The rain arrived on Saturday morning as advertised, so we decided to drive to Greymouth and visit our friend Joy. Two days parked in the hot sun with almost no driving meant that our house battery had gone flat and the fridge defrosted, another good reason for running the motor for a while.
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Tag: river
Charleston
At 8.30 am on the first of January we turned up at the base of Underworld Adventures Ltd to join their morning cave rafting tour. This takes place through part of the Nile River Cave system in Paparoa National Park.
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Charming Creek
The Charming Creek Walkway runs from Ngakawau through to the Charming Creek Road at Seddonville, a 19km return trip. We had planned to walk it together today but when I discovered you can ride it on a mountain bike I came up with a cunning plan.
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Six Mile Hydro Matakitaki
About ten kilometres south of Murchison is the site of New Zealand’s oldest hydro power station. We had stopped in town to do some shopping and visit the information centre and it sounded like an interesting place to visit.
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Wairoa River
We only had a couple of kilometres to drive from our camp-site to the bridge over the Wairoa River. This is not to be confused with the river with the same name that we walked along at the end of our Richmond Range tramp a week ago; this one empties into the Whanganui Inlet out on the west coast past Collingwood.
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Wairoa River
The alpine section of our trip is over, and we spent the morning descending steadily to the Wairoa River.
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Goldie’s Bush
In December we are planning a five-day tramp in the Richmond Range with a couple of friends who have recently been trekking in South America, carrying full packs up over 5000 metres, so Felicity and I feel like we need to increase our fitness level significantly. Today seemed like a good opportunity to head into the bush out near the west coast for a hike.
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Waiwera River
After a long walk around Omaha Beach yesterday, we decided that we would rest our legs and exercise our arms today by kayaking up the Waiwera river.
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Glasgow
Because it would cost hundreds of pounds to catch a train from Oxford to Glasgow we decided to hire a car which worked out much cheaper. Felicity downloaded a GPS navigation app for her iPhone, and it directed us to the centre of town very efficiently.
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Te Waihou Walkway
Not far from Putaruru, the Te Waihou walkway leads to the Blue Spring, which supplies 70% of NZ’s bottled water.
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Karamea and Oparara Basin
After completing our tramp over the Old Ghost Rd, we stayed in a rented house in Karamea for three nights and explored the local sights.
Specimen Hut to Seddonville
The final section of the Old Ghost Rd cycleway follows the Mokihinui River gorge past the Glasgow Range to the end of the road at Seddonville.
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Mokihinui River and Specimen Hut
The next hut from Mokihinui Forks is only an hour or so down the trail, so we had planned an expedition without packs to explore the North Branch of the river.
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Goat Creek to Mokihinui Forks
Back on the cycleway, we made pretty good time following the South Branch of the Mokihinui river down to Mokihinui Forks.
Waiwawa River
On Sunday the wind was forecast to be a bit stronger than the day before, so we thought about kayaking from the Ferry Landing at Cooks Beach into Whitianga Harbour. One look at the choppy current rushing past the wharf made us think again, and we decided to head further inland and have a play in the Waiwawa River.
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Picnic dinner at Silverdale
I’d got my heart set on a kayak yesterday evening, so even though the weather looked a bit dodgy we loaded the boats on the car and drove up to Stillwater about an hour before high tide.
By the time we were ready to unload, it was bucketing down, but since it was warm and no wind we decided to head up the Weiti river anyway.
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Lake Maraetai and Mangakino Creek
The last day of our summer holiday turned out to be the best adventure of the trip, despite being immediately followed by the biggest hassle.
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Piripiri Bridge, Pohangia River
We probably chose one of the quietest nights of the year to camp beside the Manawatu River, at the eastern end of the gorge. We did hear a couple of trains go past, but almost no trucks. Continue reading Piripiri Bridge, Pohangia River
Kiriwhakapapa Road End
When we first pulled in to this DOC reserve on the edge of the Tararua mountain range, I though we might have the place to ourselves, but then we saw three or four other groups of campers tucked in among the bushes.
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Glenfalls Camp Mohaka River
We spent the first night of our Christmas 2014 trip at Reid’s Farm, just before Taupo. Because it is free, it was pretty crowded, especially in the nicer areas with views of the Waikato.
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