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.Barrons Beach, Whananaki
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.Therm-a-rest Surfing!
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
We Found the Hot Pool!
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!
Luxury Bathing
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*!”.