December 30th, 2019
It was a beautiful morning at Rosie’s Bay although the wind
was picking up early. I wanted to backtrack
to see the old tree that I’d missed yesterday but decided to head up to Lou’s Lookout
first. It was only about a kilometer up
the road and you could actually see the lookout structure from the
campsite. I lucked out and got the last of
five parking spots and began the half hour hike up the hill. It was an invigorating little walk and part
of it went under some large boulders that were leaning together creating a tunnel,
which also had some small caves off to the side. The view from the top was super, looking over
Lake Waikaremoana and its various bays and inlets. Whitecaps were already forming on the lake
even though it was only 10 am.
Early morning at Rosie's Bay:
The rock caves:
That's the campsite in that inlet, the light coloured bit.
Pointing out Rosie's Bay (of course it's the mirror image being a selfie).
From there I did retrace my tracks from yesterday to find
this 800-1000 year old tree. Since cell
service reception was spotty in the area, my phone wasn’t too helpful but
amazingly it could still show me where I was on the CamperMate app whereas I
couldn’t have Google Maps guide me there.
Anyways, I found the spot and I wasn’t surprised that I missed it the day
before as the sign there didn’t mention the “Rata Tree” which the app did. Additionally, it was on a hairpin turn in the
road so if you’re driving by yourself, you’re kind of preoccupied so it’s tough
to read signs.
I parked and started the 30 minute hike. It was a lovely forest and as I reached the
Rata tree I could hear voices, both old and young. As I approached the tree I could see that
there was a platform with some benches and a family of about 14 people, three
generations, sitting and enjoying this wonder of nature. The tree was amazing with a huge majestic trunk. I’ve seen taller trees but this one was still
super impressive. It blows me away to
think about what was going on the world when this tree started to grow. Maoris may not have even been on the island,
so no human presence at all. To think of
all of the sunrises and sunsets this tree had witnessed…
That's the top of the old tree:
Hard to capture it all...
I chatted with the family who were from Wellington. Really nice people and they gave me some
pointers on where I should go in the remainder of my time in New Zealand, and where
to avoid, like the small city of Gisborne where an annual music festival was
currently happening, about 26,000 people, mostly in their early 20s.
Driving towards the east coast, I took care of some household
affairs such as laundry, groceries and a shower in the campervan friendly town
of Wairoa, before heading on to a beach campsite further east on the coast at
Opoutama. It was a nice beach although
the campsite was relatively full, with a number of Kiwi versions of “rednecks”
driving around on their ATVs. Still, it
was another nice evening, and the second last one of the year, and decade!
Views en route:
At the beach:
Looking back at the camping area, Betty 2.0 is right about in the middle.
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