New Zealand on a tight budget.Day 10

We had a lovely leisurely overnight stay at Kawhia. Although apart from visiting the falls there was not much point in going there as we were not going to Waitoma and the hot springs on the beach would not be accessible until low tide in the afternoon. The drive east was beautiful as the landscape changed from the frantically undulating to something more like Derbyshire on steroids.

We went on a short walk to see an abandoned "crawler tractor" which put us is mind on Trevor the traction engine. The one that got left in an orchard and was lonely until the children found him.

We stooped for supplies at Te Kuiti before heading for the Pureora Forest. Our 100 Best Day Walks book recommended the 3 hour return trip up Mt Pureora and as it hasn’t let us down yet we set off through the Totara forest. Most of it seemed to be boarded and as we were climbing up a mountain that meant lots of steps – lots and lots of steps and after an hour of not much to divert us except a stunning sound track of weta and birds I began to wonder if the books was about to fail us! The promise of open ground constantly seemed to recede although it was definitely getting lighter as the trees were getting shorter when all of a sudden we emerged and there was the summit just a few feet above us…..
………and the view made is all worth while. A 360 degree panorama taking in Lake Taupo, snow covered Mt Tongariro and the icing on the cake the very distant and rarely visible Mt Taranaki (Mount Doom) in the far distance. We had the whole place to our selves and didn’t meet a single person all afternoon.

A few kilometres down the dusty forest track we reached our DOC campsite. There’s another van and a tent here and we are allowed to light a fire so we’ve been collecting wood. The long drop toilet is immaculate and the water comes from a very nice stream where we gave our selves a wipe down before tea. All for the princely some of $12. Should be some good star gazing round the fire tonight – where’s that bottle of wine? (Well it is Friday!)
But even the Garden of Eden had its serpent - we were badly bitten by mosquitos even through our clothes and the campsite creature was a rat!