Journeys to the unknown #1

Familiar faces and places

It’s called the season of life, when you start going to more funerals than weddings, and when people are talking about their grandchildren and great-grandchildren rather than their own. So, after too many funerals, my OH (Other Half) and I decided to turn 2018 into a year of travel.

We have started off in our caravan and will be touring for the next couple of months or so. Part of the purpose of our trip is to catch up with old friends who we’ve known for decades and haven’t seen in years. It’s time to renew our friendship.

It’s a fantastic feeling to find you can pick up on a conversation almost where you left it the last time you met. That is what old friends are like – they know your history, you’ve kept in touch enough they know some of the more recent events in your life, and they like you for who you are.

Our catch up with Friends #1 started an hour after we arrived as we talked out way through drinks and dinner. The next day they took us for a day trip to places we hadn’t been before, and we had dinner together again when we got back to stretch the time. We hadn’t finished talking.

It is also fabulous to find new and special places in New Zealand.

Heading west from Otorohanga, past Waitomo Caves, on a sealed but windy road we stop in a parking bay kilometres from anywhere else. We took the 10-minute walk along the track, wondering what we were going to see other than the beauty of the bush with its variant shades of green. The sunlight shone through the foliage above, dappling the path with patches of light as it followed a stream with water so clear you could count the stones. It wasn’t far, but we stopped to admire this fern and that along the way and crossed the swing bridge. Around an outcrop we saw what we had come to see – the Mangapohue Natural Bridge. High above our heads crossing the stream below was a natural span of rock. Trees, some quite large, grew on top and clung desperately to the edge. There was a slight echo as we climbed the wooden steps that gave us a better view. Photos can’t do it justice, but it was magic spot.

Back in the car we’d barely travelled more than a few kilometres when we stopped again. This time a downhill track had us thinking about the uphill return, but we shouldn’t have been concerned. The trek was worth the effort to visit the hidden Marokopa Falls in full flood. The coast was still some distance away, so back in the car and onward.

It is amazing how you can set up for a shared lunch without barely a word of instruction while the conversation continued unabated. After lunch, a short drive along the black sands to the mouth of the estuary completed half the journey. We headed south for some distance before we turned inland. A large, brightly coloured sign warned us the road was not suitable for caravans and large vehicles, but the driver assured us his four-wheel drive would handle it with ease. After all he drove it every day. He is the rural postie.

Before long we could see why there was a warning sign. The narrow, unsealed road, cut between stunning native bush, twisted around corners and swung around bends that anything larger would not have managed. He regaled us with stories of trucks that had tried to take the ‘short cut’ and ran into difficulties and showed us where wheels had tipped over the edge. All I can say is, I’m glad I wasn’t in that vehicle at the time.

Despite the difficulties of the road, the scenery was exceptional and the surface was probably better than some of the sealed roads we’d travelled on earlier. All in all, we had a great day seeing part of our beautiful country we could otherwise never had seen.

To end the day, my rugby loving husband was taken to see the statue of Colin Meads. Perfect!

I’d love to hear your stories of places ‘unknown’ that we should visit on our travels.

 

By Vicky Adin, 

Author & book lover.

Read more by Vicky here.