Waipu Caves and beyond

The place we rented the RV from has a book you can rent, (not buy), that details 150 or so unknown, uncharted, unmapped, and most importantly FREE campsites.  So we use this guide to set out to find the Waipu Caves and the no charge campsite there. Pretty easy. Find the brown sign that says, Waipu Caves, (duh), and go up 12 Km of gravel road to the site. In the book it says it’s a sheep paddock. Nope. Horses. And must have been cows here as well. Based on the volumes of cow fertilizer that we parked in. Open the gate, drive on in. And avoid the spots where vehicles have obviously sunk in the mud recently. It’s a little wet given all the recent rain. It would be 4WD heaven. We are big and heavy, front wheel drive, with road tires. Not 4WD material. There were a couple of cars here when we arrived. People exploring the caves. There are supposed to be colonies of glowworms inhabiting the ceiling of the cave. We went about as far as we wanted to go without getting really seriously wet and muddy. One of the groups that emerged after having been in there a while looked like bog people. We are not equipped to make the most of this one. No helmets. A couple of small headlamps. No spare boots. We did see a couple of spots glowing but not real impressive.

Nice spot though. By 6 PM we were the only ones left. Us and the horses. And the cow pies. Fridge does not seem to want to work now.  Same for the heat. Gets to about 40 at night.

Us and the horses. A cave entrance just behind where the horses are.

Next day set out for Whangarei. Not far. But on some beautiful gravel and country roads. The countryside is spectacular. Hard to even get it on a photo. So much to see here. About every ten minutes along the road there is something you would want to stop and see. We have only gone a couple hundred kilometers in the last three days. And we missed a lot at that.

Went to explore some caves. Pretty rough stuff. You would need some gear to be able to do this safely. Being 20 years younger wouldn’t  hurt either. And hiked to a waterfall called New Zealand’s most photogenic. I believe it. And now it’s raining again so we are pretty glad we have this nice RV to hang out in. I keep wanting to grill out but we keep getting socked in.

Down into the scary wet caves we go. Been in four so far.

Now thats a nice waterfall.

M