Our original plan for the day was to hire bicycles and cycle a section of the Hauraki Rail Trail from Paeroa to Waihi. This pleasant itinerary was derailed in the best of ways: at 8 AM we spoke with company that had canceled our kayak expedition the day before, and learned that against all odds the conditions had calmed overnight and they were running an expedition that morning. All we had to do was get there by 9 AM. The launch point was a 50 minute drive from our lodging, via a super-twisty mountain road. And we weren’t dressed yet. Challenge accepted! We rolled in at 8:59 AM, all in one piece and ready to go.

Our destination was Whenuakuara, the middle island in the photo above. It is an island with a secret.

Paddling together in a double kayak, we crossed the channel to the island. It has cliffs facing the sea in all directions. In places these have been eroded into sea caves. They are dark and narrow and tricky to navigate with the waves rolling in. But if you pick the right one, you will find the secret of the island.

The center of the island is hollow (!), and forms a sheltered lagoon with trees arching overhead. The Maori call this a “place of learning,” and it is certainly a special place. The locals refer to it more prosaically as “Donut Island”.

Landing on Whenuakuara is forbidden because it has been designated as a bird sanctuary. However, when our visit to the secret lagoon was over we crossed another short channel to nearby Hauturu island, where we could pull up on the sand beach. Our guide Molly served us homemade kawakawa tea, and we paid our respects to the local gulp of cormorants.

Despite being one for the memory books, our trip to Whenuakuara took only the morning. So as a result we found our way back to Paeroa (via the same twisty mountain road) around lunchtime, and were able to pick up the bicycles that we had already reserved before our plans for the day changed.

The Hauraki Rail Trail stretches for 160 kilometers in all, and is one of New Zealand’s 23 designated “great rides”. We chose to ride the section through the Karangahake Gorge, widely considered the finest leg of the journey. The original railroad along this route was built to service the gold mining industry, and its legacy is visible everywhere — from the ruins of the Victoria Battery, in its time the largest such facility in Australia or New Zealand, to the “rake” side-dumping railcars still sitting on the siding at Waihi station waiting for the next load of ore that may never come. Despite these rusting relics, the trail travels through an idyllic countryside, following the Ohinemuri River through the narrow gorge (pictured at top) into a series of prosperous pasturelands.

The most exciting point of the trail comes at the Karangahake Gorge itself, where the railroad engineers bored a 1km+ tunnel that cut off a loop of the river and allowed the railroad to travel at a steady grade through the bottleneck. The tunnel is perfectly straight, so you can just barely see the light at the other end as you enter from one side. Cyclists are advised to use their headlights when riding through.

Shortly after the tunnel, an easy side trail takes visitors to see Owharoa Falls. Since it had rained steadily the day before, we were able to witness it under high flow conditions.

The spur line we were following ends at Waihi, another former mining town and now one of the most pleasant communities we have seen here so far, with a deluxe playground full of kids having fun, and a picturesque main street. At one end of the aforementioned street there used to be a hill. When gold was discovered beneath it, the hill soon became riddled with mine tunnels, which were later abandoned and at one point served as the lair of a famous criminal. Today the hill has become something else entirely — worth a look if only for its vast scale. (The path around the rim is 5km long, but we declined to take it since we still had a long trip home to make.)

We ended the day with a pilgrimage to one final site: a statue honoring the locally produced soda pop. We bought a bottle too; Susannah reports that it tastes a bit like super-sweetened, extra-lemony Sprite. From there, we retired to our lodging with a well-earned dinner from the Kebab Station (slogan: “listen to your heart; it says “kebab, kebab, kebab!”) and a bottle of New Zealand rose wine. What a day!