Day 41 - Ngaporo

Another day on the river, and I don’t want it to stop anytime soon. The sun is ferocious however, I can’t put enough sunscreen on. 

The river today continued to get increasingly dramatic. The steep walls of the bank towered above us, yet every inch was covered in the lush green of some plant fighting for sunlight. 

Someway down the river we did a detour to do a small hike to the Bridge to Nowhere. After WW2 the NZ government gave land in this area free to veterans. It’s very remote mountainous land and building any permanent residence would prove difficult. The NZ government promised to build a road to this area and as a step the built this massive concrete bridge. Only after it was built did everyone decide that living here was too hard and the land too unproductive. But the bridge remained. So now there’s a random bridge deep in a forest with no roads anywhere near it. Cool. 

Seems like it’s actually Not safe to remount due to rockfall danger 

Exploring a cave down river

Camp tonight was a stunner, my best in New Zealand, and one of my favourites ever. Perched on top of a cliff overlooking the river down with a sunset and a small waterfall in sight. Perfection. To top it off a Swede gave us his extra sausages. How good!