Foraging at Waihi, chased out of Waikaremoana

The journey has been fairly social, apart from the actual travelling part.  Now it’s doggy and me for the first time since we left our real home. Ooo weeee!

I was sad to leave Isabell in Waihi where we had great times, including stripping a crab apple tree near 

the perimeter of the open cast Martha Mine (pictured below). Ingenious Isabell used a cup hook on a long stick to bring the fruit down. I chased and bagged them. Forager’s jelly is bound to taste extra good. I like this photo of Isabell and her daughter Rosie.

At Tauranga, old family friend Ruth treated me to lunch while our respective dogs snoozed on front and back seats.

The night before last, our home was a studio with a view at Rotoiti Lake Motor Camp. Few people about: just the last of the summer camper van people watching their own televisions. It’s getting chillier.

Lily was allowed to stay in that camp and that was lucky. The next night was not so. We drove four hours over mostly metal roads to Lake Waikaremoana and were turned down flat by the motor camp but carried on to Wairua. 

Wild foal in the Urewera ranges.

First view of Waikaremoana.

Home of the Tuhoe, the Urewera ranges seemed devoid of people. Their cars were there at maraes and hunters’ 4WDs were parked on the roadside but, apart from the occasional car coming the other way, I hardly saw anyone the whole time. Lichen hanging off trees give the place an eerie feel and the trees are so tall and there are rather a lot of them...

I didn't feel too sad about not staying at Waikaremoana - the experience of the Ureweras was satisfyingly surreal and now I'm sitting up in bed in an uber comfortable motel in Wairoa, home of the Mongrel Mob. But I'm perplexed by DOC's Nazi stance towards dogs. Lily is just so much of a lap-dog and gets lumped in with pit-bulls and other potential kiwi killers in a National Park. 

Where will we go today? We have the choice of going further up the coast to Mahia or carrying on south through Napier and Hastings.

Gothic at Waihi: the pumphouse.

Send me an email!