Morere

Last weekend we decided to stay close to Wairoa. On Saturday morning, we drove north along the coast about half an hour to the tiny town of Morere. Its claim to fame is a hot springs with surrounding rain forest reserve. Apparently, the water is ancient buried sea water from the nearby Pacific Ocean. Some 250,000 liters of it emerges each day from springs beneath the rainforest after traveling “superheated subterranean vents“. Whatever…European recreational and therapeutic bathing in the springs dates back to the 1890s, but today it is a complex of indoor/outdoor, public/ private, big/small, hot/lukewarm/cold pools. Quite the choices!! The entire complex is run by the Department of Conservation and is very reasonably priced (about $5 for each of us, private tubs excluded).

We decided that first we would hike the longest trail and then indulge in soaking. The Mangakawa Track rated at 2.5 hours was labeled challenging. It was! We hiked up and along the top of a steep ridge, through lush Indiana Jones like rainforest and down along a stream past the source of the hot springs. We were fortunate in the direction we had randomly chosen to do the loop trail--there were over 400 wood and earthen steps as we came down from the top of the ridge.

Done with the hike, we changed into our bathing suits and decided on the Nikau Pools which were a ten minute walk back into the rainforest. The three manmade large tubs were under partial cover and ranged in temperature from cold stream water to hot and VERY hot ancient sea water. The water smelled slightly of minerals--after all, it is salt water--but was very clean and quite refreshing. We soaked and chatted with locals for about 30 minutes--a long time for us in a hot tub!

On our way home, we drove a little farther north to view the Mahia Peninsula--a remote but beautiful recreational beach area. However, approaching sunset encouraged us to turn around and head home.

Sunday morning we went to a local nondenominational church called The Crusade Family Church. The woman at the local iSite had described it as family centered, noisy with children, no hymn books just songs with guitars. She was right. The first person we met on going in was the older woman doc named Margaret who Mark blogged about earlier (the “hip wrestler”). She invited us to sit with her and introduced us to lots of friendly people. During the opening we sang some favorite praise songs--including The Power of Your Love, How Great is our God, and Better is One Day. The rest of the service was much less structured than we are accustomed to but involved multiple different people from the congregation. We missed a sermon with any meat but enjoyed the community feel. We were invited to stay for lunch and an afternoon communion service but declined.

The day was sunny and warm and we wanted to take a bike ride together, do a little internet research, and catch a nap.  It was a relaxed but still rejuvenating stay-close-to-home weekend.




biking along Wairoa River

view to the Pacific Ocean at end of bike path