Pt2 Day 47. Gayne Rd to Waitomo - 8/04/16

We were up early again and away by 0700.  Today was a 27km hike through to Waitomo village - the GPS data for the day is here.

Belinda's shoes had started to come apart at the front so we spent a little time doing some running repairs with duct tape!  Technically our first 1.5km were still on Gayne Rd but farm track through scrub and bush would describe it better :-).  It was a lovely sunrise this morning, with low cloud/fog in the valleys below us as we started.

Sunrise below at 6:10 a.m.

6:18 a.m.

6:28 a.m.

6:37 a.m. - slightly different angle looking a little further north of east.

6:41 a.m. and the sun has appeared!

.... and 7:03 a.m.

Our first attempt at duct-taping B's shoes. Didn't last long!!

The "finished" article - 5:50 a.m.

​It was a little wet, but pleasant walking conditions nonetheless - heavy dews again meaning that feet would be wet regardless of precipitation!  The walk was a mixture of farmland, scrub and a little bush, including yet another farm airstrip to pass through, until around 1130 when we headed back into more bush for a while.

Leaving the sunsets behind - time to start the business for the day!

And pretty easy terrain it was to start as well.

Still a nice track through bush.

By 0800 we had a little rain so B had coat and rain skirt on.

Deer? And by 0800 the duct tape was already in the rubbish bag!!

I donned the rain gear as well :-)

Through a tunnel of bush .......

..... and out onto farmland again, with a sizeable mob of lambs.

Still a bit of drizzle around.

0930 and 17km to go to Waitomo.

Just to let you know you are at an airstrip! Wet weather means the occasional moisture on camera lens.

Plenty of bush to be seen.

Slightly scrubbier stuff to walk through as well.

High enough for occasional views.

Back into bush with 13km to go - nice sign put up by a local.

Starting back into open bush.

After a bit of bush we got onto a network of old forestry tracks that also appear to be used by horse riders and mountain bikers.  These clay tracks tended to be quite badly washed out so going up and down was not easy, especially as it was a little damp which made things pretty slippery in places as well!

Occasionally we were directed off these clay tracks through shorter bits of narrower bush track with little DoC marker posts saying "not suitable for horses"!  A little more bush walking then saw us emerge at the south end of the Waitomo Forest Access Track onto a gravel road.

This type of track makes for pleasant walking.

B sees a face in the hollow of this tree trunk. Darth Vader maybe?!

And this is a gnome with a hat and fat cheeks!! Masquerading as a fungus!

Bright green - liverwort?

Saw (smelt in the case of billy goats) a number of these pests along the way.

Decided to stop for some lunch before a wet-foot crossing of the Moakurarua stream. Apparently this can be a challenge after rain but it was only ankle deep for us.

Lovely view looking upstream into bush.

Horse hoof in the mud.

These clay tracks can be really slippery - still plenty of moisture around.

Quite washed out and rutted - you have to watch your footing.

Sign as we exited at the northern end of Ngatapuwae Rd.

Onto the start of Ngatapuwae Rd.

We followed the gravel Ngatapuwae Rd for a couple of kms until we met up with a sealed road for the final 3km stretch past the Waitomo Caves to the Waitomo Holiday Park in the village itself.  This was a gradual downhill, dropping about 160m over the distance to Waitomo village.  We had booked a cabin for a couple of nights - with a planned rest day tomorrow it also gave us time to catch up on washing etc this afternoon.  

We had intended to pig out on pizza but for some unexplained reason the pizza place was closed (its part of a local backpackers so very odd that it wasn't open - especially on a Friday night), so we retired to Curly's Bar close by for a pub feed and drinks before heading back to the relative comfort of our cabin for the night!  

Some through bush.

Some through farmland - looked like dairy grazers as we couldn't see any milking sheds or other facilities anywhere.

Shortcut across the roundabout heading up to the Caves.

The familiar entrance to the Waitomo Caves.

The old hotel on the hill opposite the campground.

Curly's Bar - me looking happy to have a nice locally brewed wheat beer in front of me.