girl I had talked to back in Motueka had told me to think of her, at this falls, videotaping her friend kayaking over the falls. While it wasn’t a terribly long drop from the top of the falls, I certainly couldn’t see the appeal of kayaking over it!!! Wacko!!! It wasn’t just a straight drop either, the rocks the water was rushing over gradually extended out into the pool below – making it appear to be quite hard on a kayak bottom (or maybe just hard on the bottom inside the kayak? ha ha ha). The short walk to the falls was quite nice, but the best reward on the trail wasn’t reaching the falls. It was noticing a native land snail on the trail on my way to the falls! I knew immediately this was the largest, and fairly rare, carnivorous snail of New Zealand – Powelliphanta. It’s massive size and the purple color of its body told me it was definitely a snail to photograph. My trail guides had said to look for it on the trails in this area, but I’m not sure how one would actually go about finding one – unless you are lucky enough to stumble across it like me. Particularly since the DoC document I found online says they are nocturnal! I was fascinated by this colorful and not to slimy looking creature. DoC says it eats worms, other snails, and slugs. Wikipedia tells me that theses snails are endemic to New Zealand (found nowhere else) and are classified as endangered by DoC. I tried to pay attention on my way back down the trail, but apparently it had either moved on or gotten knocked out of the way by other visitors.

Next up was “The Grove”, a small little conservation area behind large amounts of farmland. The draw of this place is the massive rocks that create a surreal landscape, particularly since many of them are surrounded by the thick roots of the native rata tree. Rata generally germinate and grow in the leaf litter collected in the branches of other trees. As the rata grows it sends roots down to find the ground. Here in “the grove”, the rata have germinated in leaf litter collected on the rocks, so the roots have wound around the rocks in their quest for soil. Some of the rocks in the area are massive – 3 times taller than me and sometimes creating a small walkway of towering rocks on both sides – and some are small enough to sit on, but they are all weather worn into strange shapes and designs. It’s really quite a fun place to wander.

There was a cave in the area I wanted to check out, but, as I did have a tide time deadline, I opted to catch it on the way back from Farewell Spit. Well, actually I didn’t head straight to Farewell Spit. You can visit the sandy spit at any tide, I headed past the spit to the west coast. I drove straight to the Wharariki beach carpark, which was actually Puponga Farm Park – a massive farm land crossed by trails that connects the west coast and Farewell Spit points of attractions. You could spend a full day wandering through paddock land and walking atop coastal bluffs. I, however, was mostly interested in seeing the exposed beach and rock formations of low tide. After walking through a bit of sheep land, I found myself crossing grass covered sand dunes. These dunes appeared to spread for miles! I finally spotted the ocean and beach and headed over the dunes, stopping part way to take off my shoes and socks. The day was beautiful – blue sky, light breeze, warm sun. Apparently it was a rare day where the wind wasn’t coming straight off the sea in strong gusts. I walked down the beach, enjoying the large rock formations – caves, islands, and LOTS of arches. While walking back to the car would have been more interesting if I had followed the beach again, I opted for the farm track. I was able to see the islands over the tops of the bush for part of the track. I also saw ducks and black swans in the dune lake; and lots and lots of sheep (not that they are novel to me anymore!).

On my way back down the gravel road, I picked up a guy that was heading to his car at the Cape Farewell parking lot – where I just happened to be heading. He turned out to be an Australian with an American partner. While he was from the Queensland area, he was quite confident that I wouldn’t have a problem finding a job in Perth. So that was nice to hear! He offered me a cup of tea when I dropped him off at his car, but I declined and headed to the cape. I had a brief chat with his partner on her way down the track – she had taken the more scenic coastal cliff walk back to the car – and then had a look around myself. I’ve no idea how far above the sea I was, but I certainly didn’t want to take a header off the cliffs I was on! The whole coast, up to the point where the sand of the Farewell spit began, was lined with gray cliffs and caves. I had had grand plans of walking to the Pillar Point lighthouse, but then I saw how much downhill and uphill walking it required! I chose to go back to my car and park at the pillar point carpark!

The walk from the Pillar Point carpark still required quite a bit of uphill work in the sun, but took far less time and energy than wandering through hilly paddock land. The rocky landscape the trail took me through was quite nice too. At the top, I had a view out to Farewell Spit as well as out to Wharariki beach. The lighthouse was again not impressive, the same white square structure I had seen on Separation Point.

Since I again wasn’t prepared to walk for hours, I returned to my car and drove to the Farewell Spit. The café/information center was closed, so I parked at the lookout and walked up the hill. I had a good view over the bay side of the spit and back down Golden Bay. The tide was still out, so everything looked like a mudflat, but it was still beautiful. I headed down to the spit and had a wander down the bay side of the spit – pretty much just mud flats with the tide out. The mud was littered with small clam shells and the occasional oyster catcher or white faced heron could be seen foraging; huh, I just found this picture too, a white faced heron with a pied stilt in front of it!

I spent the night in my tent at a holiday park in Port Puponga – right next to the Farewell Spit/Wharariki Beach road division. It was cheap, but nice holiday park. I was able to exchange a few books and get new reading material as well as charging my batteries and doing some laptop work (wow, I can’t even imagine what blog entry I was working on then!). The hosts and guests were lovely people, one guest shared the battered school shark he had caught with me! Apparently he had gone from staying one night to staying a full week here at the holiday park! He had gone surf casting with a local and caught this decent sized shark. He and the local had to look it up online to see what shark it was and if it was edible. I must say, I was slightly tempted to stay another night to try the barbequed version of the shark, but I knew I wouldn’t. The shark itself was really yum, very similar to a lite white fish – mmmmm, halibut!!! The guy (sorry, I don’t know if I ever got his name), was a Canadian with American mother. We had a good discussion about politics and travel.

24 March (Tuesday): Leaving the Farewell behind
I got a fairly early start and headed back to the spit. I wanted to see what it looked like during high tide. The Farewell Spit, according to DoC, is a 25 km nature reserve and internationally-renowned bird sanctuary. Apparently 90 plus species of bird utilize this bit of sand – the longest spit in NZ. Because it is a bird sanctuary, individuals can only walk about 3 km out onto the spit. However, there are tour companies (two I think) that drive you out to the lighthouse and near bird areas. Whereas I had only walked the bay side of the spit the night before, I started on the sea side this morning. To be honest, it wasn’t much more than a very sandy beach! I could see the cliffs that lined the coast to the west, but I couldn’t see much of the spit itself as it curved east. At the entrance to the beach, a sign was posted warning of quicksand near the cliff faces! This ocean side is where all the eroded west coast sand is deposited. Walking on the exposed tidal sand felt a lot like walking on new beach. Instead of having hard packed sand to easily walk through, I felt like I was wading as my feet sunk a half to full inch with every step. This deposited sand is blown east, by the prevailing westerlies, and creates the dunes that form the spit. While the sun and constant trudging though the sand wore on me a bit, I did enjoy the group of oyster catchers that were collected on section of the beach. I took quite a few photos of them and their tracks. I was quite pleased when I finally saw the track that connected me back to the bay side of the spit. Here, the mudflats were covered with sea water and the water was thickly occupied by black swans! Lots and lots of swans, stilts, and seagulls; even what may have been a couple of terns! When I returned to my car, I drove back to the lookout for pictures of the high tide view. I think the water forming a definite outline of the spit helps show the curve of the land – even if the land itself is so low that it blends into the ocean!

Having seen the spit at both high and low tide, I decided to head back towards Golden Bay and my eventual ferry trip home. However, I had a few sights left to see…..

My first stop was Te Waikoropupu Springs, generally referred to as Pupu springs for convenience! The DoC website says that Pupu springs is the largest freshwater springs in NZ and the largest coldwater springs in the southern hemisphere…..hmmm, I wonder where the largest hot water springs are? The springs are renowned for their clarity too; the spring bed is easily viewed and apparently some areas allow you to see the grains of sand being tossed up by the spring water. It was a lovely bush walk with excellent views of the spring. The sandy spring floor created a beautiful turquoise blue, while the flora in the water provided a contrasting red, brown, or green. The water didn’t bubble at the spring, but ripples in the water let you know where the spring was. At a viewing platform, an interesting underwater viewing area was set up. A plexiglass window gave a view through the crystal clear water. This view window was then reflected, by mirror, upwards to another mirror above the viewer’s head. By looking up into this mirror you were able to see under the water. It was interesting. The trail wound away from Pupu springs and down Fish Creek and it’s springs. One area had a boardwalk over the creek itself, putting you in the heart of the springs area, surrounded by trees and water.

After the springs, I hit the cave I had skipped the day before – Rawhiti Cave. I had read that this was an exceptional example of flora influencing the formation of stalactites and stalagmites; that is, the rock actually curved out of the cave and towards the light! It was a shortish walk up a steep mountain (I ran into a girl that had left her friend to head back to the car, the friend said the girl had only been 10 minutes away!!). The effort up the track was well worth the experience though! I’m not sure what the cave dimensions are, but it is massive! The entrance itself is very large and open to the sun. I didn’t go down to the very bottom of the cave so I’m not sure how far back it goes, but apparently not very far. The reason I didn’t go too far down is because the trail is not well marked. I wasn’t worried about slipping, but I didn’t want to break any of the stalagmites with some ignorant step! The pictures from the cave entrance are really washed out because of the sun, but the ones from down in the cave are fairly good. There was mist coming off the rock formations just getting sun and the rocks inside the cave had a purple tinge to them.