I woke up this morning to overcast skies and a forecast for rain, so I curled up on the porch with a cup of tea and my book. Sure enough, it started to rain so I spent the morning with my book. By afternoon, I was restless and ready for action. My roommates, Minna and Elsa, were also up for adventure so we headed out together to hike to the Whangerei Falls. It was overcast when we left, but as soon as we got on the trail the clouds disappeared and the sun came out. Probably should have worn sun screen. Whoops.
The trail to the falls led us along the Hatea River Walk and through a canopy walk with Kauri trees. The Kauri is one of the most famous of New Zealand trees, and I was excited to finally see one. We were told that these trees were only 500 year old babies, but considering how that's older than the European discovery of my country, I had a hard time wrapping my mind around how these trees could be young. When we got to the Kauri part of the hike, we saw trees as thick as the biggest ones in British Columbia. This is why they're just 'babies'. There is a Kauri tree elsewhere in the Northland called Tane Mahuta that is 2000 years old and has a 13 metre girth. I cannot picture this, but I will be seeing Tane in about a week, so I guess I can try to put it into words then.
Further along the trail was the Whangerei Falls. Now I've seen a lot of waterfalls, but these ones were gorgeous - they're about 26 metres high. We all just sat down and looked at the water rushing down for a good ten minutes before heading up to the car park area. While we met a few people along the trail, that was nothing compared to how busy it was up at the park above the falls. The river gets quite deep right before the waterfall, so kids were running and jumping into the water, swinging from ropes on trees, and even climbing high into this one tree beside the riverbank, creeping down the branches, and jumping down into the water. This was right next to a sign that said "Danger: shallow rocks".
All that was nothing compared to the guy who started wading through the river to the edge of the waterfall. Was he going to jump? Yes! My morbid curiosity was about as strong as everyone else's in the park as we all ran to the viewing platform to watch him jump. Everyone waited with baited breath as he leaned over to look down to the water below. Remember me saying the falls are 26 metres high? And then he jumped.
I couldn't take my eyes off the water until he surfaced, alive and well. I heard a lady saying she had watched him do it yesterday too. I later found out that 3 people have died in the past from jumping off the falls. Scary.
When we left the backpackers, Elsa had plans to walk to the waterfall and then hitchhike to the Abbey Caves or back to the hostel since it was a good 9 km each way. I didn't have a lot of confidence in that plan, so I was ready for the walk back. When we got up the the carpark for the falls, we started chatting with some volunteers who spend the day there, offering information, water, and sunscreen. I asked the man how hard it was to walk to the caves, and he disappeared into his car to find a map. While he was there, his wife convinced him to give us a ride to the caves. Score! The caves are a whole other adventure though, which you can read about here.
When we got out of the caves, we prepared ourselves for the 9 km walk back to the hostel. After what felt like a long ten minute walk, Elsa's thumb proved useful and a wonderful local guy picked us up and drove us downtown. The ten minute drive easily cut an hour off our walking time. Yay for first hitchhike! I finished the day off with leftovers from my Swiss friends and a glass of wine from Elsa and Minna. I don't think I've ever had such an inexpensive travelling day. I only paid for my bed!
The trail to the falls led us along the Hatea River Walk and through a canopy walk with Kauri trees. The Kauri is one of the most famous of New Zealand trees, and I was excited to finally see one. We were told that these trees were only 500 year old babies, but considering how that's older than the European discovery of my country, I had a hard time wrapping my mind around how these trees could be young. When we got to the Kauri part of the hike, we saw trees as thick as the biggest ones in British Columbia. This is why they're just 'babies'. There is a Kauri tree elsewhere in the Northland called Tane Mahuta that is 2000 years old and has a 13 metre girth. I cannot picture this, but I will be seeing Tane in about a week, so I guess I can try to put it into words then.
Further along the trail was the Whangerei Falls. Now I've seen a lot of waterfalls, but these ones were gorgeous - they're about 26 metres high. We all just sat down and looked at the water rushing down for a good ten minutes before heading up to the car park area. While we met a few people along the trail, that was nothing compared to how busy it was up at the park above the falls. The river gets quite deep right before the waterfall, so kids were running and jumping into the water, swinging from ropes on trees, and even climbing high into this one tree beside the riverbank, creeping down the branches, and jumping down into the water. This was right next to a sign that said "Danger: shallow rocks".
All that was nothing compared to the guy who started wading through the river to the edge of the waterfall. Was he going to jump? Yes! My morbid curiosity was about as strong as everyone else's in the park as we all ran to the viewing platform to watch him jump. Everyone waited with baited breath as he leaned over to look down to the water below. Remember me saying the falls are 26 metres high? And then he jumped.
I couldn't take my eyes off the water until he surfaced, alive and well. I heard a lady saying she had watched him do it yesterday too. I later found out that 3 people have died in the past from jumping off the falls. Scary.
When we left the backpackers, Elsa had plans to walk to the waterfall and then hitchhike to the Abbey Caves or back to the hostel since it was a good 9 km each way. I didn't have a lot of confidence in that plan, so I was ready for the walk back. When we got up the the carpark for the falls, we started chatting with some volunteers who spend the day there, offering information, water, and sunscreen. I asked the man how hard it was to walk to the caves, and he disappeared into his car to find a map. While he was there, his wife convinced him to give us a ride to the caves. Score! The caves are a whole other adventure though, which you can read about here.
When we got out of the caves, we prepared ourselves for the 9 km walk back to the hostel. After what felt like a long ten minute walk, Elsa's thumb proved useful and a wonderful local guy picked us up and drove us downtown. The ten minute drive easily cut an hour off our walking time. Yay for first hitchhike! I finished the day off with leftovers from my Swiss friends and a glass of wine from Elsa and Minna. I don't think I've ever had such an inexpensive travelling day. I only paid for my bed!
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