From here I headed further east to Wainui Falls. I lovely walk up to the falls through nikau palms and bush. This area was where the Nelson floods of maybe a year ago hit hard and lots of slips and flooded stream plains. The road around the coast to Wainui was peppered with one-lane sections where the road has fallen away. The falls were not particularly high but worth a look.
Got a pretty good shot of the inevitable rainbow that always seems to be at waterfalls....
This swingbridge would have to go down as one of the scariest I've been on. Not high, but only thin little metal treads holding the wirenetting on the walking deck, so I also got a shot looking down at my handsome legs to prove I was here.
Then back round to Takaka and back up the hill. This would be the longest slow hill trip in NZ. I timed it at 15mins continuously in 3rd gear (well, back to 2nd once or twice). At the top I turned down Canaan Road out to Haywards Hole. This road is too narrow for campervans and I nearly regretted this, having to pass two vehicles in awkward places. Haywards Hole is a spectacular chasm in limestone country where water used to flow into. The streams are now all underground, but you walk down the old streambed and then come upon this amazing site. Very dangerous place too.
That last shot is of one of the mysterious black ponds alongside the track. A weird place - not just the Hole or black ponds but the whole fluted, tumbled Karst landscape is unusual.
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