The weather forecast for today was a bit mixed with sunshine and showers predicted. As it was we had plenty of sunshine and only one downpour after we had finished and having a pizza for lunch – glad to be under shelter then! Today was a changeover in our accommodation so after checking out of our apartment at Seabeds Motel in the morning we drove up to KeriKeri, about half an hour away for a ‘short walk’ to the Te Wairere waterfall.
KeriKeri was one of the earliest areas (1819) in New Zealand to be settled by Europeans, initially by missionary’s. They were allowed to utilize 13,000 acres of land to farm by the local Maori leaders who saw the Europeans as an important source of finished goods, materials, (like iron & cloth), weapons and technical knowledge. A couple of the oldest buildings in NZ are located at the Mission Station here – the Stone Store (a very fine building), and Kemp House!
We started our hike near the Stone Store and headed down a beautiful restored strip of woodland to the Wairere Waterfall. Local schoolchildren have planted numerous saplings and tried to remove invasive alien weeds to facilitate the regeneration of this area. It was charming as we walked along a small stream which surprisingly as we moved upstream turned into a much bigger river with some lovely cascades and a beautiful waterfall. Seemed to be topsy turvey as I don’t know where all the other water went? I decided to do a yoga pose on a log and nearly fell off into the muddy water below. Glad I kept my footing
A bit later on we came to a lovely set of small cascades and pools where we decided to munch on our peanut butter sarnie whilst we bathed our feet in the river. It was nice and warm and we could easily have had a swim here in the pool. However we wanted to get to the waterfall and were a bit concerned about the forecasted thunderstorms. The moment was lost which was a shame.
The walk was a bit longer than we expected so we had not taken lunch. Leftovers were being saved for a picnic dinner at our new accommodation. Instead we decided to stop off at the Plough and Feather for a pizza at the river estuary where we had parked. Glad we did as shortly after arriving the heavens opened and the wind got up. The pizza was nicely cooked but a bit disappointing as it was covered in chilli flakes which overwhelmed my tastebuds! After the first slice we picked out the offending flakes!
Great way of spending a transfer day
Our new apartment in Haruru is fantastic. Its set on a ridge with views over to the wooded hills opposite and a slither of river running below us through the mangroves. We have a deck round the house with a Christmas Tree starting to bloom which the Tui birds love to feed on. Very relaxing and a great place for our last week in NZ. See below for a video of our walk and the map of our trail.
