Tuesday18th March - Mahai to Opotika

The day started a little cloudy as we drove back down the peninsula to get to the main road. There was plenty of time however to take a some photographs of this lovely area before we moved up the country.

Back on route 2 and as we found ourselves at Mahaka Hot Springs and only ten dollars each to get in we gave it a go.  We had the place to ourselves. It was very relaxing and there was a lovely short walk through rainforest to the upper pools.

We decided to not go around the East peninsula as it would add more miles to our journey north so we headed directly north on route 2 through the Wai Oe Ka Gorge. It was spectacular! Massive mountains towering high above us and all clad in dense rain forest. So so green everywhere yet before entering the gorge we had been climbing from the coast with yellow fields of crisp grass around us. I presume it's the rain shadow effect again but as we got over the summit the change from yellow to green is amazing. No photos of the Gorge were taken as we really needed a good wide angle lens and ideally I suspect, a helicopter to really show the scale of it all.

Here is just one photo as we were on our way up and over, where we stopped to have a snack in this parched landscape