February 04, 2019
Today was a long driving day, maybe the longest of the entire trip. I estimated 5 hours driving time from Marahau to Karamea. It was another good weather day with few clouds.
After about 2 hours of driving we had our first stop at the Kawatiri Historic Railway walk. This was a short 20-minute walk to a old railroad tunnel. The trail went around the tunnel and then looped back through the tunnel. It was interesting reading information panels about the history of the area.
We had two other short stops at nice viewpoints: Buller Gorge and Kilkenny Lookout. Then we entered the West Coast region and drove to the town of Westport to get groceries and fill up on gas. There were no gas stations further north where we were going.
We followed the coast north and stopped at the Charming Creek Walkway. This was billed in the New Zealand Frenzy guidebook as a “must do” hike. It certainly was interesting with railroad tunnels, a swinging bridge, great views of the river, and a waterfall: Mangatini Falls. But the majority of the interesting area was after hiking through 30 minutes of nondescript forest, making it a 2-hour total round trip hike. Heinrich bailed out after we reached the waterfall since his knee was starting to hurt again. I walked further, went through a nice tunnel, and watched a Weka bird near Watson's Mill. Don’t get me wrong: I liked the hike, just not the first 30 minutes of nothing at the beginning and the end. Cut that part out and it would have been great.
It was another hour drive to Karamea. We checked into our cabin at the Karamea Holiday Park. This was by far the most spartan of all the places we had stayed. We had to pay $5 extra to get sheets and a blanket for the bed since only a bottom sheet was provided. There was a shared bathroom which did not bother me, but the cabin was advertised as having a kitchenette. Technically that was correct since it had a microwave, convection oven, hot plate, and refrigerator. But there was no sink and no utensils. The refrigerator did not have a freezer. So we ended up using the shared kitchen to cook our dinner. The shared kitchen had no plates or silverware, but there was a spatula and a few pots and pans.
We cooked our dinner of lamb chops, vegetable ragout, and baked potato. We used our paper plates and plastic utensils.
That evening all of the stars were out and we had a brilliant view of the night sky. I love seeing the Southern Cross!