Blighmy, what a spectacular day this was, without doubt the best scenery we’ve seen! We doing it in the normal direction (less climbing that way) from the Mangatepopo roadend to Ketetahi roadend.
More smelly water. Looks pretty cool though surrounded by rocky desert. This place would be an ideal spot to disguise a stray fart… That’s all I’m saying.Christmas Day - Taranaki Falls
No prawns on the barbie for us this Christmas. It’s not even sunny this morning! A very chilly start to our walk today but we did get to have a gander at this lovely waterfall.
We’re booked into a Chateau over Christmas near here! Well almost the Chateau, actually one of the cheaper chalets round the back, but we’re still aloud to use the facilities in the big old grand 1920’s building. Other the restaurant that is.. only Nicky and my mother have the right clothes to pass their strict dinning dress code. Dads shirt sleeves weren’t long enough, my dress shirt was altogether missing and no one had shoes..Waterfalls Galore
There’s some dramatic scenery along the Whanganui River. The river has carved out deep deep cliff like channels that feel like something out of Jason and the Argonauts, or Lord of the Rings. Some of the waterfalls over time carve giant tunnels/channels off to the sides. Amazing to look at. Especially after all this rain!
Yeah most of the side streams enter the Whanganui via beautiful little waterfalls such as this. Evidence I suppose that the river can get A LOT higher than this when it’s REALLY flooding. Quite a few look like they would make great water slides, Josh was going to stop us at one that’s good for sliding, but that stream was still flooding way too much to make it doable.Slime & Steam
There was a bit of slime. But mostly decorative more than anything. Some person with foresight had brought up a sieve and a bucket for scooping out any floaters which might decide to invade your personal sploshing area. And even a length of plastic tube had been fashioned to allow you to direct the desired amount of warm vs red hot water around yourself. But NOT, as I’d first thought for washing your hair. Not unless you fancy a dose of fatal amoebic meningitis. ( Apparently, said the mud covered sign by the edge - Hoping that was mud. Either that or some ‘amoebic residue’ left by a previous bather in dirty protest. )The Two Waterfalls
This is what I was looking at while trying to eat my emergency noodle energy. And for once, i was struggling to eat ’em. I’m not great with heights and although we’ve been up a few mountains now, and climbed a few steep passes, this one is the ultimate challenge. Pretty much a straight up climb, up a cliff face that comes with a full page of warnings. Not to do it in bad weather; It’s lethal in the rain; Wind is a no no; You gotta be ultra experienced; etc etc. Basically DOC try to put the frighteners on you well before you get there. And for good reason I can see now!
I actually thought it didn’t look anywhere near as bad as I was expecting. Just look at that huge waterfall on the right, be glad we’re not going up that!