Okura Estuary Scenic Reserve

We had to break in Denise's new boots that we picked up over the weekend. What better way to do that then to take a 3 hour tramp through Okura Estuary Scenic Reserve. We were in for about a 3 hour tramp which took us through the Okura Reserve area and then popped us out at the beach at Karepiro Bay.

We came across some of the largest trees I have seen. They are called kauri trees and are as grand in stature as the giant redwoods back in the States. The outer skin or bark of the kauri flake off in large chunks exposing colorful swatches of pink and green that contrast the grey exterior. The picture below give some scale to the size of the trees. This one was on a funny angle.




Finally, we made it to the beach after an hour and a half of tramping through the reserve! At the beach front was a small cabin that has been there since the 1850's called Dacre Cottage. There were actually people staying in the cabin for the week. I think they were there keeping up the cottage grounds and having a vacation as well.





Because it was low tide, we decided to walk back along the beach and catch up with the trail before we made it back to the car park. Just as an aside, the low tide here is a serious low tide. It looked like the tide drew out about 4 feet of water from the banks where we were walking. That is a serious amount of H2O. We're going to have to figure out if that is normal or not....




Anyway, the low tide exposed some interesting features and colors along our walk back. Check out this crazy rock...!