On Monday I was originally planning to head north up SH3 from New Plymouth. The weather was however horrendous so I opted against that and decided to stay an extra night in New Plymouth. This gave me a free day to essentially relax after all the hiking I've done recently, and I was hoping to go to the local hot pools to do just that. When arriving at the hot pools however it said they were closed on Mondays so that put that plan out of the window. I did manage to have a look round Puke Ariki though which was like a small version of Te Papa. It was a very interesting and interactive museum. I also managed to somewhat dry out some of my stuff from the weekend, as by the afternoon it was nice and sunny outside.
The following day I did head north up SH3, and it was a brilliant day. The plan was to go up as far as the Waitomo area before starting to head East, with several stops planned for along the way. Getting out of New Plymouth was fun however as it is actually quite a large city and I had to walk a good couple of hours before I was actually out of the suburbs. Eventually I managed to find somewhere realistic to hitchhike and I made it up to Mimi, which was the turn off to do the Whitecliffs Walkway. I was hoping to get a ride to the start of the walk 11km down the road although the road was dead so I ended up having to walk it the whole way. En route I stopped at Waiiti Beach.
By the time I reached the start of the Whitecliffs Walkway it was lunchtime. They recommend you only walk on the beach two hours either side of low tide, and I set off about two hours before low tide so had plenty of time to do the walk. The walk went beneath the impressive cliffs along the beach as far as this tunnel. The cliffs were incredibly tall and reminded me a bit of the chalk cliffs back home at times. I did pass a dead cow on the beach though which had obviously fallen off the cliff. When reaching the tunnel I went through it and the rest of the walk followed this track at the top of the cliffs through farmland. The weather turned however and it rained heavily later in the afternoon which was frustrating as I had all my stuff with me and nowhere to shelter.
Eventually I reached Tongaporutu and I was soaked right through. I found this small shelter which I went inside to dry off and get changed. Luckily most the stuff inside my backpacks stayed relatively dry, although I think my tablet is well and truly on its last legs now. At Tongaporutu I wanted to see The Three Sisters and Elephant Rock, and luckily the rain eventually stopped with enough time to go and see it before the tide came in too far. To get there you had to follow the river estuary down to the beach, before following the beach a short way to these sea stacks known as The Three Sisters. Elephant Rock used to look like an elephant although the trunk fell into the sea so it doesn't anymore. It was another pretty piece of coastline. By the time I came back it was basically dinner time so I decided I would just stay in the small shelter I found in Tongaporutu for the night. It was definitely a frustrating day in terms of hitchhiking and weather.
On Wednesday morning the weather had somewhat improved although it rained a bit in the night. I therefore pressed on towards the Waitomo area, although hitching a ride was challenging as the road was so bendy. I eventually got a ride up to Te Kuiti. I was originally going to stop in Piopio to visit the Mangaotaki Reserve and Waitanguru Falls although as I was finding hitching rides so difficult I decided against this. On the drive up to Te Kuiti the heavens just opened, and we passed several fields which were flooded by the recent weather as well as some pretty swelled up waterways.
When arriving in Te Kuiti, I had a little walk round the town which is apparently the shearing capital of the world. It even had some massive statue of a guy shearing a sheep. Other than that there wasn't much else to see, and the rain was just torrential which meant I couldn't really go very far until it passed over. I was hoping to get out to see Marakopa Falls, the Mangapohue Natural Bridge, and Piripiri Caves although the weather put me off. After several hours sheltering from the rain it eventually calmed down a bit, and I made the decision to just aim for either Taupo or Rotorua. I knew anyone going down SH30 from Te Kuiti would be likely passing through one or the other and luckily when I got picked up I got a straight ride through to Taupo.
The drive to Taupo was interesting as the road was flooded in a couple of places from the sheer amount of rain in such a short period! When arriving in Taupo the sun came out so I went for a quick walk down the lakefront before it typically started raining again. Luckily many of Taupos streets are covered in canopies so I was able to walk around the centre without getting wet. With nothing much else to do I therefore spent my evening in launderette to get out of the rain, as well as planning out my coming days, the plan being to get to Gisborne via the Te Uruwera National Park.
On Thursday morning I was up at the crack of dawn, heading out to the spa park just outside Taupo. As I got there just before sunrise there was no one there so I had the hot pools to myself. It wasn't long until they got busy though as soon as the sun came up! After a good relaxation I headed back into Taupo where it was a lovely day, with Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe even visible across the lake. After picking up my groceries for the coming days I headed towards Huka Falls, following the Waikato River to get there. All the recent rain made it a very impressive sight, the waterfall itself just 9m, made impressive by the particularly large amount of water that falls each second.
Once checking out all the viewpoints of the waterfall I hitched a ride north to Wai-O-Tapu, about 20 minutes south of Rotorua. Being in the particularly volcanic active area of New Zealand, there are several geothermal areas which several different companies have taken advantage of by building things like hot pools and tourist attractions, basically as a way of making money out of you. Wai-O-Tapu is one of these areas, and I thought I would give it a visit as it's meant to be one of the more impressive geothermal sites. I was pleasantly surprised when getting there as it was a completely surreal landscape with an array of different colours. This walkway took me round and I was there a good couple of hours in the end looking at all the different sights.
From Wai-O-Tapu my next stop of the day was Keresene Creek, which I accessed by walking through the Kaingaroa Forest straight from Wai-O-Tapu. Like the spa park in Taupo, Keresene Creek was a free place to enjoy some hot pools, although this one was literally a stream. There were several places to swim including a couple of small waterfalls and it was nice to relax for a bit again! From Keresene Creek I headed into the Rainbow Mountain Scenic Reserve. I didn't summit the mountain but I did check out of a couple of viewpoints to see the crater lakes and reddish coloured cliffs of the mountain. I set up camp here nearby the car park too as by the time I arrived it had been a long day. I was also within a 5 minute walk from the SH38 turn off which is the road I needed to access the Te Uruwera National Park the following day so it was a good base for the night.
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