Whangenui River Rd

From Wangenui you can drive up the river Rd. E had managed to book a cottage 46km up the road for $70 a night. How will we find it ? It's on the right. OK. The key is in the door. On the way up they passed by canoe and jetboats for rent. The river looked calm enough so E&K took a half day on the river. We were driven 16km up the river. Along the way Mark, our driver pointed out the dangerous spots. Keep to the left there . Watch for logs there. If you hit a log you will go in. So they were dropped on the river and hit a log the first thing they did. Not too hard fortunately. Then they spent a wonderful 5 hours in sunshine paddling downstream, negotiating all the rapids with expertise. They discovered there's not much to do about it, just choose the deepest point and go with the flow. One of the highlights of the journey. High cliffs, lots of birdlife, a hut to stop at for lunch and more confidence as time went on. With aching muscles they continued up the road, past Athens and came upon Kohu Cottage without difficulty. It was wonderful. Loads of sheep in the fields, views over the hills, peace and quiet (except when E was trying to get the moths out) and a dog to go with it. He spent most of the day there. He was even waiting after they came home the next day after a very hot hill walk. So they spent 2 nights there. But time is running out and E wants to do the Tongariro crossing so they drove up the rest of the road, past London to Jerusalem where there is a beautiful church. The nuns weren't in so they were not invited to tea. There was only lots of visitors as you can stay there for $25 a night. Pushed on to Pipiriki which is the end of the road and turned east, (there was no other way to turn) and ended up in a small place where they have shopped before. Realising that they were only 10 min from Ohakune they decided to shop there. Visiting the i-site, the weather was not good for Tongariro so they decided to change plans and moved west to Mt Egmont. So back to Wangenui along the main road and along the coast to Harewe, where they missed the hotel so they drove on in rain so hard they had to stop sometimes. Arrived in Opunake and had no trouble finding a motel. They also have a local library where internet is free.