Welcome back.. Where did I leave? Ah, the limpers! (I can't bother to give a longer recap, read the old posts) The limping was going bad to worse on the buffer day. In hindsight, we shouldn't have pushed that much. We squeezed in a visit to the Huka Falls, the amazing Kerosene Creek and Rotorua's yellow-stone-lookalike-park, Thermal Wonderland on that day. I can't say that the pain wasn't worth it. It wasn't mine, so maybe I shouldn't be commenting. Among others, Kerosene Creek deserves a special mention. A beautiful stream of naturally heated water forming jacuzzis amdist greenery, thanks to the underlying geothermal activity, provides an ideal respite to weary soles (and souls). Towards the end of the day, we made our way to Lake Rerewhakaaitu where we camped for the night. Unlike our other campsites, we managed to reach this one with time to spare to prepare some good dinner. The evening was perfect - good food, beer and great company, all set under a surreal moonlit sky.
The next morning would qualify for a quickest campsite exit. After lazing in our cozy sleeping bags for longer than need be, we gradually began emerging from the tents. I was the last one to emerge, but the first thing I did was to schedule white water rafting in less than 90 minutes to spare. And the campsite we were in was remote and needed about that long to reach the destination. The speed with which we got out of that place is impressive. And it didn't happen without all the others cussing at me for making them do it. We broke fast en route and reached on time (ish). I've rafted once before on the Kaituna river and I knew that it wouldn't matter and that I was up for a morning of serious fun. And boy was I right.. All those rapids I crossed and that "flippin" waterfall I fell through are permanently engraved in my memories. Clearly, the other boys had fun too and the limpers had no qualms either. They too silently gulped in their pain along with a pint of eel ridden Kaituna water.
Unwillingly, we left the river that rushed adrenalin through each vein in our bodies and headed towards our next destination, Hobbiton. However, our fickle minds and emptying pockets rerouted us to Tauranga instead after a quick cafe break. Which led us to the second best day of the trip, the day we camped in Mc Laurens Falls Park. Mc Laurens was more than what we could ask for. As dusk dawned on us, we quickly had supper and rushed to checkout the waterfall track. The waterfall was minuscule but it wasn't our reason to head there anyway. As the stars in the night sky began shining one by one, our eyes adjusted to the every growing stars on earth. The moist land along the track was studded with glow worms, glowing in the background of the flowing stream. Now, I've seen fireflies before, but have never witnessed glow worms. They weren't mind boggling, but set an incredible evening mood. Midnight crawled in and we craved for something hot and dug into our noodle reserve. While we emptied our hot noodle cups, we noticed several red streaks passing across the water below our hill. It was night canoeists with their helmet lights trying to breaking the night calm.
When I woke the next morning, my heart did not want to leave that place. I wish I listened to it.. But, all good things have to end. We made our way to Tauranga's adrenalin forest after dropping one of the injured at a local beach. The adrenalin forest dwarfed in comparison to the previous day's rafting experience. After climbing up enough tree tops, we called it a day. Tempted by an early morning visit to the Karangahake gorge, I moved my tired ass towards Karangahake. After quite a long day, we reached the campsite which the others deemed un-fuckin-stayable. Their pleas for an unscheduled buffer day in Auckland fell on my deaf ears, but I budged in the end. In retrospect, I can be sure now that the right thing to do would've been to go back to the best campsite of the road trip..
The next morning would qualify for a quickest campsite exit. After lazing in our cozy sleeping bags for longer than need be, we gradually began emerging from the tents. I was the last one to emerge, but the first thing I did was to schedule white water rafting in less than 90 minutes to spare. And the campsite we were in was remote and needed about that long to reach the destination. The speed with which we got out of that place is impressive. And it didn't happen without all the others cussing at me for making them do it. We broke fast en route and reached on time (ish). I've rafted once before on the Kaituna river and I knew that it wouldn't matter and that I was up for a morning of serious fun. And boy was I right.. All those rapids I crossed and that "flippin" waterfall I fell through are permanently engraved in my memories. Clearly, the other boys had fun too and the limpers had no qualms either. They too silently gulped in their pain along with a pint of eel ridden Kaituna water.
Unwillingly, we left the river that rushed adrenalin through each vein in our bodies and headed towards our next destination, Hobbiton. However, our fickle minds and emptying pockets rerouted us to Tauranga instead after a quick cafe break. Which led us to the second best day of the trip, the day we camped in Mc Laurens Falls Park. Mc Laurens was more than what we could ask for. As dusk dawned on us, we quickly had supper and rushed to checkout the waterfall track. The waterfall was minuscule but it wasn't our reason to head there anyway. As the stars in the night sky began shining one by one, our eyes adjusted to the every growing stars on earth. The moist land along the track was studded with glow worms, glowing in the background of the flowing stream. Now, I've seen fireflies before, but have never witnessed glow worms. They weren't mind boggling, but set an incredible evening mood. Midnight crawled in and we craved for something hot and dug into our noodle reserve. While we emptied our hot noodle cups, we noticed several red streaks passing across the water below our hill. It was night canoeists with their helmet lights trying to breaking the night calm.When I woke the next morning, my heart did not want to leave that place. I wish I listened to it.. But, all good things have to end. We made our way to Tauranga's adrenalin forest after dropping one of the injured at a local beach. The adrenalin forest dwarfed in comparison to the previous day's rafting experience. After climbing up enough tree tops, we called it a day. Tempted by an early morning visit to the Karangahake gorge, I moved my tired ass towards Karangahake. After quite a long day, we reached the campsite which the others deemed un-fuckin-stayable. Their pleas for an unscheduled buffer day in Auckland fell on my deaf ears, but I budged in the end. In retrospect, I can be sure now that the right thing to do would've been to go back to the best campsite of the road trip..
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