Te Anga and Oparau

It’s always exciting finding “new to us” places  to stay.  We had never heard of Te Anga, a small rural community along SH37, past the world famous Waitomo Caves.  Our hosts were young farmers who made us very welcome at their property Awamarino, meaning “beside still waters”.

Staying at Awamarino

For such a tiny place, there was certainly a lot to see and explore in the surrounding area.  First was the beautiful Marakopa Falls.  Walking through beautiful native bush we soon heard the sound of rushing water, and there it was, breathtakingly beautiful indeed.  The 35m high falls are often described as the most beautiful in the country, cascading as they do over the undercut greywacke basement rock.

Marakopa Falls

Although not a long walk by any means, the track took it’s toll on several of us with knee and back problems.  When did all this start to happen?  Here we are having a little sit down before resuming the uphill trek again.

Jenny, Pat, Frank, and Robin

While the others in our group were climbing umpteen steps to see some caves, rather too hard for us, we decided, we stopped off to visit the Mangapohue Natural Bridge.  This consists of two rock arches formed by the Mangapohue Stream in the Marokopa River valley near Waitomo, and the 17 m high limestone arches are a remnant of an ancient cave system.

Mangapohue Natural Bridge

Robin had heard about Tunnel Beach so that was the trip for the next day.  After driving up and over hills, along miles of gravel road, we finally arrived at our destination, Waikawau Beach.  The only access to the beach is through an 80m tunnel.  A couple of friendly locals took our photo at the tunnel entrance.

Tunnel Beach

The tunnel was dug through the sandstone cliffs in 1911 by three Works Department employees with picks and shovels.  It was made for driving cattle up the beach from Nukihatere Station on the hills above the tunnel and out to the road.  Now closed to vehicles, the tunnel is now used for pedestrian access to the beach.  Once through the tunnel, it is like stepping into another world, with the isolated black sand beach at the end.  A huge tree trunk had been washed up on the beach, we wondered where that had journeyed from.  Such a lovely place indeed.

Waikawau Beach

And just look at the state of the back window after driving along all that unsealed road.

The next day we moved on to stay at the Oparau Roadhouse.  This establishment boasts quite a collection of bikes attached to the fence, quite the drawcard for camera toting travelers we were told.  It took us a bit of time and trouble to get the vans into place at the top of the rise, but we finally managed.

Staying at the Oparau Roadhouse

From here we took a drive out to nearby Kawhia.  Being a lovely sunny day, lots of the local kids were enjoying themselves jumping off the bridge, just as we saw last time we visited.  Great to see kids enjoying themselves in the outdoors.

Kawhia Wharf

Back to camp for a well deserved ice-cream, followed by 4zees under the shady awning.  And of course, staying at The Roadhouse, we just had to have our evening meal there, didn't we!  The day was completed with an amazing sunset lighting up the sky, another great day in paradise.

Sunset at Oparau