Early morning, clouds, bummer! Anyway, breakfast time

This weka is (most likely) the evil thief that managed to steal a plastic zip-loc bag from our table that contained One Square Meals, Uncle Tobys Oats and Cadbury Chocolate bars. You don’t pay attention for 1 second and they grab your stuff and drag it into the bushes, just yesterday they got a bag of bread this way that we were able to recover just in time. Naughty weka!

We want to visit the Ōpārara Arches again, this viewpoint on the way there is new to us, so we have a look

At the car park where the walk to the arches start we see this cute van

Lots of lovely green on our first hike towards the Moria Gate Arch

And I mean lots

Heaps

It’s just a great little hike

Some mushroom

Ferns

The entrance to the arches, Rachel waiting at the bottom of the stairs

The Moria Gate Arch, looking left

Looking back to the entrance

Looking right

Looking straight ahead

Hey, a cave of some sort

Yep, looking cool

The entrance, now functioning as the exit

We continue on our loop track and at some point are able to look back at the arches from the other side

After we finished the loop track we went to the other arch: the Ōpārara Arch, seen here

And here, from ground level

Looking towards the hole that lets in the light

The water streaming through the arch

Stalactites hanging from the ceiling

More green with water on the way back to the car

Back at the campsite, on the other side of that hill straight ahead lies Scotts Beach, with its own campsite

I always love these shots with a single beam of light coming through the clouds

Another view of the campsite

Getting ready for dinner, hungry!

A map of today’s trip, from the campsite to the arches and back