If you look really close up you can see a surfer fella tucked in there in the waves. Couldn’t get too close without getting the boots wet on this shallow slopping beach. But Nilesh we thought of you when we saw these three chaps. There were some sweet waves, and no other humans for miles and miles in either direction. You’d have had tears in your eyes ;)
When we arrived here, we both got the urge to go no further today ;) Great to have a wash after the hot & sweaty day, although we found out the morning after there’s loads bigger and better pools for swimming in down stream.
Cookie fancied a quick dip in the water before we headed out to refuel at the dairy. It was a bit nippy with some big waves but it’s pretty lush eh! Imagine a dip in there! Hope there’s a lot more swimming to come when it warms up :)
I can’t believe that this is the first ‘proper’ swim we’ve had in the sea so far? Beautiful spot for it, with the Poor Knights Islands in the background.
We’ve past so many awesome beaches over the weeks but often we’re pushing to get to the next camp or wild spot to set up the tent before dark, so we’ve not been having as much fun in the sea as we should! So today as soon as we arrived in Hahei we pegged it down to the sand :) I’ve been eyeing up the Lilo-ness of our bed mats for some time and after a bit of bobbing about it quickly escalated into a game of International Kings of Surfing! Wahoo! ;) Cookie nailed some big waves first so I had a lot to beat. But with a lucky set of awesome waves I think I covered the most distance. I think points go to Cookie for style, and to me for volume ( of screams )… Roll on the next competition!
Woo hoo! This was brilliant fun, worked much better than I imagined :) I’ve often wondered while fording some of the rivers over here, whether our Therm-a-rest Neoair mattresses would take the weight of our rucksacks and be usable as a makeshift raft? Would mean we could swim across while holding on to the Therm-a-Pack raft, even if it was too deep to ford like the Okura River.
Well them Neoair’s support the weight of me in the water, so I think the answer would definitely be yes! Probably need a bit of structural support by lashing the poles on too, but I think we’re on to a winner, bring on the next big river crossing :D
After our day’s paddling, we were officially welcomed onto the sacred Maori Marae area. A ceremony which involved songs, and speeches, from both the welcomers and the visitors. And a careful barefoot procession in. Beautiful to hear the voice of our lady DOC warden beaming out across the river to the rock wall opposite. Amazing acoustics. When the next batch of paddlers pulled in we got to sit on the benches of the welcoming tribe and greet all the new comers with the touching of four heads and noses. The sharing of breath, and the sharing of dreams. We didn’t take any photos of the Marae and the beautiful totem pole as it seemed the respectful thing to do.
Then Cookie, Josh, Mitchell, Sarah, Sophia and i pegged it down for a dip in the Whanganui. It’s was a sizzling evening! And more entertainment in the form of a rock skimming competition :)
Yep a good deal of nose touching today, I had no idea it was a traditional Maori custom, thought it was just the Eskimos that did the nose kissing. Good job I’ve got a huge hooter, saved the hordes of canoeists behind us the unpleasantness of my sweaty brow ;) I was seriously questioning wether I liked this tradition when all the men came through first, one at a time for an intimate nose nuzzle.. But then we got a line of 20 odd ladies next, I finally started warming to it!
A quick ‘freshen up’ in the river afterwards, left us marginally cleaner than before..
We made it!! Sad it’s all over. It’s been a great ride along the river. Loads of laughs, and interesting people to chat to. Buy now it’s time for, a swim!
We left our rucksacks with my Mum & Dad while on the river, so they had to drive up from Wanganui to return them today. We should of just packed them up and started walking.. But since they were heading back our way (Wanganui) we couldn’t resist the offer of a lift to get a slap up dinner and motel this evening. Felt a bit bad about the decision on route, even though it was all road walking we were missing, it was a nice quiet country road that looked quite pleasant to walk along..
From Havelock tarmac turned to gravel, to steep tree rooted path. Two hikers approached us. Micheal + Elna, two Te Araoa section hikers doing just the south island. We swapped tips and tales, and wishes of good luck, and on we went following the Pelorus river higher and higher brought the windy valley.
Beautiful emerald pools lined the river, hard to resist in the sizzling heat of the ozone-free scorching sun. We stopped and played in the river at a perfect picnic spot. Splashing in the ice cold water, and mucking about with the camera. Lunch: Brown bread, avocado, tomato, and S&V crisp butty, ( with a sprinkling of sandflies ). Unbelievably good. This is luxury trail food.
Finally packing up we realised the time. “Ah short day then ;)
We held out for a late lunch to reach Emerald Pools, well you’ve got to with a name like that eh? As it turned out, it was not much different than the other pools downstream but did have a fire pit and picnic bench. It’s icy green depths did not disappoint though.
After larking about in the water for too long we realised our plan of getting to Middy Hut today wasn’t going to happen.. So we set or sights on Captains Creek hut for the evening instead.
Mmmm Laziness. Feeling ‘lazy as’, so we decided to camp here at West Sabine instead of belting up to Blue Lake. We probably faffed around taking ages over recording pics and footage of Mt Travers ( and who wouldn’t! ) and then me wincing about my knees all the way down the woods for 1000 metres ;) So when we spotted a sweet babbling stream, and a flat shady camp spot, we thought it too good to pass up! The idea of cracking out the rum and lime powder cocktails in the warm sun seemed like a much more cunning plan than another 4 hours trek in the bush ;)
An early finish to the day usually means a rare opportunity to rinse some socks and get clean. Nicky’s not a dirty person, but she doesn’t like getting washed in these freezing cold mountain streams. I can’t say that I do either really, but I do quite like the challenge of inching my body into the frigid waters and seeing how long I can take it! This stream was colder than most, I couldn’t handle it for long this time..
Woop Woop! And well worth the roaming around it was. I’ve never been in a proper wild hot pool til now, and it’s so exciting to pretend like you’ve ‘discovered’ this little secret place.
So,
Where’s this Hot Pool?
From the Windy Point/Lewis Pass end of the Harpers Pass section, you head out of Hurunui hut for an hour til you see the McKenzie Stream signpost, continue on towards No.3 Hut. After 10 mins or so you see the first waterfall across the path (down in a gully). 20 mins or so later you’re looking for the second ‘waterfall’. The path should literally walk over the stream part way up this open rocky area where the water tumbles down a cliff to the river bed below. We’d cut down off the path around 20 mins after the first waterfall to walk along the valley bottom and look upward for the steep rock cascade. It was much more obvious to see from that vantage point. A wide area of dark faceted stone, sprinkled with green slime :) Nice! Cutting back up the far side of it we found a path leading to the top of the cascade where a small pool filled the width of the rocky area. Tadaaa! Get your pants off, it’s The Hot Pool!
This was very nice indeed. Slime aside, to be outside with the chill of a cool wind, cloud wafting by and the threat of drizzle, being dipped into warm steamy water seemed like the ultimate luxury, if a little bizarre! Stripping off to get in a the bath in the outdoors definitely feels weird! When a formation of huge geese cruised by just in front of us, a-honk-honking, we just looked at each other and thought “This is *Sweet*!”.
I was pleased and disappointed with the hot pools at the same time. On one hand it was the perfect temperature, exactly the sort of temperature you’d run a bath. On the other hand it was a shame the bottom of the pools were full of sediment that muddied the pool if you disturbed it. Plus them bloody sandflies! All over you like a rash as soon you get out the water..