Pipiriki and Wanganui river

Well apart from a few well timed moments, the rain didn't ease. It just came down in buckets. I got to Pipiriki, a few deserted houses and a lone lost Frenchwoman whose story I still havn't fathomed, was all I saw there. The country to get there was pretty but strange, huge clay cliffs and peaks that must have been the softest rock imaginable.

From Pipiriki the road went through a large bush area following the Wanganui river. Huge tree ferns, tall trees dripping with rain and cloud. The good tar sealed road gave way rather unexpectedly to a very rough gravel road with the worst corrugations imaginable - going in all directions at once. On flat land the best way of dealing with corrugations is speed - just hit the tops and dont go into the troughs, but here with wet clay and gravel on the surface, a water and clay filled ditch on one side, a ravine on the other and the narrow road twisting up and down steep hillsides that clearly wasn't the right option. The few local vehicles I passed were all going at a similar slow speed and they were all chunky 4x4's. Clearly a rented Toyota Corolla with automatic gear shift is not the vehicle of choice in these parts!

Driving for hours through such untouched bush one inevitably fixes on the human anomalies. A sign giving a temporary speed restriction of 30k in a place where more than 10 would be impossible anyway, and an open road limit of 100 km where more than 20 would have been suicidal, and the only cleared paddock in an hour of driving with a hand painted sign declaring No trespassers and Dogs will be shot. In one place lower in the valley and after regaining tarred road a washout was being fixed in the torrential rain . The workmen said I would have to wait about 15 minutes but they had to wake me up 50 minutes later when it was finally passable.

Connie spoke about all the Maori villages and canoes on the river but now there is just one Maori Paa, very friendly inviting visitors in, with just one large old canoe bow on display. It seems the only way of experiencing the river today is on a jet boat offering 30 min to 2 hour 30 min rides. The area will be far less populated now than then. Only the road signs in the softer lower parts of the valley indicating that some kind of settlement exists, I passed Athens, London and Jerusalem!

What this trip did remind me of is how many wild and remote places still exist in New Zealand within quite short distances of towns and major through roads. It is probably just this lack of adequate road networks that keeps them that way. I will happily suffer the bad roads.

As the weather got even worse I decided to head directly to Wellington, stopping at Levin on the way to visit my fathers grave for only the second time. The rain stopped while I was there and resumed again as I left.

Mt Ruapehu

Mt Ngauruhoe

Cabbage tree fern

Smoke ring cloud over the active Mt Ruapehu

Looking out from Mt Ruepehue ski ground

Chalets on volcanic rock ski fields

Travelling down the side of Lake Taupo we stopped, as Connie had done, to collect pumice and other rock samples. At least the pumice is light enough to make it home. We also found a track beside Pumice cliffs to experience the white dust of the road and reflect that she would have travelled this on the box seat of a horse drawn carriage through streams over rocky outcrops and in the full blaze of the sun. We just blessed our air conditioned car.

Tokaanu, a simple spa with free bush walk was indeed the wonder that Connie described. Our walkway protected us from the deep clear boiling water pools just feet away, and the ominous plopping sounds from tiny mud pools completely hidden in the roots of the vegetation. To have ventured in here without well marked paths would have been nightmare stuff. Indeed one of Connie's fellow travellers did put a foot through the fragile crust.

On 'M's' very good advice we booked into the Skotel on the slopes Mt Ruepehu. this is dual purpose tiny resort, skiing in winter walking in summer. sandwiched between the perfectly formed Mt Ngauruhoe and the still active Mt Ruepehu which we watched putting up smoke signals yesterday. Last night a full moon over Ngauruhoe was an inspiring sight, tonight the heavens opened and we have nil visibility. Nothing by halves here.

(Actually writing this a day later, Maureen has just made contact from Auckland and wonders if the strange red night haze to the west on the night of the full moon was actually caused by the dreadful Melbourne fires which we now know had broken out that day. Even more strangely, writing in 1887 Connie tells of the dark skies over New Zealand caused by smoke from Australian bush fires)

Before 'M' left on the bus back to Auckland we managed an early morning 2 hour walk to Silica falls up through the bush and back over the high hillside where the plant life was unbelievably diverse. Scotland has something to answer for here though as some enterprising fellow introduced both Ling heather and game to these parts last century. The game failed to survive but the heather is actively spreading over all the hills. Thankfully the mountain daisies are still surviving in abundance and a type of white moss in large clumps that 'M" referred to as vegetable sheep.

With my background in textile and dye research I much appreciated "M's' knowledge about the useful plants we passed on the subtropical bush of the lower slopes. For example the sculptural Cabbage tree leaves were used for weaving a Maori warrior's cloak then dyed black for night time camouflage . Some trees wore broad metal bands to stop the possums from reaching the rare mountain mistletoe. We drove up the Bruce Road to the skiing resort set in and on the jagged boulder fields of volcanic outpouring. In this season it is hard to imagine the depth of snow that must fall to make this into safe ski-ing. Its like an imaginary moonscape in summer.

As a postscript, if anyone is coming this way, do make a point of stopping at the National Parks Station cafe which we discovered this lunchtime . Why Oh Why can't we have simple cafes for travelers with this level of food and friendly service.

The next stage of my journey takes me to Wanganui via the Wanganui river gorge which Connie went up by boat as far as Pipiriki . Lets hope the rain eases.