#urenui

At the Three Sisters by Ash Holder on Flickr.

Source | Google Maps

The other side by everlookphotography

Sisters Pool

West coast: Waitara to Waitomo I think this is still the surf coast highway, it was certainly very similar, the road winding up past the sea but just offset enough that mostly all you could see was farmland. I stopped at Urenui in the morning, which is a small village on the end of a river winding into the sea. It's interesting with the village set on the river back, and then across on a small spit between the river and the sea is a little secondary village of baches, all built very close together and shut up for the winter. According to a sign, the area originally had tents then people started building permanent structures and it became a Bach town around the 60s when they added power and a sewage system. It would be a great place to have a holiday house, with the cliffs on one side, the river and the sea a little calmer than the beaches up and down the coast. I spent a while walking along the river and the coast, before heading back to the road. Shortly after Urenui, the road curved back inland up through the mountains. Lots of amazing scenery, lots of farms and bush before it wound back to the coast at a place called the three sisters, where the rocks form pillars on the beach. I only saw them from a distance, since the walk out to the beach is only accessible at low tide, but the road stuck to the coast with some nice views back to the white cliffs and out over the sea before heading back inland, through a gorge and up to Te Kuiti, a small town. My camp was nearby at Mangaokewa scenic reserve, a small gorge with a river running through. There was a hike along the edge of the river that ran past two waterfalls. Not the most impressive waterfalls I've seen, but it was a nice enough walk and nice to get back and not have to keep driving!

Source | Google Maps

Source | Google Maps