14 June 20 Lake Arapuni to Three Sisters and Elephant Rock

Today we started a long tikitour to see a few less visited natural sights beyond Waitomo Village.

First stop – Marokopa Falls

A short 600m walk from the carpark (after a winding small road that took ages to navigate) takes you to these amazing 35 metre high waterfalls. These falls are counted amongst the most beautiful in NZ and they did not dissapoint.

Next we backtracked to Mangapohue Natural Bridge. “The 17 m high limestone arch, which spans the Mangapohue Stream, is all that remains of an ancient cave system. From here the track becomes stepped and passes under the bridge giving a superb view of the ceiling studded with stalactite-like formations and an excellent view back down the gorge.”

After enjoying these natural wonders, we continued our seek for food (Waitomo Village had very little to offer lunch wise as the amount of tourists has reduced to almost none and so have places to eat..) We finally made it to the Fat Pidgeon Cafe in Piopio and enjoyed a very good feed.

For the night we made our way to Tongaporutu and the Three sisters carpark for the night. The weather had gone bad so it was cheesy toast and satellite tv for the night!