Thank you for your patience with the last post being up longer than the five or six days that I usually allow before moving on to a new one. I wanted my Trailmaking 101 to stay up a few days along with the photo of my deer blind.
Since trying my hand at writing, I have gained in appreciation for what real writers must go through. A surprising amount of work was involved for me in producing Tales of Trails. Since recently I determined that I wasn't going to make it any better, I decided to just post the thing as it was. And now that I had it posted, I wanted to leave it there a little longer.
And thanks for the comments that you liked my effort.
Also, I intend to leave my deer blind photo up as the header for a while. Maybe until the end of deer season, we'll see. (I just like it, can you blame me?)
...and now, back to the new post.
Hunua Falls
In this post we will travel to Hunua Falls, in the Hunua Range. We'll also take a little side trip to one of the many reservoirs in the area that help supply Auckland.
None of the peaks in the Waitakere Range, that you've heard me talk about often in the past, exceed 2,000 feet in height. The highest peak in the Hunua Range is 2,250 feet. Our goal was located about an hour from home, south east of Auckland. Allie's navigational skills were perfect and she found first the gorge (which was gorgeous) and then the falls themselves with no problems.
Here the ladies are on the bridge across the river, admiring the view, which is shown in the second picture.
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| A pretty picture to be sure, but it doesn't show the true size of the falls. |
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| I could already start to feel some of the spray from this platform. |
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| It was a bit overcast today |
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| See what I mean? This thing is bigger than it appeared from the bridge. |
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| All over NZ, at scenic sites, they have these giant picture frames. I didn't do a very good job of 'framing' this one though. |
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| Here, we are hiking in to see a reservoir. |
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| The boys are playing at a sheep pen that lies at the foot of some reservoir earthworks that can be seen at the top left side of this photo. |
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| Baaah. So this is where the truck drives up to haul 'us' away. Baaaah. |
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| 'sheep on the hoof boys on the roof ' Once they started up the slope, the boys discovered they could step easily on to the shed |
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| Jeanne and I stayed below while Allie and the boys climbed to the top. |
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| The view toward the sheep pen. -djf |
Ohhhhh! Another breathtaking adventure! Love the falls and love the giant picture frames! I think Jeanne already mentioned this adventure in a recent Skype visit. I remember seeing the Hunua range off in the easterly distance on our trip last year to Rotorua. They looked almost enchanted then: dark rolling hills with there summits hidden in clouds.... your pictures really do reveal an enchanting place!
ReplyDeleteLove seeing the boys playing so happily on the sheep enclosure. They are really growing up fast!
The temperate rainforests here always did give me the feeling of mystery and the unknown. It wouldn't be hard to imagine some of the palm and fern glades to be enchanted.
DeleteI just got a photo from home though of a doe in a cedar swamp, and I couldn't take my eyes off it. What a beautiful picture. Enchanting for sure. To me anyway.
The world is full of beauty.
And yes, the boys are really maturing.
You were so correct that the falls were even bigger than they appear. You always capture the beauty of the land by picture and by your descriptive language. Diane is so right about the boys sprouting up. I loved the sign about only 3 people on the bridge. It brought me back to the Presque Isle bridge and how afraid I was in crossing it. Of course, it did not help with people jumping on it to make it swing and sway. I would be very dubious of the bridge with that sign. Still, it is smart for them to be careful. McKenzie
ReplyDeleteI can understand why they limited the number of people on the bridge to three. Even when I walked across it alone, I felt it moving under me more than I expected that it would. It is a light-weight, although it does has reassuringly thick cables anchoring it on either end.
ReplyDeleteIt's also much shorter than either the Presque Isle or the Black River Falls bridges are, so you get across it quickly. -D