Used today for a down day to relax and do some planning for the next four days, and we now have an itinerary loosely planned out. Once that was settled we walked to a local restaurant for breakfast (sorry forgot a pic), and hit the road to cruise and hit some sights and short hikes.

First stop was a short hike to view and cross the Arapuni Suspension Bridge, although it’s described as a suspension bridge, it’s more of a swinging bridge that thrilling sways and shakes with footsteps and the wind as you look down on the turbulent river far below. It was built for the construction workers to access the site when building the hydro-power station below. Once across the bridge, we could see an old steep discontinued staircase that led workers down the gorge bottom below.

Imagine having to cross this swinging bridge to get to work every day?

I borrowed this pic from the internet because it was better than I could capture.

We next drove around for quite a while looking for our next stop which was supposed to be a boardwalk through wetlands, but never did find it. Not sure if it’s been closed, or our spotty internet connection was to blame, so we headed instead to Putaruru Blue Springs, which supposedly is the source for 70% of New Zealands bottled water. We opted to skip the long trai, and parked near the end for a short jaunt. It wasn’t anything exciting, not blue, just a crowded path along a clear river.

The Blue Spring wasn’t very blue today, but it was clear.

More leisurely driving through the beautiful grazing lands, farms, and countryside these led us to the lookout for Wairere Falls, a stunning 500 foot waterfall, and the biggest on NZ’s north island. You can hike up it if you want, but its a long hike and it was getting late in the day.

It’s hard to tell from the pic, but the falls are really impressive.

Distance pic of the falls, with lots of grazing land for lamb and cows between. (more on that later)

another borrowed internet pic from someone with a better camera.

Doing a few short hikes, and cruising around sightseeing works up an appetite so we headed back to Matamata for dinner. A day ofseeing thousands of heads of cows and sheep grazing on the rolling hillsides definitely inspired dinner.

I had a gigantic local beef burger, and Shawn had Mary’s little lamb. Both were very fresh, juicy, and delicious, and a great way to end the day.

Only managed a few bites of tonight’s wacky snack(I’ll let the pic do all the talking) , but we’ll polish them off in the car tomorrow as we pack up and head to the costal city of Tauranga next. Tomorrow evening we’ve booked a canoe trip to see NZ’s famous night glow worms. Thanks again for tuning in!

Like our beef and lamb dinners, tonight’s snack was made with free range potatoes 🤤