Peaks and Places | Travel and Adventure Blog

Wairere Falls

As we began to drive up to the Northland for our first farm stay (We work four hours a day in return for a bed for the night and meals), we saw a huge waterfall from the side of the road. We had planned our trip north well, and had extra time to spare, so we decided to go check it out. It was about a 10 minute detour from the highway we were on, and oh was it worth it! Once we were in the car park, it was estimated as a 45-minute hike to the view point. There was an additional 45 minute hike after the view point to the summit of the waterfall, but we did not feel like going all the way up this time. By the end of our hike, a storm was coming in, so it all worked out well!

It was a pretty steep hike up to the view point, with lots of stairs and switchbacks. The entire hike was gorgeous, with bridges and a constant stream. There were also several small waterfalls along the way. I took advantage of the beautiful scenery and took lots of pictures along the way. The view point was well worth the hike. The waterfall is 153 meters tall, or just over 500 feet. If we had never seen it from the side of the road, we would have never known it was there and would have missed out on this stunning hike!

Waipu Caves

On our way up to our campsite for the night, we passed through Waipu, which is pretty close to the coast. We had been told about Waipu caves, and the possibility of seeing glow worms, so we wanted to check it out on our way north. On the way to the caves we passed a commercial cave, called the Milky Way, which I’m sure is a great place to tour caves and see a lots of glow worms. However, if you continue past the caves, you’ll go into a small carpark for Waipu Caves. When we arrived, we were the only vehicle there. We grabbed our headlamps and flashlight (or torch, as the Kiwi say), and headed off into the cave.

There is a map outside that shows you a path through the cave, but a nice Kiwi we met earlier in our travels gave us a different set of directions. Following his directions we made it into a large open area deep within the cave. We turned our headlamps and flashlights off and were rewarded with hundreds if not thousands of glow worms all around us. The glow worms glow because they are bioluminescent and the bioluminescence is created through a reaction of an enzyme called luciferase and a variety of other chemicals causing the blue-green glow. The chemicals and enzymes from their bodies are reacting with oxygen in the air to create light.
It waw truly amazing to see, and well worth going to again.

Uretiti Beach Campsite

After exploring the caves, we headed to our campsite for the night, which was nearby. Again, we were able to use our DOC pass for this campsite, although we did have to make a reservation beforehand. After checking in and being told the gates close at 9, we found our campsite for the night. This campsite had cold showers, which is always a plus, so after we both showered we decided to go out to dinner. There was a little town nearby that had a tavern we decided to go to. We shared the seafood platter, which had a raw fish dip, fried squid, fried fish bites, grilled shrimp, and mussel fritters. The shrimp were absolutely delicious. Everything else was very good, but we weren’t crazy impressed.

The next morning we woke up and watched a bunch of quail run around outside of the van. We watched them for a little while and then went for a walk on the beach. The campsite had beach access, so it was really easy to get a quick walk along the coast in before hitting the road again.