A walking day today – we prepared a picnic and headed for the Puketi forest – about 30 mins inland from Kerikeri. Walking tracks are well signposted, and fairly straightforward once you get there – but sometimes finding the right one via a mixed bag of tourist brochures can be tricky. Is that 2 hours one way – or return? So we found the Waihoanga Gorge Kauri walk (2 hours return)…and set off across a farmer’s field into the forest. It was a very pleasant walk – saw some 800 year old trees in the gorge valley, and explored some back roads on the way out.
Next stop – the Wairere boulders. We’d heard about these – but had not put all the pieces together (from the various brochures / lonely planet snippets and I-site conversations) to work out that this nature park was privately owned – by a Swiss couple who found a bunch of basalt boulders on their land. No one knew they were there…and over a good few years they have built a path around a creek and up to a viewing platform – over and under the boulders, through the ‘dragon’s cave’ and via a bush pool. We weren’t sure at first – it was a little twee – and the woman who met us at the info hut was very enthusiastic about the geological phenomenon (the basalt is fluted and eroded – apparently from the acidity of the kauri – which is very unusual)…but it was well worth the entry fee and the two hour trek (return) up to the platform – to see the weirdness of a valley of basalt boulders – from above…
Then back to home base for one last night in Kerikeri. The town itself is quite lovely. Quite manicured compared to most of the small towns we’ve seen. A good base for a few days – lots of cafes and places to poke about. Close to the coast, close to the highway north and west. Our first AirBnB experience…a success!
The Obligatory Blog 