The enterprising motorhome (as opposed to the starship Enterprise) and it’s crew of two continue exploring the far reaches of the North Island galaxy and are now camped in deep space somewhere in the middle of Te Urewera National Park…

What a voyage so far. As we went to depart Reporoa, we discovered that the back tyre had come off it’s rim. No wonder the old girl had been swaying a bit on the road yesterday! A relatively quick stop at the Reporoa Tyre Shop and we were on our way again $89 lighter (we also bought some oil).

The ol' girl gets her shoe fixed

We headed off to Rotorua (again), then turned off towards Murupara. Interesting place Murupara – once a thriving forestry town, now a desolate slumland for local gangs. The local second-hand dealer eagerly pointed out all the Police security cameras in the local shopping centre carpark, and told us of the main street gang fight that took place last week. We hurriedly bought some fresh duck eggs, a can opener, some fish and chips, filled up with diesel, then sped off towards the Ureweras before we got lynched by the locals. Duck eggs for breakfast tomorrow.

When I was about 13, my high school organised an outdoor experience called ‘Wider Living Week’. I chose to tramp the Ureweras with about 10 others from my year for my week. I walked up the Whakatane River track, spending about 5-6 days whinging and carrying a bl#%dy heavy pack doing so. Now this was my opportunity to revisit Te Urewera, but this time with more style. No camping or tramping – this time I’m ‘glamping’ (glamorous camping as it is known). With our motorhome, we were like a snail with house all propped up on it’s back.

Lake Waikaremoana

The snail though is probably a good analogy, as the road is so bad we could only travel at snail’s pace. The general driving speed was 25km/h – slow enough to absorb the view whilst being careful not to drive off the road and down a steep cliff (there was only one incident where I nearly got it wrong – but a quick shriek from Peter and my eyes were focussed on the road once more!).

It's a long way down if you fall off the road!

Before long we happened across a hitchhiker who was very relieved to see us as we were the only vehicle he had seen on the road. We gave him a lift to the Lake Waikaremoana track, stopped to walk across a river swingbridge (reminiscing of my younger track walking days before laziness set in), then proceeded to drive around the lake to Mokau Landing. What a fantastic part of the world we have found. Narrow roads perched on high cliffs cutting their way across a majestic lake – it was something like you’d expect to see in Italy. Mesmerised, we decided to stop and set up camp at Mokau Landing which is a DoC camp. For $15 we get to park right next to the lake, and this fantastic and rather large public camping area is completely absent of people at this time of year (or week). It seems we have the whole lake to ourselves.

Us, the lake, and no-one for else miles

Biking around Lake Waikaremoana at dusk