Head out on the (Forgotten World) "Highway"

Living in a rural town like Hawera has its downsides, but a big plus is its proximity to major roads ("highways" is a overstatement) to get from one part of the North Island to another.  I live just 20 minutes from State Highway 43 (or "ROOT 43" as we'd call it in PA  or "THE 43" as we'd call it in AZ).   It's nicknamed the Forgotten World Highway and was established in 1990 to highlight and preserve the historic significance that happened through the Taranaki region.  It follows ancient Maori trade routes and pioneering farm tracks, through historic settlements, native forest, and GORGEOUS scenery!

It's a 150 km stretch of road, starting in Stratford and ending in Taumaruni (tao-ma-ru-nu-ee , say THAT five times fast!).  I decided to take my time, and cruise along this past weekend.   Here are a few highlights!

The road starts in Stratford, named after Shakepeare's birthplace.  The town holds New Zealand's ONLY (!) Glockenspiel, and it chimes tunes from Romeo and Juliet.  (hold back your excitement, folks)

And the journey begins!

There were several natural saddles (ridges between two peaks) along the road that led to great "scenic lookouts" as we like to call them in the US.  

Here's Strathmore saddle:

and the Pohokura Saddle:

To build a road through hilly regions, you either can built over it or through it!  Here's a few shots of fun tunnels I got to drive through:

Moki Tunnel (built in 1936):

 and  Makahu Tunnel (built in 1907!)

A stretch of the Highway (12 km to be exact) isn't even paved!  How's that for rustic?

It wouldn't be a Linz roadtrip without some exercise, so I stopped at the Whangamomona Saddle for a three hour hike.   For some terminology, these NZ folks are fit.   Their definition of a "walk" is a hike, and anything more means you better be ready to huff and puff and sweat.  So when i saw this sign I knew I was in for a workout!

2.5 hours, several slips, one good wipeout, and lots of mud later, I made it!  Hooray-  I *am* indeed "moderately fit!"

I at least saw some pretty trees and flowers to make it all worth it :)

And by now, you know that if a waterfall was on the map, you betcha I drove/hiked to see it, no matter how far off the main path!   Here are three I saw:

Ohura Falls:

Raekohua Falls:

And New Zealand's second highest waterfall (80meters!), Mt Damper Falls:

Quite impressive.

I spent the night in Taumarunui, which is a quaint town that historically marked the borders of the Whanganui, Maniapoto and Tuwharetoa tribes, and acts as an important part of the railroad network connecting most parts of the North Island.  Of course I dined in this cute railroad car diner:

I had dinner with a lovely young woman form Ireland here, who was doing the same scenic tour as me.

After a *great* sleep (my "moderately fit" body was quite tired-- and sore the next day!), I headed back down the highway.   Did I mention it must've been Family Weekend on the Forgotten World Highway?  Here's proof: 

And a few other funny moments too, such as the cow cheating on his diet:

I wonder who was winning this rugby match?

And what "School" were these guys on their way to?

And once again, on my way home, my sorrows were building with the gloomy Sunday and the weekend ending, when these two beauts decided to make an appearance:

A couple more hills and windy turns and I was back to where I started in Stratford (just a wee bit soggier, sorer and muddier!):

Cheers from State Highway 43!

Spelunking for Glow Worms

This weekend I had hoped to head to Napier to see the National Womens Netball Team, The Silver Ferns, play, but I found out the hard way that tickets sell out very early!   So, based on the recommendations of my fun friend Andy, I went to Waitomo in search of Glow Worms!

Waitomo is about a 3 hr drive northeast of Hawera.   My glow worm cave tour guide said the town's actual population is only a few dozen.  The prevalence of limestone in this region makes cave touring quite an attraction.   For a brief geology refresher, limestome caves are remnants of dried up underground streams.  Rainwater then seeps from the ground through the limestome, and as it evaporates it leaves a lime deposit behind which leaves the beautiful stalactites we see hanging from the ceilings of the caves.

Waitomo, which in Maori means "water passing through a hole", is named quite appropriately for all the caves I was able to see over the weekend!

Here's two pictures from Te Ana o te Atua (Cave of the Spirit):

Caves are quite hard to photograph, because one wants to see the intricate detail (as above) but also not neglect just how huge the actual structure may be!

So what are glowworms, you ask? They're actually not worms at all!  They are actually the larval stage of the fungus gnat Arachnocampa luminosa.    These amazing creatures are the *real* reason tourists visit Waitomo!   Basically, the eggs hatch into larvae.  The larvae spin silk web strings known as snares that are sticky and hang down to catch their prey.  By the wonders of bioluminescence, the worms emit a light that attracts the prey to the snares.  And, kind of like spiders, they catch their food to the bugs silly enough to fly towards the light (and into the sticky snares).    These worms like cold, damp, wind-less places to hang their snares, so caves are perfect.    And boy was it a beautiful sight to see THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of them glowing on the cave ceiling!

I was all excited to PHOTOGRAPH these little buggers on my cave tour--- I even chose a tour that allowed photography as your raft floated down the cave.   However, the cave is pitch black (besides these guys' light), and flash photography wasn't allowed--- so here was my end-product photo----

Talk about Glowworm fail, huh?    *sigh*.  

But when the PROFESSIONALS do it (aka the touring company), here is what I actually saw, just not able to clearly photograph:

The long sticky snares up close:

And the glowworms in action!

It was truly amazing.  Yes, there were actually this many, and they were that bright!!   Hard to believe they weren't just plugged-in Christmas lights in a dark cave.  :)

After my spectacular worm tour, I decided to get a little exercise and hike my way around the trails of Waitomo:

It drizzled all morning, and the position of these cows said 50% chance of rain:

(did anyone else grow up being told that when cows were sitting down in a field it meant it was going to rain?)

But then this came along!!

My shadow!  AKA SUNSHINE!  And I didn't get scared and run away.  NO MORE WINTER!!!

But it was a muddy hike, with plenty of puddles (this one quite pretty):

This hike taught me about two very cool hiker-friendly inventions:

1.  the stile: a structure which provides people a passage through or over a fence or boundary via steps, ladders, or narrow gaps.  

And #2, I don't know what it's called, but I call it the push-down gate:

 BEFORE....

AFTER!

How cool is that!  (I'm pushing the gate down in the 2nd pic, by the way--- and it pops back up when you're done!)

Two great inventions to please the hikers and keep the cows/sheep/alpacas/horses/whatever where they belong. :)

I spent the night in a Waitomo superb named Otorohanga, which prides itself on Kiwiana lore.

They had great displays which told me all about Kiwi history, such as why the "silver" fern is a symbol of New Zealand:

(Because the underside of the "kaponga" fern, a species endemic to NZ, is much lighter than it's topside, and looks "silver" in the light!)

I met a SUPER nice couple at dinner in Otorohanga who invited me to join them to eat/chat.  It was quite lovely company, and they even invited me to visit them sometime to see some glowworms, kayak, and ski all near their house!  Gosh, these Kiwis are so friendly :)

I spent the next day hiking, spelunking and waterfall chasing some more.

The Mangapohue Natural Bridge, a 17 meter (56 feet, Geoff) limestone arch that is all that's left from an ancient cave.

There were trees growing on top of the arch!  CRAZY!

And then the trifecta of falls:

Mangaotaki:

Okuru:

(where I met another lovely Kiwi couple who taught me some NZ botany!)

and my favorite, Marokopa Falls:

Marokopa definitely is better than Maricopa, don't you agree, Arizonans?  :)

So I started my journey back to Hawera Sunday afternoon, a little sad that the weekend was over.  The radio weather forecast was RAIN, and of course it started to pour.   But then I start to see the sign for "Mike's", an organic brewery I remembered seeing on the drive up early Saturday morning.  It was 5:30 now on Sunday PM, and the sign still said open!   So I pulled in to the parking lot, and the sun was peaking out despite the rain, and what did I see?

Who needs a pot of gold when you've got an Organic Pilsner? The lady let me wander freely around the the brewery on a self guided tour.   How fun!

What a happy perk to end another fun weekend.

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Today's blog is sponsored by Energizer Batteries, for TWO reasons.

1.  Foreign batteries are a piece of crap and don't work in my camera- Energizer Batteries proudly power the camera that took all my pics!

2.  When I was a tiny tot, I had a Fisher Price glowworm. 

During an attic cleanout when I was about 9 years old or so, I rediscovered this GlowWorm, and IT STILL WORKED with the original batteries in it!   Of course, they were Energizer.  Being the little smart  consumer I was, I wrote the Energizer company a glowing (pardon the pun) letter about how great and longlasting their batteries were.   They sent me a free coupon!  

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Until next time!

Weekend of Wine and Wool

So my first weekend roadtrip was a huge success!   I headed to the Wairarapa (aka "Glistening Waters") region, just over 4 hours away from Hawera.  I chose it based on the recommendation of the nurses at the office of my supervising local doc.   I said I wanted to try some NZ wine and they said "You MUST check out Martinborough!"   

 Martinborough is the most southern town in the Wairarapa region, along the southeastern part of the North Island.   I headed out right after clinic on Friday to a fantastic campsite I found online that also had cute cabins, perfect for a cozy, no frills accomodation!

I had a good night's sleep and wanted to do some physical activity before doing all the wine tastings.  Even though I'm not a "Lord of the Rings" fan, I figured I need to see some of the filming locations at the advice/request of all my LOTR-loving friends.   So I did a (quite muddy) hike to Putangirua Pinnacles:

These geologic formations are an example of "badlands erosion".  Sea level was MUCH higher hundreds of thousands of years ago.   These pillars were formed by vertical erosion due to boulder "caps" at the top which acted as protection.   At least that's how I understood it :)

It was a cloudy day, so the pictures aren't that clear, but I think you get the idea.  Plus the darkness kind of adds to the mystique. :)   For those LOTR enthusiasts, The eerie scenes in The Return of the King as Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli ride along the Dimholt Road to meet the Army of the Dead were filmed against the surreal backdrop of these Pinnacles.

Quite phallic, if you ask me :)

It was quite the muddy adventure!

After I got cleaned up, it was time to hit the wineries of Martinborough!

The campground I stayed with had a fabulous winter special (yes, it's still winter here and won't be warm really til December, the local folks tell me...*sigh*) that if you book two nights, you get a bike rental free!   So guess how I went wine tasting?

At least the rain held off for my adventures. 

There are about 20 wineries total in the town of Martinborough, many of them open for tasting.  Pinot Noir is the town's claim to fame.   At my first two stops, I was just about five minutes behind a group of fun, similar-aged Kiwis as myself, from Wellingtown, also biking their way through Martinborough.  At the 2nd winery, they invited me to join their group for the rest of the day!  How nice!  Sure beats touring alone!    Here they are, biking to the next winery...

Plenty of wines to be tasted:

One winery called "Vynfields" proved to be a great lunch spot, too!  Check out our grub!

After fueling up, it was off to more wineries.   I smiled at the sight of sheep grazing in one of the vineyards:

With this quite possibly being my favorite photo of the day:

Who YOU lookin at??   Haha.

So as the afternoon whisked away, the wineries were closing, and I biked out to some farmland behind my campsite to catch this absolutely gorgeous sunset.

Then back into town for dinner with my new Kiwi friends at the Martinborough Hotel.

What a fanastic day!

Sunday I decided to do some more touristy things.  Not only does Martinborough do wine, they also do olives!  I visited an Olive Farm/Mill called Olivo where the owner gave me a half hour personal lesson on the fine art of olive oil making!   I got to try them all--- they even have a vanilla infused Olive Oil.   I bought a jar of Balsamic Dessert Olives to try- the owner said they're delicious with vanilla ice cream.  Can't wait to try them!!

I headed out of Martinborough and further North on State Highway 2, which includes small towns like Greytown, Carterton, and Masterton.  

Greytown is home to Schoc chocolate, a local, fair-trade, organic chocolate maker:

I must've sampled about 20 different types of bars in that store.  My two favorites were the Lime Chili and the Sweet Basil dark chocolate bars.  YUM!

The tourist trap in Cartertown was Paua World.

Cheesy sign for sure!  Unfortunately the factory was closed, but I sat and watched an informational video in their store.   In case you're clueless regarding shellfish (as was I!), paua are are a type of shellfish unique to New Zealand.  They have the most colorful shell in the world.

Maori people used the meat for food and then used the beautifully colored shells to add gleam to the eyes of their carved figures.  Now they're most popularly used as jewelry, gifts, etc.   There are strict rules in the harvesting of these---- there is a minimum weight the shells need to be before harvesting, and divers aren't allowed to use pressurized air to collect them (aka no scuba, only snorkel).  They feed on seaweed, and the holes are how they breathe.

Since I already mentioned some NZ movie trivia today, how about this-   the Paua shells make up the decoration on Xena's first chakram in the hit TV series Xena: Warrior Princess.   Although the show was set predominately in Ancient Greece, the shell is used because the Paua is native to New Zealand, where the show was actually filmed.

My last touristy stop before heading home was Masterton, the largest town in the Wairarapa region (a booming 20,000 people!).  Masterton is the headquarters for the annual Golden Shears, the "World's Premier Shearing and Woolhandling Championships".  I learned all about this at Shear Discovery, a quite informative museum in downtown Masteron.

Did you know there are actual techniques of how to shear a sheep?  And actual levels of certification you can get in shearing and wool-handling?   I don't think LCCC or Maricopa Community College carry those courses!  :) 

The world's fastest shearers can shear an entire sheep in about 67 seconds!   Wow.

I also learned all sorts of things like the different breeds and degrees of wool:

The dozens of different types of electrical shears:

And even down to the nitty gritty of the old historic tools they used to use to castrate sheep:

You think *that's* grotesque?  One of the museum volunteers, an elderly man who used to own a farm with his twin brother, told me that he learned how to castrate sheep using his TEETH instead of a tool.  I'M SERIOUS!   Yuck yuck yuck.

Anyhoo, to end of on a happier note, I caught another fantastic sunset on my way home.

A great end to a wonderful weekend in Wairarapa!