Karamea, Fenian track

As we did the first day (in and out) of the Heaphy track on our car trip around the South Island years ago and motorhomes can't go up the narrow winding road to the caves and arches of the Oparara Basin we opted to do the Fenian track to Maloney's Bluff and the Fenian caves. 

Off we go. More beech and podocarp!

The day was overcast and a little drizzly but didn't spoil the walk which rose almost unnoticeable through the bush above the river to Maloney's Bluff from which there were meant to be great views up the Oparara valley. 

It was a bluff alright!

To us the description itself was a bluff and all a bit of Baloney rather than Maloney as we hadn't taken our chainsaw to chop down the trees obscuring the view. 

Look carefully!

We could get a  slither of the little waterfall across the river but no sight of the valley.

So from there we carried on up the track to do the circular walk to 3 caves, as well as a tunnel, which you walk through for 100 metres. Sounded good but we'd  left the machete behind as well as the chainsaw and didn't fancy fighting our way through all the wet overgrowth. So it was back to the bus having only seen a couple of other people during the approximate 1.5 hours return.

Coming back through Karamea we stopped for a few things from the supermarket  (dear in Karamea), plus beans and tomatoes from the little market next to it, before buying a couple of really nice meaty homemade pies from Vinnies - being cloudy and wet it was definitely the right day for one!

Then it was on to the Karamea Holiday Park just south of the village for a night. We had read reviews about the lovely elderly couple who owned this camp up until retiring in December and so weren't that impressed when, after dumping not long ( obviously too soon) after arriving the new younger owner sped over to our bus to ask Len for another $5 for dumping! Never struck that before as it's always included in your camp fee. We would have liked to give him the $5, ask for our $33 camp fee back and then leave but we didn't - hopefully his customer service will improve though. If we had left dumping until the next day, which we could have, he probably would have been OK. 

The camp facilities were all aged but kept clean and tidy with not many other people there, surprisingly, as it was still school holiday time. The camp is on the edge of quite a vast estuary around Karamea although there is no view of it from the camp itself. We did a little walk through the trees and along the edge of the water as far as we could go before being blocked by the half tide.

A deserted Karamea beach.

The next day, Thursday, after driving back through the village and out to the beach with it's unruly surf, we felt like returning back down the coast but were unsure of how far.  That's the great thing about being able to just live in the moment!
We turned off at Mokihinui to have a coffee close to the river, although we were in a hollow and couldn't actually see it, before passing, again, through the tiny settlements of Granity, Ngakawau and Hector. Pausing slightly at the turn off to Gentle Annie, where we loved staying on the way north, Len made a decision to push down on the accelerator and carry on to Westport where we parked up again at the beachside NZMCA park.