Day 12: Karamea / Oparara Basin

October 25:

Today we took a day trip to Karamea and the Oparara Basin.

On the drive from Westport to Karamea we enjoyed seeing the green fields, along with blue ocean and sky. There were scattered strands of Nihau palms.

After Karamea, we turned onto the 15 km gravel road to Oparara Basin. 

The road was narrow, curvy, and had a few steep sections. Luckily, there wasn't much traffic.

Our first walk was to Moria Gate Arch.

We started with a nice walk through the moss-covered forest.

When we finally got to the arch, there were steep narrow steps leading into a cave and then some scrambling over a few boulders in the cave to see the arch.

The trail then led to a longer loop, but we returned on the same path we entered.

We decided we were too tired to walk to Oparara Arch, and agreed to visit the caves, since it was a shorter walk.

The first cave we reached was Crazy Paving Cave.

The entrance was closed to protect the habitat of a giant Nelson cave spider.

We then followed the pathway to Box Canyon Cave, 

To enter it you needed to go up a bunch of stairs. I am not a huge fan of caves, so I turned around at this point but Steve entered

and took a few pictures 

while I relaxed in the sun and enjoyed watching a male New Zealand tomtit flit about.

After the caves, we had a nice picnic lunch, before exiting the area on the same gravel road we used to enter.

We then drove to the "end of the road" on the west coast.

This took us to the point where the Kohaihai River met the sea.

We walked  on part of the Heaphy Track (Nikau Walk) to the Kohaihai River suspension bridge

and saw nikau palms.

On the return walk, Steve hid in a hobbit hole.

Leaving the area, we followed this old car for a bit

and then got back on the curvy main highway before the afternoon storm moved in.