The Land Down Under: Rapaura Watergardens & The Cascading Falls

Dear Gather friends, please accept my apologies for not being able to post this column during June.  I was actually with my parents and sisters in Melbourne for a few weeks and did not have regular access to the internet. However, I hope to make up for the missed posts during July and August. Those of you following this story would know by now that our friend (Riyadh) and his other half (Rupa) flew down to Auckland from Sydney giving me an opportunity to show them around. Riyadh & Rupa could only stay for five days; our focus was to cover as much ground as possible.  Auckland weather is famous for its instability, so we ended up traveling in all sorts of weather - rain, shine, hail & gale. Our initial plan of visiting fifteen locations in five days was closely followed except for a few places narrowly missed due to extremely bad weather.  Five days, almost fifteen locations, thirteen hundred photographs (thank God for digital cameras) and around two hours worth of video clips later, our friends are safely back home in Sydney. I am in front of the computer reminiscing our time together.  Over the next few months I will share my experiences about each of these locations. All welcome aboard and Bon Voyage! If you are interested in reading the earlier articles, please click the links below: Part 1   Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5 & Part 6

Fifteen Locations in Five Days

Day Four:  Rapaura Watergardens & The Cascading Falls

A lot of my friends prefer the beauty of the wilderness to the beauty of a garden planned, designed and architected by human beings.  I, however, find most things beautiful (unless, of course, they are ugly!).  Beauty is more of a state of mind to me. It is amazing how beauty can have so many levels and versions, just like love!  I remember as a teenager the scene I found most soothing was a partial view of our garden shed and tops of the apple trees slightly swaying in the wind through the see through curtains of the living room window.

So it is not a surprise that the Rapaura Watergardens felt like the most peaceful place to me.  It was day number four and we were heading towards the general direction of Coromandel.  Coromandel is one of the favourite holiday spots in New Zealand.  It is renowned for its natural beauty, the amazing rainforests and pristine golden beaches. Usually we would have preferred to stay over for a few nights and go sight seeing in a more relaxed manner.  However, Riyadh and Rupa only had very limited time in Auckland, so this was going to be just a day trip.  They were both keen on checking out the Hot Water Beach.

This is a long white beach located between a place named Tairua and Whitianga. An underground river of hot water flows from the interior of the earth to surface in the Pacific Ocean at Hot Water Beach.   The beach overlooks the Pacific Ocean and offshore Castle Rock, with Pohutukawa lined cliffs at either end of the beach.

Two hours before and after low tide visitors flock to the usually deserted Hot Water Beach to find hot water bubbling through the golden sand.  You can dig your own spa pool in the sand and relax in the steam from the hot pool. With the ebb and flow of the tide each individually created hot pool is washed away.

However, we were not too sure if we would be able to do much at the Hot Water Beach.  Firstly, the weather was not the best and black clouds accompanied us throughout the drive threatening to pour down at any minute.  Also, the Hot Water Beaches are only accessible during low tide and we were not sure if we could get there on time. 

We decided on a more accessible destination instead under the circumstances.  Rapaura Watergardens was just a short distance away from the Hot Water Beach.  I loved the place from the moment Adeeb parked the car.  It started to drizzle lightly as we walked towards the cafe in front of the garden.  The garden was created over 64 acres of land during the early 1960s and is privately owned. 

We needed to purchase entry tickets from the cafe before walking through the gates.  The cafe is a wooden structure.  Some umbrellas were left open near the entry by customers.  The umbrellas and wooden house in front of the garden made me think of the P.G Wodehouse story about the little old lady who lived in a cider house by a forest. One day she was walking along the forest path with her colourful umbrella and a tiger stood in front of her.  The quick witted woman opened the umbrella in front of the tiger's face and started to spin it, the tiger got scared an ran away.

I remember reading the story as a child during a hot and still summer afternoon in Bangladesh.  I used to long to live in a cider house near the forest all by myself.  As I grew older, the dream got more sophisticated, the cider house now included coffee and music.  All of these elements were available in the cafe.  If it were up to me, I would have been quite content to occupy a corner of the cozy cafe with a steaming cup of coffee in front of me, a good book in my hands and a faraway expression in my eyes as I looked through the window to the misty surroundings.    

Of course I was not allowed to day dream for too long with the likes of Adeeb, Riyadh and Rupa as company.  Eventually we were on our way to explore the garden.  As the garden's website so aptly worded - Rapaura is an example of man in harmony with nature.  It was like an enchanted forest.  There are abundant native bush and ferns, water gardens, birds ranging from Tui, Fantails, Silvereyes and Wood pigeons. Rupa and I were busy reading through the beautiful quotations all around the garden.  I particularly liked the one that read "In any society, owning a land is no more than becoming a temporary caretaker and care we must or the earth will cease to support our needs". Another sign read "Today is so beautiful, why reach for tomorrow" and at that moment, the words felt so true. As always we took numerous pictures!

Adeeb and Riyadh were busy throwing witty comments at the sculptures that stood around the garden like ancient witnesses.  There is even a sculpture of a wizard and Rupa could not let it go without a hug!  These sculptures and artworks are crafted from the trunk and root structure of the native ‘ponga', tree ferns. 

We made our way through the seasonal and exotic flowers, lily ponds and even a fifteen minute bush walk before reaching the cascading falls on top.  I liked the fact that we had to climb up to see the falls, which meant we did the hard work on our way in and the walk back was going to be easier!  There is something about a body of water that always enchants me.  I can stare at a waterfall for hours and not grow tired of it.  We took some more pictures and walked bare feet on the water before heading towards the cafe to put the money Rupa won at the Sky Tower to good use.

© 2008 Luna Rushdi
 

		Luna Rushdi, Gather Travel Correspondent
	Luna's column, The Land Down Under is published two times a month to Gather Essentials: Travel. Her column focuses on various destinations around New Zealand and Australia. Travel involves much more than going from one place to another; it is rather a continuous process of search and discovery, a journey that takes an entire lifetime. Luna believes you can not visit the same place twice and tries to bring her unique perspective to the articles. Luna's work appeared on newspapers & periodicals in India and Bangladesh including The Daily Star, Prothom Alo and Desh. She published a children's book on Bengali Alphabets with funding from the Australian Government. Luna also edited a quarterly literary magazine for two years. She is currently working on her first novel.