Te Urewera National Park

After we had finished playing around Tolaga, we hit the road bound for the next stint of our trip - Te Urewera National Park.  I'm just going to come right out and say it - Te Urewera translates as "burnt penis" or "hot penis".  Why would the Maori give the region a name like that you ask? The story goes that a chief was sleeping in the area next to a campfire and rolled over in his sleep right onto the fire.  I think you can guess what happened from there.  Poor guy.  3 hours after leaving Tolaga and one loooong dirt road later we rolled into the park.  The centerpiece of the park is Lake Waikeremoana, which is surrounded by one of the largest stands of virgin forest left on the island.  The park also has an interesting history, as it served as the last refuge for the Maori tribes during the Waikato Wars in the mid to late 1800's against the authority of the British crown.

Before reaching camp for the night, we passed a trail called Lou's Lookout and I just had to stop for a lookie Lou :p.  On the way up the steep 15 minute trail, I noticed that the forest in the area was quite different from the normal New Zealand bush we're used to at this point.  The forest looked more enchanted, with more mosses and gnarled and twisting trees and vines.  It was like the kind of forest you'd expect to see some Hobbit's frolicking around in.  I'm not sure whether that is a feature of the virgin forest or just a different climate but it was a welcome change.  Anywho, when we got to the lookout point it was pretty amazing.  The Panekire bluff towers over the lake on one side, and the primeval forest stretches as far as the eye can see on the other.  As we watched, clouds quickly rolled in to cover the crown of the bluff.  The last thing we did before making camp was check out a group of waterfalls near the visitor center.  The falls themselves weren't particularly large or impressive by New Zealand standards, but it did add an extra layer of ambience to the already mystifying forest.  

Lou's Lookout  

 Lake Waikeremoana may be the biggest lake in Te Urewera, but it isn't the only one, or the most interesting or beautiful for that matter.  That is a title that belongs to the much smaller Lake Waikareiti which sits 292 meters higher in the mountains than Waikeremoana and boasts the most islands of any lake in New Zealand.  Not only that, but one of those islands, Rahui Island, has its own small lake.  It was our plan to throw ourselves straight into that lake and pretend to be in an M.C. Escher drawing, but things didn't exactly work out as planned.  Turns out that all islands on the lake were barred to the public while they undergo a massive pest control operation.  Nobody had told us this until after we had already reserved our dingy of course, so we decided to head out onto the lake anyway.  After the hourlong uphill hike to the lake we sorted out our paddles at the day shelter and graciously accepted some help from people passing by to get the heavy boat into the water.  We were totally unprepared for what came next.

As soon as we crested the hill on the trail, we knew that the warm sunny swim we were looking for wasn't in the cards.  The wind was howling.  When we finally got the little rowboat onto the water we had one hell of a time trying to battle the wind out of the cove.  With absolutely no rowing experience outside of kayaking, we had a hard enough time rowing in sync with each other without the blusterous winds making steering practically impossible.  It took several laborious attempts to even get off shore, providing those at the day shelter with plenty of entertainment I'm sure.  Once offshore the battle wasn't over, as now breaking the free of the cove took even more energy than ever.  We just couldn't make it out, being blown back onto the same rock over and over.  After what must have been half an hour and a temper tantrum I'm not very proud of, we finally broke out of the cove and onto open water.  We couldn't relax even then, as the wind would have had us crashed against the shore in no time.  We laughed that we had even expected to be able to paddle to the island in the first place before making back for shore, defeated.  Looking back on it now it was both humbling and hilarious, but that night we retired back to our campsite with heavy hearts. 

Out on the lake - you can't see my frown :p

The last day in the park was spent more leisurely exploring some caves that were formed from the same massive earthquake that dammed up the lake.  Kayleigh, not being a fan of caving, mostly walked along the trail and waited outside the mouth of each cave as I explored.  She may have made the right decision, because I did happen across a bunch of exceptionally large cave wetas in one hole that were so close overhead that I might have easily reached out and grabbed one…but no thanks.  I just took pictures instead.  Have a look see…

Kayleigh's worst nightmare