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Fri 21.01.11: Te Urewera National Park to Tararua Forest Park via Wanganui
The first part of the drive was through grassland and steep valleys with very shear drops into the river valley. Here the main farming involved sheep, with the occasional deer farm. There were some planted coniferous forests but mostly the land was dry grassland. As we descended towards Wanganui the landscape became more lush and cattle farming became the main industry.
We met Loren and the two lovely boys, Joel aged 2 and Logan around 4 in a park area just outside Wanganui. Loren took us to her husband's family business to meet him and have coffee. It was great to see her…10 years ago when she came for xmas!!! She is expecting baby 3 later this year. Wow, the coffee shop was great, an art gallery attached and very tastefully set out, the garden centre part focused on art in the garden, and Blair (husband) runs a busy screen printing, sign writing/printing/embroidering business in the ajoining attractively decorated warehouse..We went and looked round the town, then returned for lunch. The boys entertained us as you will see from the photos. It was great to catch up with Loren and lovely to see her so 'unchanged and happy'.
We drove south towards Wellington for about an hour and decided to pull into the Tararua Forest - Otaki Forks Site to camp tonight. The conservation booklet was right, the gravel road in for 15km was narrow and steep and it did cross a ford. However, well worth the drive in, again beside a stream, in a wide area of the gorge and spacious and quiet. There are some other campers here…about 4 or five family groups scattered over around a five acre area interspersed with trees and hedges. This is the last weekend of their school holidays. Again this site is $6 each (not free like our last 2) though here children are free. There are lots of short walks here as well as trout fishing and kayaking. The area used to be a mining and logging area and the campsite is on the old settlement ground.
Well, no sunset tonight as there is a strong wind and heavy cloud cover…signing off to prepare a small supper! Tomorrow we head to Wellington.
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