Great Barrier Island vignettes 2020, Part 4

This post describes the Kauri Falls Walk and the Kaitoke Hot Springs track. 

Thursday January 16, 2020

This was Gail’s and my big day out. David drove us to Whangaparara, an area that was once bustling with, successively – a whaling station, a timber mill, and a gold and silver mining industry. The three of us walked to Kauri Falls (45 minutes each way) along an old tramline track that is part of a system of bush tramlines from kauri logging days. There are beautiful trees here, and signs at the entrance outlining kauri dieback precautions.

Entrance to Kauri Falls walk, Great Barrier Island, Photo Ann Barrie, Jan. 2020

Kauri Falls walk, Great Barrier Island, Photo Ann Barrie, Jan. 2020

Kauri Falls, Great Barrier Island, Photo Ann Barrie, Jan. 2020

Then David delivered us at the entrance to the Kaitoke Hot Springs Track and drove home to attend to his backpacker business. It’s 45 minutes walk to the sulphurous hot springs, and we got glimpses of the Kaitoke Swamp which has plants endemic to the island. The springs are dammed at a fork in the Kaitoke Creek and the mud under our feet felt very hot. We chatted to people who arrived as we were pulling on our togs, and one woman recounted the tale (fact or fiction?) of an elderly local who enjoyed bathing further along the river, and that’s where he passed away, wedged in his little hot pool.

Gail Watson & Ann Barrie at Kaitoke Hot Springs, Great Barrier Island, Jan. 2020

Last night we'd assured David we were perfectly capable of walking the 4 km home and so we set off resolutely along the road to Claris. At first, home was just around the corner, but as the afternoon got hotter and we got wearier, the road lengthened. We collapsed onto the bench of a school bus shelter, and I read a sign, the first we’d seen: Claris 2 km. ‘Perhaps it’s time to use the thumb,’ I suggested to Gail. ‘David said someone would pick us up.’

‘Hmmm. Some of those cars are travelling too fast for conditions. Here, have more cashew nuts and water.’

I didn't press the point.

We got back eventually, and devoured hearty sandwiches of avocado, ham and tomato followed by coffee and generous chunks of Gail’s fruit cake. Visitors arrived to yarn with David, all of them amazed we'd walked four kilometres in the hot sun. Gail mentioned the speeding vehicles, and David recounted the tale of two Japanese tourists, guests of his, who took their hired 4WD onto a windy unsealed road at night and wrote it off. They were uninjured but had to pay a $2000 excess. 

In the evening, David went rabbit shooting, and Gail and I retired early, exhausted after our walk.  

Claris, Great Barrier Island. Photo Ann Barrie Jan. 2020

To be continued.

Blog by Ann Barrie

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More snapshots from Gail's and my Papakura High School days:

(1) Ann Herbert, Gail Watson & Annette Hawke at Hunua Falls, 1963:

(2) A weekend at Jackie Fagan's place beyond Clevedon. Here we are first thing in the morning: Annette is face down, still asleep; and beyond her are dark-haired Jackie, and then Ann, Gail, and Val George: 

(3) The same weekend. At left are Ann Herbert, then Gail Watson – we've clearly been swimming in the sea and bronzing ourselves – and then Jackie and Annette. At the far right is Val, always the most glamorous of our group:

(4) And just to show we scrubbed up quite well, here is the 1964 Papakura High School photo for Form 6A (nowadays called 'Year 13'): Our teacher is Mr Lonie. The front row L to R shows Elizabeth Tremaine, Gail Watson, Valerie George, ?, Merolyn Sharp, Ann Herbert, Bev Luke and Iris de Malmanche.