"Well I built me a raft and she's ready for floating. Old Mississippi keeps calling my name. Catfish are jumping, that paddle wheel thumping. Black water keeps rolling on by just the same." (10 points to whomever can name the song that's been stuck on repeat in my head since our outing last Saturday!)
Last Saturday was a rainy day here in Auckland.
Granted, any day and pretty much every day is a rainy day here. But last weekend, it rained the kind of rain we get back home -- the kind that starts when it starts and ends when it ends, and doesn't let up much in between.
We didn't want to lose an adventure day stuck inside, so we grabbed our umbrellas and extra socks and headed about 40 minutes north of Auckland to a town called Kaukapakapa. (Don't look at me for pronunciation help. That's Shane's territory ;)
Though less than hour from home, we were in the country -- and the country in New Zealand is quite beautiful. Rolling green hills dotted with fluffy white sheep and baby lambs. Brown cows grazing. Groves of trees breaking up the landscape. It's gorgeous and reminiscent of a drive down the back roads of West Virginia.
Our scenic drive took us to Omeru Pa Scenic Reserve, a park a few miles outside of town. The reserve has a beautiful picnic area with green grassy fields -- but obviously it wasn't picnic weather. We came to check out the waterfalls. That's right, plural. Omeru has three falls of varying heights: Omeru, Waitangi and Waitangi Stream Cascade.
Two of the falls -- Waitangi and Waitangi Stream Cascade -- are an easy, 10-minute walk from the car. I was actually surprised when we arrived at them. It happened so fast, the kids didn't even have time to complain ;) These falls are shorter but still quite impressive, especially on a rainy day when the water is really roaring.
The third waterfall -- Omeru -- is a longer hike, probably about 30 minutes from its sister falls. The trail is a bit on the advanced side for us, especially on a rainy, muddy day. The path more closely resembled a stream than a trail -- and it was quite slippery!
Closer to the top, the path also gets rocky, and the rain made it too slick for the kids to navigate. We decided to stop at one point and let Shane and Moses (our intrepid though not-so-smart dog) finish the trek. Shane took the video camera along, so we could at least watch the replay. My favorite part of Shane's footage is him yelling at Moses to not jump off the falls (smart dog, I tell you. I edited that part out of our video below :)
On our way back toward the car, we discovered a rope railing that leads to the bottom of the falls. I climbed down this on my own, nervous the kids would turn the riverbank into a slip and slide. From there, I had a gorgeous view. This also looks like the place where folks go swimming in the summer. I can't wait to try that!!
By the time we got back to the car, we were soaked through, quite muddy and quite exhausted. This was definitely our hardest hike yet -- but a ton of fun. We really enjoyed the adventure of it all. And though the falls were not nearly as majestic as, say, Mokoroa or KareKare, it was still amazing to see that muddy water roaring.
