The unsealed road winds its way through the dense NZ bush. This is typical North Island wilderness – dense temperate rainforest, peaty rivers, jetsam and flotsam from the logging up river. No wonder the early settlers found it hard to get going. I found it difficult enough to drive through that day.
The Forgotten Highway is a 150km road linking the two volcanic regions of Ruapehu and Taranaki. It’s a bit of an adventure because it traverses thick rainforest, a few mountain passes, and a one-way tunnel. To top it off the middle 30km or so is unsealed.
I must say that I couldn’t really enjoy the drive that day because I was coming down with the flu. It made the trip even more interesting as I was trying to get to New Plymouth as quickly as I could without driving myself off the road. But I did take quite a few rest stops.
The first was at the top of Strathmore Saddle, which gave me a great view of the volcanoes in Tongariro National Park (namely Mt Ruapehu, Mt Tongariro, and the cone-shaped Mt Ngauruhoe. Being early August, the peaks had a good covering of snow on them.
I’m starting a new sequence of posts today about one journey I took through New Zealand back in 2004. Yes, there’s certainly a wealth of photos from that trip (as with all my trips to NZ), simply because it’s such a stunning country to photograph.
This journey was in the west of the North Island, from Waitomo to New Plymouth. Waitomo is famous for its extensive cave system, many of which contain glow worms. Seriously, you’ve never seen glow worm caves like these before, because they are large, and they are very, very wet.
Access is via a number of means. The more adventurous go caving, which includes abseiling 20 or so metres into an abyss, or white water rafting. I went via the most placid form, on an aluminium boat, but the caves were still spectacular.
Of course, it’s almost impossible to take photos of glow worms, but here is one of the tributaries of the Waitomo River that runs through the caves, which made just as pretty a picture.
The track winds its way around to the other side of the baths and eventually around the other side of point.
Here we bid farewell to the baths and to Oatley Park. I hope you have enjoyed your armchair walk.
The baths are positively old school. With old school change rooms and steps…
Old school diving blocks…
And an old school pontoon, too.
It’s more lively in the middle of summer…
But it was almost completely deserted last weekend – I say almost because I saw one hardy lady come out of the baths and into the change room!
Ever since I bought Bjork’s 90’s classic album, Post during my uni years, I’ve had a fascination for Icelandic music and Iceland in general. One of my dream holidays as a photographer would be to go to Iceland, but while that remains a pipe dream (for now) I have gotten closer to that mystical island through the music of Bjork and Sigur Ros.
Today I discovered the music of Sigur Ros’s lead singer, Jonsi. My first listen of Jonsi’s first solo album, Go left me so joyful that it lifted me out of the slump I’d been in for much of the morning. It’s a heady combination of Jonsi’s falsetto, lush orchestration, and a sense of optimism that I really rarely hear in modern music nowadays. While I describe most of Sigur Ros’s music as optimistic melancholy, the music of its lead singer is positive and joyful.
Just have a look at this:
I might have only listened to this album once, but for me this will end up being my ‘album of the year’. Which makes me glad to have bought tickets to Jonsi’s show at the Enmore Theatre in early August. Judging by what’s on the album and the reviews of the album and his gigs online, it’s going to be stupendous.
While some people were fishing off watercraft, others were fishing off land. This father and son pair are fishing off a jetty in Oatley Bay, next to the bathing area. In summer, the baths are certainly more popular, but now that the temperature’s dropped the jetty would be a spot to snap up on a weekend.
The track eventually descends 50m or so down to the Georges River. It is cooler and wetter here, so there are a few ferns growing along with the grass trees.
The wildflowers that grow here are different to the ones on top of the ridge. Flannel flowers are absent here. Instead we see the first spray of wattle…
A type of pea flower…
And another one of my favourites, heath bell flowers, which are making their first appearance.
The track around Oatley Park peninsula is a simple, sandy affair. It starts by following the ridge line above the water through dry eucalypt forest. In the shady spots you can see plenty of grass trees growing (of substantial size).
And in the sunny spots a few flannel flowers are starting to bloom. I really like these flowers and want them in my garden – if only I can find a nursery that sells them.
Well, there was a little activity. A few dog walkers on the track, and on the water, two fishermen in a dinghy enjoying the mid-morning tranquility.
Static and Silence 