NEW YEAR'S DAY 2010

After our adventurous hike to the Wairere Falls the previous day, we decided to take it a little easier on New Year’s day. We drove to the town of Rotorua which is a highly commercialized tourist attraction. Just about everything is located behind walls and fences with large billboards and colorful brochures explaining just enough to say that they is something behind the wall to see. Rotorua is known to be a Maori culture capital – if you are interested in learning about the Maori culture and want to see it, you can do that in Rotorua (for a small price), for a little more you can have it explained to you, and for an extra fee you can see a demonstration, and finally, you can buy a souvenier. We weren’t that interested. But they did have a few things that we were interested in. Most of the things we enjoy are not listed in the “Attractions” section of the city tour brochure.

We started with a long slow walk through a redwood forest.

The redwood trees are not native, but were planted well over 100 years ago from California seedlings.

They appear to have adapted very well. In fact the climate reminded us a lot of the Santa Clara valley.

Looking up it was near impossible to see the top of them.

Even the tree ferns had to grow extra tall just to compete for some sun light.

The day was clear and warm – a perfect temperature. But there was plenty of shade under the trees, so we didn’t worry too much about sunburns.

We had a leisurely lunch under the redwoods, before moving on. It was so pleasant. Both of us could have stayed there all day – just for starters.

Contrary to what I said earlier, we did take in a little of the local culture in Rotorua. This government building is situated near the sulfur fields near the city center.

The “white” water in this lake is from the sulfur “tainted” water. Most of the lake was clear, but there was enough sulfur to stink up the entire city.

Geo-thermal field is one of the other “attractions” of Rotorua… if you’re attracted to smelling sulfur. This pool is a by-product of the on-going thermal eruptions in and around Rotorua. The white foreground is from dead vegetation.

We didn’t stay long in Rotorua, but found a beautiful blue lake about 15 kilometers out of town. It is called “Blue Lake.” It is a favorite recreation area for locals. Having no sulfur odor, I could understand why.

There was a 5-K path that went all the way around the lake, which we decided to explore. We were so glad we did. Every turn gave us a new view that was just delightful.

At one end of the lake was a beautiful white sandy beach backed up by acres of green grass.

The other end of the lake was a piney wood that was full of wild flowers and birds, and… us.

We finished our day, by treating ourselves to fish and chips from a local shop, which we ate picnic style under the trees. YUM.

A New Year’s Eve Hike

Our offices closed at noon on New Year’s Eve, and the place quickly became a ghost town. We finally got our stuff to a stopping point about 12:30 p.m. and by then we were the only ones in the building. We headed quickly to our apartment, changed clothes, grabbed a bite to eat, loaded the car and were off to our predetermined destination – Matamata. When John and Shona were here last month, we saw a tall water falls from the highway in the distant mountains. We were fascinated, and decided to hike up to it. Upon getting to the location we learned that the falls was named Wairere, and has a drop of over 500 feet. At the bottom of the track a sign suggested that it would take us almost two hours to get to the falls, we were starting at 5:30 p.m. – hmmm.

Once inside the forest, the tall trees and thick tree ferns made the hike cool and pleasant and almost immediately dark in the late afternoon sun.

The track took us through a beautiful, diverse range of natural scenery that appeared to have hardly been touched by man.

In addition to the water falls, which was our original destination, there was a beautiful river which we followed up the mountain for several miles.

The path crossed several rivers and stream beds on its way up.

Along the path were several picturesque river falls and cascades.

It should be no surprise that some sections would include steep stairways or mountain paths. This particular section contained more than 200 steps.

The entire pathway meandered around and through a boulder strewn rain forest which reflected every color of green imaginable.

The light that came through breaks in the forest canopy reflected beautifully on the small ponds that we found from time to time along the river.

The falls was stunning, but the magnitude was almost in comprehensible. If we go close enough to photograph it all, it was so far away that the details were lost. Up close, only small sections could be seen at a time.

There are numerous pools to along the way, and several side tracks to be explored.

Racing the sun-dial, we took the time to explore only one side path. It lead us to a beautiful lush pasture land that overlooked a vista that the setting sun bathed in long shadows that accented the trees and farm lands far below.

Still racing the sun, we took only one short breather to grab a picture of the two of us together.

As the sun continued to fall we began to think that we might get caught in a dark forest. This was one that it would be safer to just stay the night than to try to navigate in the dark. (We picked up our pace – considerably)!

We emerged from the forest just in time to catch the sun setting behind the distant mountains on the other side of the valley.

As we drove away, the full moon poked its face above the very forest from which we had just emerged. What an exciting adventure and we were glad we didn’t have to stay in the forest the whole night.

A Boxing Day Tramp

Christmas in a foreign country, not to mention – in the middle of summer, and without family is pretty much a non-event. We were invited to our supervisor’s home for a Christmas brunch, and then spent most of the afternoon with several other senior missionaries who are here from various parts of the U.S. It was all pretty low key. The day after Christmas was spent at our apartment after doing some necessary chores. But… Tah dah … then came Boxing Day, a national holiday. After staying inside almost all of Christmas and the day after we were itching to get out and do something.

We drove to a large public forest (here it is called a range) about an hour from our apartment. We found a “track” that we hadn’t “tramped.” (A trail we hadn’t followed)

We started by crossing a long suspended swinging bridge that crossed a deep ravine with a small river running through it. Both sides of the ravine were covered with bushes, vines, ferns, and trees.

We’ve looked up at a lot of ferns and the beautiful silhouettes they make against the blue skies. But this was the first time we’ve actually been able to look right down into the center of one.

We didn’t go very far before we started to climb. Fortunately, most of the uphill paths had stair steps or we probably wouldn’t have made it to the top of the mountain. The trail consisted of one set of steps after another after another – always through a beautiful, lush, rain forest.

Once in a while the path would almost level out and we would be able to catch our breath before taking off again on another climb.

About half way up to the summit we were able to catch this vista of the farm lands below. What a beautiful countryside. What a beautiful country.

As with most of our adventures, I try to mix my appreciation of the wide open expanse (as above) with the local flora and fauna. But I also really enjoy getting on my knees and inspecting the small details and make it all alive.

This little puff was the head of a moss covering. The closer I got, the more details I could see. Each little leaflet was edged with fine cilia-like fuzz. It is so easy for me to become enchanted with these details.

Continuing my interest in the “details” I was able to capture on “film” several other unique plants with captivating growth patterns.

This particular leaf is a fern, but the intriguing things are the raised dots that run along both sides of each lobe of the leaf.

Here we have another fern. This is probably the most common fern we see here in New Zealand. It is called the Silver fern.

This is a picture of the underside of the leaf above. Now you can see why it is called the Silver Fern.

When Silver Ferns get old and dry up, they hang in some of the most interesting arrangements.

Our hike not only took us through the lush rain forests, but toward the top of the mountain we entered a section of tall, tall trees – but even they didn’t seem to inhibit the undergrowth too much.

Continuing my fascination with the finer details, I captured several forms of moss.

These little curly mosses were so soft and furry.

But others are prickly and spiny.

Diane thinks I get too involved in my picture taking. Here she caught me leaning against a tree to get just the right angle and lighting for something that captured my attention.

The trail eventually started downward. It is a lot easier going down using the steps. We aren’t as sure-footed as we once were.

High in the mountain tops we caught some wonderful vistas. Cloudy days in New Zealand are the norm. But that made for an absolutely wonderful hike. Not too hot, not too cold – just right – so we eat it all up.

Coming down a bit further our trail skirted this beautiful lake.

There were several ups, even when coming down. But mountain climbing is that way.

But we eventually arrived back to the road (gravel) where we parked our car.

But before going home we stopped in Pokeno for some Turkish pastry and ice cream.

A wonderful day! Happy Boxing Day!