I heard a lot of stag calls last night, though there was a distinctly human quality to many of them. It’s how the hunters attract the stags towards them as reciprocal stag calls amount to a ‘challenge’. However, I can’t help thinking it was just two hunters confused as to whether the return call was beast or man. There weren’t any shots fired last night because, as former Welshman Robert explains, you would have to be nuts to go firing shots out in the middle night. This is not to say that you can’t see stags at night because their eyes shine out ‘like big silver golf balls’. Apparently, this campsite will be packed out in a couple of weeks as the deer hunting season gets started properly. Robert doesn’t seem too pleased about this, presumably because there will be too much competition.
I’ve related my experience of Milford Sound a couple of weeks ago and Robert says that he has kayaked from Doubtful Sound to Milford Sound, which sounds like something I would like to do. How long did it take? ‘Eight weeks,’ he says. Oh well, maybe next time.....
I had a strange dream last night, where I walked into a crowded room to find a young slim Elton John singing a song by a band called Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (or previously The Beatnigs, both of whom feature Michael Shanti, now of Spearhead, music trivia nerds)....’Television, drug of the nation, breeding ignorance and feeding radiation’.....not very Bernie Taupin-esque lyrics you understand, and another good song murdered, I think to myself as I stand at the back of the room. ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ anyone? However, my brother, who in reality I haven’t seen or spoken to since I left the UK, is at the back of the room and he says it sounds good.....
We have to go back through Taupo today to get Caz to her 10:30 appointment to get pushed out of plane at 15,000 feet. However, it is too windy this morning apparently, although it is not very windy on the ground. So we have a few hours to kill and we decide to go for a walk around Huka Falls.
Upstream from these falls, the river narrows from about 100m diameter down to about 15m, which means the river suddenly becomes a rapid that only suicidal rafters would attempt, even if the rapid didn’t eventually lead to the 35m crashing waterfall. At the top of the walk toward the falls is a hot spring creek, which forms a natural Jacuzzi and a chance for a free natural hot springs bathing experience. Hot springs have been turned into commercial enterprises wherever possible, but this one is not big enough for that, and we pass a group young women coming out of it in their bikinis.
After the walk, we go back for Caz’s parachute jump. She is very nervous as she is escorted into the plane and Mary and I watch as it ascends out of visibility. About half an hour later, Caz is back on the ground with a flushed and excited face, exclaiming that she wants to go again.....
We camp by Lake Rerewhakaaitu where we bump into an American couple who recognise Olive, our van, from the South Island. We are just south of Rotorua, the volcanic town by the lake of the same name.
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| steaming hot spring |
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