Day 49: Going Out with a Gorge!

Today was my last day outside of the United States.  Wow.  I cannot believe how fast this summer has gone by, it seems only yesterday that I left.  At any rate, I certainly wasn’t going to sit around all day crying about it, I had to get out and do something!

Greg took a couple of pictures at sunrise.

On the beach there was a bit of a rocky cliff.

The weather was great.

We drove up the road from where we camped last night, finding fuel for our beast.  From there, we wanted to get into a national park to do some hiking, but we weren’t sure how.  I found a road that looked good on the map, and we headed that way.  Unfortunately, we soon reached a sign that said “No access to national park.”  Thus, we continued around the park, looking for a way in.  Along the way we drove through an awesome gorge between two mountains.  As we came out of it, there was a place to park and a few trails.  We decided to stop and have a look around.  We took a short hike along the river, looking up at the massive stone wall and the road we had just driven on.  This road had sheer drop offs on one side, with a six inch curb for protection, and a protruding rock wall on the other.  As we walked through the gorge, we saw several crosses planted at each of the corners.  A ways into the walk, we came to an old train tunnel, which had been converted into a walking trail.  It came out of the other side of the gorge near our car, so we decided to go for it, crossing a bridge over the river where a man was panning for gold.  The entire tunnel was about 1km (1100 yds) long, and had only wimpy little lights sparingly placed on the ceiling.  Walking through was a rather freaky experience.  Most of the way, especially the long sections with no lights, you could see nothing but the pinpoint of light at the end.  Further, the wind and sounds of the tunnel made one lose their sense of depth, making it hard to tell how far from the wall you were.  You could do nothing but continue walking towards the light.  I couldn’t stop thinking about how good of a Halloween attraction it could make.

The river at the gorge.

To the tunnel.

Admiring the gorge.

When we finally made it out of the tunnel, we walked back to the parking lot and continued our journey.  In the next town, we stopped at an information center, where I was able to look at a park map and find the way into the park.  We headed that direction, and after winding our way through the countryside for a while, we finally found the park entrance.

From the parking lot, there were several hikes, but none that started until we were truly into the national park, which meant walking through a bit of farmland first.  Like before, we hopped a couple of fences and walked through muddy fields, following a river.  This part was actually great, as farmland in New Zealand is some of the best scenery in itself.  After thoroughly drenching my shoes in mud, we made it to the park boundary, which just meant moving from farmland to forest.  This section of the hike followed an old railroad line, some of whose ties were still present.  It wasn’t incredibly exciting, but we did see a wild possum of some type.  We eventually reached the gorge we had been walking towards, which was smaller than the one by the road, but it was still a massive wall next to a sizable river.

Hopping the fence again.

Checking out the river.

This gorge also was the connection point with another loop trail which would take us back to the start.  The only problem was that the trail was on the other side of the river.  We walked up and down the bank, but the evidence was conclusive: there would be no crossing on stepping stones.  Off went our shoes and socks, and into the freezing river we stepped.  Walking on the rocks on the riverbed was quite slippery, and I almost fell at one point, catching myself with my hand.  My biggest problem, however, was my jeans, which kept falling down my legs towards the water.  After crossing, I had to give my feet a few moments to dry.

Making my way across the river.

I nearly fell.

Warming back up.

About two hundred feet up the trail, we ran into another problem, we had come to a tributary, and once again the trail was on the other side.  This time the river was narrower and had plenty of rocks, but they were very slippery.  In fact, I could not even make the last few steps without Greg giving me a helping hand for balance.  Once across, the hike immediately went into the hills.  Up and up we went, climbing until we got to the top of the hill, probably level with the top of the gorge cliff across the valley.  At the top were two Kauri trees.  We had seen signs for them, but did not know why they were noteworthy.  As soon as we saw them, it was quite clear.  They easily had twice the diameter as the redwoods we saw yesterday.  I mean, these trees were absolutely massive, far bigger than any I have ever seen.  Unfortunately, few remain due to heavy logging, but we did get to see two.  We continued our hike along the ridge, and then slowly making our way back down the hill, crossing a few small streams along the way.

At the bottom of the hill, we once again made it to the river, which, of course, we had to cross.  I crossed halfway, to a small island, and decided that I needed to do something about my annoying pants.  Furthermore, Greg warned me that the water came up to his knees, and that I needed to be careful.  So, off came the pants, and onto my shoulder they went.  I managed to get across the next section much easier now that I wasn’t continually trying to fix my pants, though the large rocks on the riverbed did pose a bit of a problem.

Time to lose the pants.

Making my way across.

We had made it all the way around the loop, and after a short walk through the farmland, we were back out our vehicle.  The hike was not what we were expecting, but it made for an exciting and memorable last day.  As the sun set, we made our way back to Auckland, so we would be near the airport for my flight tomorrow to Phoenix via LA.  Greg also heads home to Perth, where he will be for three days before leaving again for Singapore, the Seychelle Islands, Singapore again, and Mumbai.

The whole area was great.

Should we drive on this bridge?