Hawera
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
59
90
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Hawera,
North Island,
New Zealand
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Hawera is not particularly exciting. Nice, quiet, suburb with a rather impressive water tower that was once closed but re-opened in 2004. It's main attraction though is Mount Egmont. Which is why we headed this way. (David: Just look at it on a road map. It just looks weird.)
Mount Egmont is an active volcano. The last time it erupted was back in 1995/1996 but thankfully it was just a mild eruption of not very destructive capabilities. Surrounding the volcano is the 9km Egmont National Park which is stunning. You can ski down the volcano (David: On snow obviously, lava skiing isn't that popular yet) or trek or even climb it. It's beautiful.
We checked into a Motel which was really lovely and homely - free laundry, free internet and like staying at your granny's house with flowery quilts, chinzy curtains, sumptuous armchairs
Active volcano seen from the road
. Really cosy place. If only UK Motels were this lovely. The next day we went up to Mount Egmont, parked the car and went for a walk through the National Forest to the nearby Dawson Falls. It was a really magical forest with twists and turns and bizarre shaped trees that had arthritic arms contorted into 'musical statues' type positions. It was like a forest from Narnia. The waterfall we eventually got to was absolutely incredible. The noise was deafening as we stood before it, gaping up at the precipice of it. Absolutely beautiful.
We drove around the volcano, looking at weird hills. Like Teletubbies land! Had a coffee in New Pymouth (I think) and then drove to Stratford. Nothing like Stratford in Warwickshire though. From there we went along the Lost World Highway eventually getting to our stop in Tuarangi.
The Lost World Highway is as magical as the name suggests. Again, the name and the place were like something out of a children's adventure movie. Incredible. It was just a narrow mountainous road twisting and turning. The landscape was absolutely amazing. One moment it was wild and windy with palm trees, exotic ferns, moss clinging to rock, steep throat-tightening drops beside the road, thinly veiled with plants and wild flowers
Who's there?? Aslam??
. Next minute, it was fresh and green and hilly and an exaggerated Yorkshire Dales scenery but with a volcanic backdrop. The change of scenery was sudden - literally you turned a mountain corner and bang! All change! There were no gradual changes. The drive was lonely, scenic, atmospheric yet spooky. It was called The Lost World Highway for a reason and it represented exactly that (David: I was expecting dinosaurs at every turn... or at least Richard Attenborough). It wasn't a popular route. It was like you had found a secret world. Just fantastic. So we got to Tuarangi. It was bleak. But it was late and we needed a bed. We finally chose a small Motel and I can't remember the name of it. But it was a Fisherman's Paradise with Fishy memorabilia, artefacts and all fishy things relayed to you by the owner should you wish to learn. It was a nice place. It didn't smell of fish though...thankfully.
As David checked his emails, I watched some Hollywood film about Antarctic explorers - one explorer reluctantly had to leave his huskies behind, chained up while the weather commanded that they fly back to base. This one explorer vowed to return to save his huskies but no one would fly him because of the atrocious weather conditions and the dogs were pining for him. It was a good film but Walt Disney silliness and I ended up bawling my eyes out because the huskies were pining in the snow!! Admittedly, I tried to disguise my tears with hayfever but I don't think it washed quite frankly!! (David: Aha!)
We were only in Tuarangi for one night. It doesn't warrant a blog to itself. A map pin will suffice.
After Tuarangi, onto Rotarora. Land of all things adventure. Like Queensland.
Love us xxxx
