Souvenir Shopping, Omanawa Falls, and on to Hamilton
New Zealand Travelog #34
Hamilton, NZ - Thu, 18 Apr 2024, 8pm
After we finished up at Waiotapu Geothermal Wonderland- and yes, there was a lot more to it than just the tourist-trappy Lady Knox Geyser; I'll catch up on that later- we headed back to Rotorua for lunch and some souvenir shopping. It turned us off that the souvenirs fell into two categories: cheap stuff made in China, and eye-wateringly expensive stuff hand-crafted in New Zealand. We wanted the latter but couldn't fade the prices. We bought a few small things and punted on the rest, figuring we'll have more chances for souvenir shopping before our trip is finished. I have a feeling, though, I may regret that decision. Watch stuff be more expensive and lower quality everywhere else we go. 🙄
Lunch and shopping took longer than we expected. We only wrapped up just after 3pm. We thought maybe we'd just drive to Hamilton, about 1 hour 20 mins away, and call it done for the day- except for maybe souvenir shopping in Hamilton 😅- but then I spotted a waterfall hike we could still squeeze in right at the end of the day. Omanawa Falls.
Omanawa Falls is out in the middle of nowhere. We reached it via narrow local roads. We went to the wrong address at first, some farmer's house, because mapping services offer multiple locations for the trailhead. There were no signs until we were literally at the parking lot. Then it was suddenly this beautifully modernized trailhead: a large, flat, paved, freshly painted parking lot; an automated gate that closes at 5:30pm; multiple informative signs; very clean, modern toilets; and even a building for a snack stand (currently closed). NZ's Dept. of Conservation clearly spend a lot of money on this recently. Too bad they forgot to allocate funding for a helpful road sign or two.
From the trailhead a gravel road leads steeply downhill. At the bottom there's a short footpath to a view of the falls from a notch high up in the canyon walls. Informative signs explain there used to be a hydro power station at the bottom of the falls, and this remote notch was where a cable system was anchored to move materials down to the station. It was honestly a shitty system, better only than the steep and treacherous foot path that it replaced.
The second viewpoint, where I captured both these photos, is back up the steep gravel road a bit then up a steep footpath to a wooden viewing platform slightly nearer the falls. Slightly is only slightly. As you can see in the photos, we're still a good distance away. And this is a sizeable waterfall, with a drop of what looks like more than 100'.
How about getting closer? Well, that's where it gets tricky. The pool at the bottom of the falls is an area that is sacred to the Maori people who've lived here for 800 years. It was taken from them by force to build that hydro power station. That was subsequently removed, but then the area was made into a public park, with a (steep) trail that went all the way down to the water at the bottom. That led to hordes of fun seekers splashing around, making noise, and leaving trash in a sacred place.
In recent years the area has been returned to the Maori in a sort of joint-custody arrangement. The government of NZ has a beautiful park on the side of the canyon with these beautiful but long-distance views, while the sacred space of the pool at the bottom has been returned to the Maori. That means no more trail to the bottom for people to splash around in, make noise in, and throw trash in someone else's sacred space.
Not everyone's happy about this arrangement. Read social media pages about this spot and you'll see lots of people jeering about how lame it is that the "woke" government of NZ has taken away their swimming hole. Yeah, that just reinforces the truth that "Woke!" is a catch-all complaint that conservatives snivel anytime they want to do something and are told "No".
Hamilton, NZ - Thu, 18 Apr 2024, 8pm
After we finished up at Waiotapu Geothermal Wonderland- and yes, there was a lot more to it than just the tourist-trappy Lady Knox Geyser; I'll catch up on that later- we headed back to Rotorua for lunch and some souvenir shopping. It turned us off that the souvenirs fell into two categories: cheap stuff made in China, and eye-wateringly expensive stuff hand-crafted in New Zealand. We wanted the latter but couldn't fade the prices. We bought a few small things and punted on the rest, figuring we'll have more chances for souvenir shopping before our trip is finished. I have a feeling, though, I may regret that decision. Watch stuff be more expensive and lower quality everywhere else we go. 🙄
Lunch and shopping took longer than we expected. We only wrapped up just after 3pm. We thought maybe we'd just drive to Hamilton, about 1 hour 20 mins away, and call it done for the day- except for maybe souvenir shopping in Hamilton 😅- but then I spotted a waterfall hike we could still squeeze in right at the end of the day. Omanawa Falls.
Omanawa Falls is out in the middle of nowhere. We reached it via narrow local roads. We went to the wrong address at first, some farmer's house, because mapping services offer multiple locations for the trailhead. There were no signs until we were literally at the parking lot. Then it was suddenly this beautifully modernized trailhead: a large, flat, paved, freshly painted parking lot; an automated gate that closes at 5:30pm; multiple informative signs; very clean, modern toilets; and even a building for a snack stand (currently closed). NZ's Dept. of Conservation clearly spend a lot of money on this recently. Too bad they forgot to allocate funding for a helpful road sign or two.
From the trailhead a gravel road leads steeply downhill. At the bottom there's a short footpath to a view of the falls from a notch high up in the canyon walls. Informative signs explain there used to be a hydro power station at the bottom of the falls, and this remote notch was where a cable system was anchored to move materials down to the station. It was honestly a shitty system, better only than the steep and treacherous foot path that it replaced.
The second viewpoint, where I captured both these photos, is back up the steep gravel road a bit then up a steep footpath to a wooden viewing platform slightly nearer the falls. Slightly is only slightly. As you can see in the photos, we're still a good distance away. And this is a sizeable waterfall, with a drop of what looks like more than 100'.
How about getting closer? Well, that's where it gets tricky. The pool at the bottom of the falls is an area that is sacred to the Maori people who've lived here for 800 years. It was taken from them by force to build that hydro power station. That was subsequently removed, but then the area was made into a public park, with a (steep) trail that went all the way down to the water at the bottom. That led to hordes of fun seekers splashing around, making noise, and leaving trash in a sacred place.
In recent years the area has been returned to the Maori in a sort of joint-custody arrangement. The government of NZ has a beautiful park on the side of the canyon with these beautiful but long-distance views, while the sacred space of the pool at the bottom has been returned to the Maori. That means no more trail to the bottom for people to splash around in, make noise in, and throw trash in someone else's sacred space.
Not everyone's happy about this arrangement. Read social media pages about this spot and you'll see lots of people jeering about how lame it is that the "woke" government of NZ has taken away their swimming hole. Yeah, that just reinforces the truth that "Woke!" is a catch-all complaint that conservatives snivel anytime they want to do something and are told "No".