Tuesday, 8 November 2011

Waikaremoana: A Place Worth Fighting In and For

Waikaremoana is one of the most remote and well preserved locales on the North Island. Just ask Ginny’s stomach about the 2 hours of gravel road with a hairpin turn every 50 metres. It was up there on the infamous roads list with our legendary Himalyan Roads of past adventures. Happily, we were behind the wheel, not a crazy Indian, and also there was almost no other traffic (no Indian trucks or busses). Well there was the one crazy van hurtling around a corner but. Waikaremoana has always been remote and so was the hiding place of the last of the Maori guerillas who fought the British in the late 19th century. In the 1970s it was a battle of a different sort in which the good guys (the environmentalists) won and preserved the forests forever from logging, transforming it into a large, remote national park. We thank them and benefited from their courage. Here are a few photos and captions for our 4 day, 60 km tramp around the lake and through the forest. More words do not seem necessary.




Mr. Agility (there was a bit of mud)...

An amazing, mystical NZ Beech Forest...



Don't tell Peter Jackson but we found Treebeard 
and interviewed him, quite a wise old Ent.










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