Today is a light travel day as we shift to lodgings further south. Along the way we stopped at several attractions, the highlight being Wairere Falls shown above — more on this below. Before that, we visited the spa town of Te Aroha. This had been developed in Victorian times as a health resort, and reminded us a bit of our visit to Saratoga Springs. There were similar park-like grounds, with named and numbered springs offering water with different properties, and various bathing cabins for different sorts of guests.

One of the springs even offers a small geyser that spouts off periodically. We waited around to see if it would shoot while we were there to witness. It bubbled and fulminated, and every so often would throw up small spouts of water, but nothing like a full-scale eruption. Susannah managed to catch one of these overflows in the act.

Leaving Te Aroha behind us, we continued down the road a short distance to the Wairere Falls entry point. Based on the number of visitors, the falls seem to be a popular destination. At 153m, it is the tallest waterfall on the North Island and second tallest in NZ, and was running well today from the recent rains.

The car park is a good 45 minute walk from the viewing platform at the base of the falls. We have noticed that whereas at home we’re used to reading the given time estimates and assuming we may be able to complete the walk in a faster time, around here when they say 45 minutes they really mean it. The average Kiwi is clearly quite fit! Anyway, the hike to see the falls went pretty steeply upwards, at one point ascending on a multiflight wooden staircase, but it was totally worth it.

Our day is not yet over — we have one more event in store that we’re excited to share, but as it is scheduled to end very late this evening we have decided to end this post here and tell you all about it in a future installment.