Kaimai Range

March 18, 2014

As you have probably figured out by now, New Zealand has many, many mountain ranges, which are home to beautiful waterfalls, rivers and caves by the dozen. 

We crossed the Kaimai Mountain Range as we traveled from Tauranga and Hamilton and back again over the past few days. 

We have been very fortunate to meet up with some absolutely delightful Kiwi’s during our visit.  We stopped in to say our farewells to Triana and Lance having visited them on our arrival in New Zealand.  And we were given a warm Kiwi welcome at Diana and Ian’s house.  It was just so wonderful to have a safe haven in which to weather out the storm.  And even more wonderful to have a chance to get to know our new friends just a little bit better.  It just goes to show how many good people there are in this world.

After hearing more about this mountain range from fellow trampers, Sandy and Frank (who we met on the HumpRidge Track and where a stop over at their home in Tauranga for a cup of coffee in the afternoon turned into a dinner and an overnight stay) we decided we must stop and explore one of the many walks on offer.  We chose to hike to the highest waterfall on the North Island, even though just by the name, I was sure it involved a little climbing. 

The Wairere Falls are 150 meters high, so yes, there was a bit of huffing and puffing to get up there.  The path takes you along the river up to a lookout and for those who are keeners*, you can get to the top of the falls and look down.   The entire trip is supposed to take 180 minutes.  Either the time was over-estimated or we’re in better shape than we thought as we did it in 130 minutes; and yes, I guess we can count ourselves as keeners.  Mind you, we met up with a couple that actually ran up the hill.  (Show-offs!)

Now, my habit is before I write the blog I start by downloading the pictures I take along the way as a bit of inspiration and reminder of what we saw.  I am sorry to say, there will be no photos this time.  Nikon has tricked me again and for some strange reason the disk is blank.   And no, we aren’t going back to do the walk again as we did at the Pinnacles if you recall.  Actually, I think it might be time to retire the old Nikon as it is starting to get a bit annoying.    

Unfortunately, it was one of the more beautiful walks we have done (unfortunate, only because I have no photos).  There were more than 500 man-made steps and three river crossings via bridges as we made our way across the bottom of the falls through gorgeous, lush green forests with beautiful ferns and trees and moss-covered rocks.  The bridges provided a wonderful view of the river as it flowed quickly over the many huge boulders strewn about.  The falls themselves were quite dramatic with plenty of water thanks to the rain brought to us courtesy of Cyclone Lusi.

We dawdled up at the top of the falls, taking in the gently flowing river before it tumbled over the side of the mountain and down into the valley.  Then it was back down again and off we went, heading further north. 

After our good morning exercise, we stopped in at Hot Water Beach on the Coromandel Coast for a poke around.  The earth’s fiery center is not so far below the surface here either.  The water not more than a foot below the surface, is boiling hot (around 64 degrees C).  You can dig yourself a hole and the water seeping through the sand will be hot enough to scald you unless you mix it with a little cool seawater.  As you can see by the photo – there were just too many people, so we did a quick walk through and headed off again.

Hot Water Beach Tourists Soaking in the Hot Thermal Waters

*Keeners: “Canadian, (informal) - a person who is extremely eager, zealous, or enthusiastic: keeners who spent most of high school buried in homework.”