Oparara Arch, Moria Gate and cave spiders

When we arose from our blessed slumbers at The Last Resort the weather was shining. We (she) decided to visit some geological formations called the Oparara Arch, Moria Gate and a couple caves. One of the caves was called the Box Canyon cave and the other was called the Crazy Paving cave.
Heading out of town we had to stop by the Police station:


The Oparara Arch is a natural limestone arch nibbled away by the Oparara River.



The Moria Gate Arch is one of several locations that have been renamed after Lord of the Rings places. I don't know what it was before. It doesn't really look much like the true Moria Gate, you know, the one in real life...in the Misty Mountains...

View from the outside

I thought "man what a gyp". I turned around to go back and Cynthia says let's just see what's around the corner. When we went on there was a sign pointing the way to Moria Gate. The trail actually went up and over the gate to the other side.

I told you it looked like Jurassic Park

On the other side we found the cave opening leading into the bowels of Moria...


When we were flying to Christchurch from Auckland we were seated next to a woman. Cynthia and she talked the whole way down. It was another case of the "It's a small world" syndrome. Turns out she lives in Smithers British Columbia, just up the road (in Canada terms) from our cabin at Nimpo Lake! She had been to Nimpo many times and knew some of our neighbors.

So what does this have to do with arches and caves? Just when we got back to the parking lot who walks out of the woods but the woman from Smithers. Weird.

When we were in Karamea we saw this car drive by (your usual camry type rental car) that had a rack on it that carried a fishing rod from the hood up over the top of the car. It looked kind of slick. Right after we got to the car park for the caves, that same car drives up and parks right next to us. I had to talk to the guy and check out this gizmo. Seems he had come up with this slick 2-piece rack, both pieces had flat plates on the bottom that were magnetic and could be stuck anywhere on the car that was convenient. In this case one on the hood and one on the top. He had two nice rods on it and they are only held to the rack by small bungy cords. I don't know much about spinning rods but he had about $2000 worth of fly rod/reel strapped on. He said he'd been traveling around for 6 weeks and nobody had bothered it yet.
Judging by the accents I'm guessing they were Scandinavian.

They took off up the trail ahead of us while we got our head lamps out. When we got to the cave they were coming back grumbling about needing a "torch", which is flashlight everywhere else in the world but the US. I offered him my spare and we went down together.

It was a little bit of a mistake because he and his friend must have been geologists or something because they would yammer away in their native tongue about every tiny thing they came across, and they kept going farther into the cave. See the problem here is I had given them a $3 flashlight that I bought in the checkout line at Lowe's or someplace so I felt obligated to stick around until they got out safely. I don't know if you've ever been deep in a cave and turned off your light but it is frightening. You put your hand up in front of your face and stare as hard as you can and then you'll end up touching your nose without even realizing your hand was close. Of course the next thing is you start thinking about how screwed you'd be if your light went out. So our cave adventure lasted longer than I had hoped.

After everyone had returned safely from the bowels of the earth we hopped in the car and headed back down the coast bound for Westport again. Our timing had been excellent. We came around a corner and the road people were just working on a "slip" that had us trapped up there and we didn't even know it! They had just gotten half the roadway clear so we were off and running.

November 23, North to Karamea

There are only 3 roads that cross the mountains to the west coast in South Island. If you happen to be cut off from one of these you're hosed for a while. We were planning to head north to Karamea beyond the northern "escape route". We were watching the news in the morning and they were issuing a "heavy rain warning" for north Westland, guessing at about 170 mm (6.65 in.) of rain. We talked to the proprietress of the lodging establishment about the situation and our plans. She shrugged and said "take your toothbrush".

The road to Karamea is narrow and winding; sometimes along the coast, sometimes through steep hilly terrain called the Karamea Bluffs. We were told to keep our eye out for "slips" (land slides). At points it was raining so hard that the wipers on full couldn't keep up so we had to slow to impulse speed and hope no one was coming from the other direction.

Now, Karamea is sometimes referred to (mostly in its own literature) as the "West Coast's best kept secret". It's no secret; there's just no reason to ever go there unless you're doing the Heaphy Track. When we got there it was rainy, gray and dismal. It reminded me of Blade Runner without the cheerful scenery.

The first thing I had to do was hit the john when we got into town. I got a quick look at what to expect while standing at the urinal:


Now just how on earth do they expect you to be able to make an informed purchasing decision when they don't tell you what flavors? One mince pie and the other Tui beer?

And since we're talking about urinals, something that was once commonplace in the US, but is now rare, is prevalent throughout NZ. The big wide stainless steel trough urinal where you can stand 6 abreast and carry on conversations about how the rains are affecting the crops, or how you did whitebaiting this season.


I try to think back and figure out just when our urinals became porcelain with the "gay barrier" partitions. I'm guessing it probably started in school. Some soccer mom (we'll call her Pamela) probably started whining to the school board about how she didn't want her little son Jimmy to find out he was inadequate until he was married and his wife had a chance to break the news.

And let's not forget proper etiquette. In accordance with the International Center for Bathroom Etiquette (http://www.icbe.org/) you always have to leave a vacant unit between you and other "participants" whenever possible; eyes forward, no talking. God forbid you get stuck with the handicap pisser. Moving on...

One of the first things we wanted to do was to settle on lodging for the night. The prospects were grim. We went to the iSite and asked around. They told us the The Last Resort (aptly named) was probably the best. We were disappointed to find out that Karamea isn't technically on the ocean, it's on an estuary (read mud flat at low tide), so there were no ocean-side accommodations. We checked things out and decided (based on limited options, and not wanting to camp in the rain) to book in for the night.

The facility is supposed to be sort of a tropical island theme. The walls were cast concrete with cute little portholes for windows:


To me, the ambiance was more like, I don't know, Havanna one year after Castro took over.

They sort of need to clean the gutters a little

To finish off the day we decided to head to the beach in the storm. I should never have bought Cynthia rain gear. New Zealand publishes pamphlets about water safety, including ocean beach safety, and swimming tips for rip tides and undertows. One of the things they mention is never turn your back on the surf, because "rogue" waves are not uncommon.

"Now just step back a little bit...little more, almost got it..."

I found archeological evidence of Maori human sacrifice

It is a rain forest after all, but it reminds me of Jurassic Park

Notice the gentle babbling brook in the background? And now back to the hot showers...

Cynthia makes a friend...

What a cute little kitty. The trouble is that after having him in the room for a short visit, all through the night the little bastard yowled outside our door. I don't mean meowed. I mean YOWLED. That's not including the cat fight at 3 am.