Forest Pools

Forest Pools

So highway 1 took us through some small villages in the middle of knowwhere, through a gorge and steep hills then eventually we saw Forest Road, just past Rahiri Village. The long gravel road let to a small quiet campsite in the forest just beside the river, the guys and girls got there shortly after us and we began to build our fire. Then we saw some other people from Cape Reinga! Who had found the free campsite!

It was a good evening, toasting marshmallows on the fire whilst sharing wine and traveling stories. Then of course the question which everyone asks me, ‘how did you and Mikko get together?’ “well…” I say. “We met in Cornwall (to everyone’s surprise) we used to work together, he had black dreadlocks back then, he left at the end of the summer and came back last year with blond hair and a tan! And things went from there” Then we could hear the Mawpaw, it looks similar to an Owl but instead of making a ‘coo-coo’ sound it says ‘maw-paw’ which is how they got their name! It sounds so lovely. BUT… Overnight the Possum’s had raided the scraps of food and rubbish. Mess everywhere! But we soon managed to clear it up. The others left to go to Raglan, and we decided to stay for another day as it was such a nice place. We camped with the other people that stayed at Cape Reinga; two German guys, a German girl, a     guy and an American girl! Plus me being English and Mikko being Finnish, it was a jolly combination!

They told us about some hot pools they was on a dvd which wasn’t far away, so the next morning we all headed to Kaikohe. 3 vans and a Car… a 4 vehicle convoy!  We went on Highway 12 until we reached Ngawha  Springs. Wow! We couldn’t believe our eyes! Haha the beautiful smell of rotten eggs! Mmmm lovely, we took a look at the hot pools and they were green! Iew! I don’t think they had been used for a long while. A lovely Labrador came to say hello, I think she liked the hot pools, wet and smelly but very friendly like Max J anyway, we said our goodbyes as they had to go to Auckland and we were on our own little mission.