Te Aroha – Feel The Love

After three adventure packed days in Waihi, it was time to continue our journey around places closer to home. Just thirty or so minutes down the road is the small town of Te Aroha where the NZMCA has one of their Parks. We arrived to find the park much fuller than expected (you can see all the motorhomes in the headline photo.) and wondered if there was a rally or something similar going on. As it turned out, we had arrived the day the Timber Town Romp had finished. This very popular three day music festival has been written about by one of my fellow bloggers and you can read his story and see his photo’s here. But, with tickets sold out months prior we couldn’t have attended even if we wanted to.

Sometimes I wonder why the NZMCA agrees to develop a Park in some of the areas where they are located. When I first heard about the one in Te Aroha I must confess to thinking the same things, but I am not too proud to admit I was wrong about this one. In fact, the first time we visited as shown in the photos above we decided not to stay thinking there was little to do here. Oh, how wrong we were. You might even ask why we bothered to go back, and that’s a fair question. The answer lies with our middle son who had spoken in glowing terms about the nearby tramping tracks.

We had recently returned from a trip to visit some of Sarah’s family in the USA where we had hiked some amazing trails in Yosemite National Park and the Hollywood hills. With this new found fitness we were keen to continue with some tramps here in NZ. Also, in the photo above, you can see one of the RV Parks we found as we drove down the coast. It made me realise just how lucky we are, in that other than Christmas you can find a spot to stay almost anywhere in this beautiful country.

We spent four nights in Yosemite staying close to the Park entrance. While this wasn’t cheap it did save having to wait in a queue to enter which somedays can stretch to well over an hour. The first night we got talking with a small group of 20 somethings at the hotel swimming pool, who the following day were going to summit El Capitan. This is probably one of the most famous vertical faces in rock climbing and a very serious challenge. The following afternoon we met them again soaking their bodies in the warm water. They told us that they had left at 3am to beat the “crowds” to the base of the wall and had completed the climb in a little over eight hours, a remarkable achievement. And not one I would even consider attempting. They definitely looked stiff and sore.

A wander up to the main street which is just a few hundred metres from the Park brings you up close to a number of sculptures that add something special to the street. Like a lot of towns in New Zealand there are a few empty shops and an overabundance of cafe’s and bakeries but it doesn’t feel as depressed as some places we have visited. In fact the shopkeepers we spoke to all seemed very positive about things and very welcoming to NZMCA members.

The other side of the main road leads up to Mt Te Aroha and a number of walking trails including the climb to the summit which is a three hour walk each way. Choosing not to do the full track we walked up to a wonderful viewing platform where there were some great photo opportunities of the town. A bit beyond the platform was the bench shown in the photo where Sarah and I shared lunch to recover some of the spent energy. Further up the track we reached the Mine/Waterfall track that would take us down a different route.

The track down was nowhere near as well looked after as the track we had taken up. Being very narrow and steep in places, thankfully there were lots of trees to hold onto to prevent slipping down some rather steep banks. We found the mine entrance, pretty hard to miss really, It makes you wonder what sort of lonely life the miners must have led as access is not exactly an easy stroll from the town.

We had a crazy amount of rain overnight and the waterfall in the hills could be seen in full flow cascading down the mountain, from the NZMCA Park. Since we hadn’t managed to get there the previous day we decided to hike in and see if we could get close enough for some photos. Just to show us how much rain there had been overnight we tried four different paths to get to the waterfall but all were blocked, as in the video above. So we did get to photograph some waterfalls just not the one we wanted.

After abandoning our attempt to get to the waterfall we had a quiet day back in the motorhome before setting out the following day for the Waiorongomai Valley. Located just a five kilometres down the road it’s another old gold mining area with some fantastic walking tracks. Setting out on the track we almost immediately encountered the first of many waterfalls. With the track still soaking wet from the rain we had a discussion about continuing but decided that we could always turn back if things became too serious.

What I love about this sort of walk are all the relics and ruins that have been left in place from times gone past. There is almost a ghostly feel as you wander around the old settling tanks and wonder what the place might have looked and sounded like when it was in operation.

We reached a fork in the track where we could either walk up the old incline railway or follow what looked like a very wet and muddy track leading back towards the start. We chose the incline because although it looked ridiculously steep it didn’t look that tall. Oh, how deceptive things can be as we climbed the almost vertical railway line, we crested a small brow to discover that up and up it went. In the end it was two very exhausted people who reached the top, where a sign talks about it being the equivalent of 85 flights of stairs.

In the end we only had to walk through one small stream that couldn’t be crossed without getting our feet wet. Tired but energized, if that makes sense, we made our way back to the motorhome and our final night in Te Aroha. Once we had returned to Auckland, I took steps to ensure that if I do have to ford a stream in the future that my feet remain dry. With leather rather than mesh boots.

From a town that I didn’t think had much to offer we again came away surprised by how much we enjoyed our time there.