I went a bit crazy with the pictures though, I tried to narrow it down but sorry if this is slow loading. There were just so many beautiful little spots.
Start of the gorge.
There were tons of small streams cascading along the track making their way down to the river.
Most of the track was a tunnel of green but there were a few spots that opened up so that you could see the river, train track on the other side and sometimes the road below you.
The greenery was incredible. This tree was huge and on top of how big it was there were bushes growing up in the branches of it. It was just so cool to see.
This is the area were a large "slip" as they call it or landslide happened a couple of years ago. The slip was the result of an earthquake the had occurred nearby. The road was almost all taken out and there is still a lot of rubble in the river.
This is one of my favorite ferns, so pretty its like a palm tree with these delicate fern fronds for leaves.
This spot passed through a break it a huge fallen tree, it was like chest high on me! Such a neat feature instead of just pulling it out of the way.
The vines and growth just made me think TANGLED! And how hard it must have been to get through when people were just settling this wild country.
The whole picture :) Road, River, Railway, Tunnel, Gorge and upper Windfarm. All topped of with the little storm that blew in that afternoon. I was under the tree cover and only felt a couple odd drops.
They had pretty informative lookouts with information at several points along the track. I was pretty impressed with how well it was taken care of and how nice all the placards were.
I took pictures of this thinking it was a nest put out to help the local birds.... after passing like 100 of them I realized they are actually the traps for things trying to eat the eggs out of the nests of the native birds!
Getting closer to the end, I can see the flat plains on the other side!
It's all coming up daisies!
This tree had fern leaves growing out of it like fur!
This was an amazing native Totara tree. I forget how old it was... but it was really old and really big. They had built a platform all around the tree so that when you were walking around to see it you wouldn't damage the roots.
The other side of the Gorge! What better way to celebrate than heading to the cute little café in the nearby park.
I loved the casual lawn atmosphere and the way that empty wine bottles were used as table numbers. They had gorgeous views, cute little tucked away corners of the yard and garden for tables as well as beautiful flowers and a thriving herb garden.
Such a cute old tub for a planter!
Out behind the café there was a place you could rent a horse and go on a guided ride around the area too.
It was a really great hike and a perfect place to relax afterwards while I waited for the shuttle back to town!
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