NZL Travelogue: The Forgotten Highway, Whangamomona Hotel, Dawson Falls, Mt. Taranaki & Lake Mangamahoe

Day 9 of our NZ roadtrip was a rather "last minute" decision, planned (with some major re-routing, since I initially planned for us to head to the opposite direction of Napier and Hastings after Taupo) only after I chatted with R briefly on our planned meetup in Auckland (he brought up The Forgotten Highway) , and with Oyhz (she brought up Mt. Taranaki, which she chanced upon... somehow) a couple of weeks before our trip. 

It was a day of "mad rush" doing research on Google and then re-route planning on Google Map, and viola~

The Forgotten Highway, which is also part of the State Highway 43, starts from Taumaranui and takes you through Whangamomona to Stratford, with a total estimated (NON-STOP) travel time of 2 hours and 15 minutes.

And so with a FULL TANK (very important because there is NO petrol station along The Forgotten Highway), we started our Forgotten Highway drive towards Whangamomona Hotel, passing by Tangarakau Gorge, Moki Tunnel and Tahora Saddle along the 92 km drive.

We decided to skip Mount Damper Falls as it'll take us at least a 30 minutes detour after the gorge, plus probably another 20 - 30 minutes of walking to the falls' lookout.

-credits to wildtaranaki.co.nz-

The Tangarakau Gorge is supposed to offer a magnificent path through a dense forest that's unique to the area, making it a traditional New Zealand postcard picture spot.
I can't decide if I have set my expectation a little too high, or we actually didn't get to the exact picturesque spot along the gorge, but it was really nothing impressive to us.
Other travel blogs has mentioned that this will be the gravel road section of the highway, so I guess we did get to the correct spot though.
Anyway, the gravels were no joke, it was probably also around these extremely bumpy section of the gravel road that caused the crack in our water tanks.



Next up along the way was Moki Tunnel. Although brief, I quite liked Moki Tunnel and found it rather cute as there's a 'Hobbit Hole' signage put up above it. We could have hung around and took a few more shots, if not for the nasty Caucasian couple who got there before us and hogged the parking spot at the road shoulder area just beside the tunnel's entrance. They actually horned at us when we slowed down (there were NO CARS behind us) and tried to reverse the CV up into the side of the road beside their car.

It's kind of true that the spot could only fit 1 car comfortably But because there's hardly any cars along The Forgotten Highway, plus it's not as if we wanted to CAMP OVERNIGHT right there or what, we probably just need a 5 minutes quick stop and it shouldn't be an issue at all.
It was as if they own the road shoulder. TSK. 


So, after Moki Tunnel came the Tahora Saddle, which looked pretty scenic overall and there'll be "free spots" along the highway for you to stop your vehicles and take a few IG-worthy photographs.

And finally, we arrived at Whangamomona Hotel for lunch! 

The hotel not only provides accommodation, but it's also a classic New Zealand pub! And most importantly, and also the main reason why I planned the hotel into my itinerary, is that Whangamomona is actually a Republic, and you can get your passport stamped right here at the hotel with just a small adminstrative fee of NZD $2!

And there's the cute neighbourhood/resident cat that came for a visit. 

Food wise, you can find proper hot-cooked food and also some baked goods at the 'pub'.
The BF had their beef burger, which was pretty good according to him.
As for my Fish & Chips, it was not bad, but the marinate was pretty mild and fish had a distinctive "fishy" taste, which the mild marinate couldn't cover. It also didn't help that I will only take chili sauce as my choice of dips, and you won't get chili sauce anywhere when dining in New Zealand.

Anyway, after the hearty lunch, we hopped back onto our Jucy Chaser and it was another 64 km worth of driving to the Shakee Pear Cafe, located at the Taranaki Pioneer Village, passing by the Whangamomona Saddles, Pohokura Saddle and Strathmore Saddle along the way.

-credits to ketenewplymouth.peoplesnetworknz.info-

There's actually another tunnel, the Makahu Tunnel along this stretch of the highway, but we decided to skip it as it requires us to exit the highway and take another detour.

Both the Whangamomona and Pohokura Saddles were pretty mediocre in comparison to the other 2 saddles (there's a total of 4 saddles along the way) that we drove by along the highway. We even skipped taking photographs of the Wangamomona Saddle because it looks too.... normal.

The Strathmore Saddle has to be the most impressive of the four, but the sight that greeted us still fell short of my expectation by... a lot.

Hello, Mr. Rooster.

And I think I only have google images to blame for showing me tons of post-edited, ridiculously stunning shots of the saddle.

-credits to backpackerguide.nz-

Anyway, more camwhoring moments as we drove on towards the end of The Forgotten Highway...

 This has to be one of my favourite shot of the trip!

Finally, we arrived at the Taranaki Pioneer Village, which is actually a unique outdoor museum that consists of around 30 buildings that take you back in time when the pioneers first settled in New Zealand.

But since it closes at 4pm and the entire place seems eerily deserted (we weren't even sure if they're open when looking from the outside), we decided to just pop by Shakee Pear Cafe, located just beside the car park, for a quick rest.

Food choices here are pretty limited, and taste wise were mediocre at best. Highly suggest that you do not try their smoothies; it tasted really bland and the texture very watery and diluted. 

For more information of The Forgotten Highway and various places to drop by along the highway, visit HERE

After the short and not very satisfying (in terms of the food) pit stop at the cafe, we headed down to Dawson Falls, which is approximately half an hour's drive away.

But before that, see who we met along the way!

SHEEPS! So adorable!

According to travel sites, there's toilets, well-maintained picnic area, the DOC office and a cafe situated at the end of the road, about 3 minutes' walk from the big car park, but as it was a touch-and-go stop for us, we didn't get to explore that area. 

The walking trail from the carpark will start off as a downhill (meaning it'll all be uphill when you return) walk that'll take you 10 minutes to reach Manaia Road, where the entrance to the Dawson Falls will be. Hence, you can actually park your vehicle at Manaia Road (if you're lucky to snatch one of the very limited slots) to save up on the 10 minutes uphill walk during your return. 

The first part of the track starting from the forest will bring you to a junction within just 5 minutes, at this point which you can either choose to walk to the upper waterfall's lookout (5 minutes return) or go further down to the waterfall's base (5 - 10 minutes return). 

For us, we just took the track to get to the base and skip the additional 5 minutes' walk to the upper lookout. 

And right after Dawson Falls comes the 2nd major highlight of our day, Mt Taranaki!

First up, we headed for the Potaema Track, which was another half an hour's drive away from the Dawson Falls. 

This 30 minutes return track starts off from the Potaema picnic area, on the left side of Pembroke Road, and is supposed to be a well-maintained wheelchair accessible track. However, I will beg to differ, as not only some portions of the tracks aren't truly smooth and flat, some areas along the track will get pretty tight due to the growing trees, which I doubt a wheelchair can easily pass through. 

The track supposedly takes us through the lush lowland forest and eventually leads us to a large lowland bog that sustains a wide variety of flora and fauna. From here, at the viewing area, you can get magnificent views of the mountain across the swamp. 

But we couldn't, as the entire mountain was covered up by thick clouds. 

where is  my mountain?!

It was definitely a 30 minutes well wasted, as there's nothing for us to see along the track, and we ended up not seeing the mountain at the view area. :(

Highly suggest that you skip this if it was a particularly cloudy day on your visit. 

Well, no mountain views at Potaema Track? It's okay, because you can actually see the mountain peak along the road, nearly anywhere around this area. 

And of course, to get the famous view of Mt Taranaki over a lake, we need to get to Lake Mangamahoe!

Lake Mangamahoe has a well sign-posted 6km circuit that undulates around the lake shore. It passes radiata pine forest, mature ornamental tree plantings, pockets of regenerated native bush and some impressive viewpoints. Perhaps the best is a bit more than halfway along Lake Road, at a turn-around/car park point giving a view south, across the lake, to the mountain. Another vantage point is easily reached on a short walk beyond the northern end of Lake Road along a trail above the lake. Facilities abound – picnic areas, toilets, ample car parking, a mountain biking area and horse riding trails. -credits to wildernessmag.co.nz-

We stopped our Jucy Chaser by the turn-around point, where there's picnic tables and benches available by the lake. However, with A LOT of small flying insects (sandflies, again?) at some area near the bushes along the lake's perimeter. 

Nevertheless, we loved the place so much that we decided to cook up some food and have an early dinner complemented by the amazing view of Mt Taranaki and the sunset. 

The initial plan on my itinerary was to drop by New Plymouth Coastal Walkway and grab dinner at one of the cafes (probably Deluxe Diner or Elixir Cafe) along the way before heading to Seaview Holiday Park at Mokau, but since we've already had dinner, we decided to go for the free campsite (since it's still relatively early) at Tongaporutu Domain, which was roughly a 1.5 hours' drive away. 

There's absolutely NO FACILTIES here at this free campsite, but you do get pretty nice views of The Three Sisters from here, so do stay tune for my Day 10 (final day) travelogue for the morning views. 

edit: Day 10 recount is up HERE!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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NZL Travelogue: Taupo Weekend Market, Gollums Pool, Ruapehu Lounge High Tea

Day 8 has got to be my next most anticipated day, after Day 6 (for Hobbiton), as we've one of my favourite activity planned out for the day.... HIGH TEA!

But before that, we need to get our breakfasts out of the way first, so The Taupo Market it shall be!

The Taupo Weekend Market specialises in both variety and quality, with emphasis on being local where most of the products sold are grown, made or sourced in and around the Taupo district. This weekly market is held on the Riverside Park Reserve (Redoubt Street), one of the most beautiful parks in Taupo and adjacent to the Waikato River (opposite Countdown Supermarket). 

I'll very much prefer this market over the Rotorua Night Market (but it might also be the rain and us reaching not early enough) as there's a good mixture of food (think churros, muffins, scones, pies, doughnuts, cakes, breakfast English muffins & sandwiches, coffees etc) and many other novelty items such as hand-knitted baby clothes, books and decorative items for sale. There's also a seated area set up in the middle of the market for patrons to sit down and have some coffee and delicious food while enjoying music from a basker situated right beside the seated area.

And I absolutely loved that date scone, which was slightly crisp on the outside but moist and fluffy on the inside. YUMMY! 

There's also plenty of parking at designated parking slots by the streets and the market has proper pavement, making it wheelchair (and baby pram) friendly. According to the website, there's also clean paraplegic toilets and baby changing facilities available on site, though we didn't come across either during our visit.

The Taupo Market is open every Saturday, 9am - 1pm, rain or shine. For more information, visit their website HERE

My initial plan is to drop by Taupo Bungy at Waikato River, just a 5 minutes drive away, to see if we can get to see anybody doing their bungy jumps, but the BF is not interested in that and hence, we embarked on our 1.5 hours' drive straight away for Tawhai Falls, which is located in the Tongariro National Park, near the Whakapapa Village.

But before that, let's take some pictures with Lake Taupo, which is roughly the size of Singapore (before land reclamation).

 And more pit stops along the way at random scenic places....

And finally, the snow-capped mountains came into view!

And finally, we're here! Tawhai Falls, also known as Gollum's Pool!

Tawhai Falls is one of the waterfalls that depicted the scene in The Lord of the Rings movie, where Gollum is catching fish under the watchful eye of Faramir and his archers.

Only a quick and easy walking trail (20 minutes return loop) is required to reach the scenic spot to a good photograph opportunity of the 13m waterfall tumbling over the edge of an ancient lava flow.

And since we skipped Taupo Bungy earlier in the morning, we ended up having a little more time on hand before our high tea reservation, and so after reaching Whakapapa Village Visitor Centre (which is next to Chateau Tongariro Hotel, where Ruapehu Lounge is located) we chose to go on the Ridge Walking Track, with the trail's starting point just a 3 minutes' walk from the Whakapapa Village Visitor Centre. The track is a rather short and managable 1 hour return trail that brings us through a beech forest on the (mild) climb up (and down again) to get us to an awesome view of the surrounding mountains (volcanoes) as we reach the alpine shrubland.

As I've no idea what on earth is a beech forest, I did some googling beforehand and ended up being rather disappointed during the visit. It looked nowhere nearly as impressive as what came up in my google search, but the view of the mountains at the top of the trail was quite worth the time spent!

There's actually 3 mountains (read about them HERE ) at the Tongariro National Park, Mt. Tongariro, Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt. Ruapehu. But, I can't differentiate them. 

And so, after earning our calories for the day, we walked back towards the visitor centre and then further down towards Chateau Tongariro Hotel for our High Tea at Ruapehu Lounge at 3pm!

 As of most high tea experience, a reservation is strongly advised and I've also requested to be seated by the Ngauruhoe window, which the restaurant managed to accede to. :)
And since this is called the Ngauruhoe window, I supposed the mountain that we see from this point of view has to be Mt. Ngauruhoe. HAH!

But having the front seat view of Mt. Ngauruhoe while you sip at your tea (or coffee) comes with a price to pay: YOU CAN'T GET IG-WORTHY SHOTS because the backlight problem is OMG so hard to tackle! It really didn't help when the lighting in the lounge is specially dimmed for better ambience.

 

Priced at NZD $32 per pax, you'll be getting a fixed set of 3-tier high tea with sweet pastries like scones, macarons & tarts to savouries like mini-sandwiches, along with a cup of tea or coffee.
I'll say that for the pricetag and based solely on the food quality, you can easily get a better tasting high tea experience literally anywhere in Singapore, for nearly everything on the table is at best average and didn't make an impression at all.

But for the ambience (and overall experience) for dining at a pretty posh looking lounge with the view of snow-capped mountains as your backdrop, I'll still say that this $32 is pretty well spent!

Plus, they even have such gorgeous looking wallpaper in their washroom too!

High Tea is available at Chateau Tongariro Hotel's Ruapehu Lounge daily from 11am to 5pm. 
For more information (& reservations), visit their website HERE
ps. more (and possibly cheaper) parking is available at Whakapapa Village Visitor Centre

My initial plan was to go for more free trails, specifically for the Taranaki Falls & Silica Rapids, but the BF thwarted my plans (and he can, because he is the driver) by insisting we head up to the Ski grounds at Mt. Ruapehu.

And so, this happened. Experiencing snow (reluctantly) while dressed for 18 degree Celsius. 

By the time we were there (I think it was past 4pm), the ski grounds was already pretty much closed for the day. And there were only a few skiers getting ready to leave the grounds. 

And so, after letting the BF had his fill of seeing snow, we hopped back onto our Jucy Chaser and headed down the mountains to Taumaranui Holiday Park, which was around 45 minutes drive away from Whakapapa Village Visitor Centre. 

But of course, a pit-stop along the way for some camwhoring is always in the itinerary. ;p

There's actually a free campsite at Te Maire Carpark, which will be a little nearer to the Forgotten Highway (our 1st destination next morning), but reviews for this free campsite (with no facilities) are nothing but bad; and some even said that the place feels creepy. So I decided that we're better off spending NZD $18 per pax for an overnight stay at a proper holiday park instead. 

Taumaranui Holiday Park is definitely the quietest holiday park we've stayed at for the entire roadtrip, with only 2 oother CVs (one of which had no obvious signs of occupants) around. The place is pretty big, and with all the basic facilities (kitchen & bathrooms) and even a playground with trampoline. The kitchen was a little old; the induction cookers all looked like they've seen better days and take a really really long time to heat up. There's also no cutlery (forks and spoons) available, so we ended up having to use our own forks and spoons from our Jucy Chaser. 

And although the bathroom/toilet was clean, there's only 2 cubicles available when the park itself is pretty big. I guess it's because they expect those in self-contained motorhome to not use their facilities but frankly speaking, even if I'm with a self-contained CV, the reason why I will check myself into a holiday park is to use their (more spacious) facilities.... right? 

But since there's only 2 other CVs (and literally nobody) around while we're there, it actually didn't bother us that much. 

For more information (and reservations) of Taumaranui Holiday Park, visit their website HERE

And here's a very badly taken shot of our dinner for the night! 

(I had HDR mode on and didn't realise it)

Fish fingers, scrambled eggs with baby spinach & bell peppers, and MyKuali Hokkien Prawn Mee!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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#cheatday breakfast recipes

Well, actually I can't even decide if I can call these recipes; perhaps just "procedures of assembly" will be a better phrase? 

Anyway, here's my current top 3 (+1 bonus) #cheatday breakfasts that I've been craving for these past few weeks/ months. 

#cheatdayeats breakfast, let's go!

First up, this black, shapeless.... thing. 

Which actually, is a peanut butter-ovolmatine chocolate chip baked oatmeal. Sorry, I could have chosen a mould of another colour but I don't have one. >.<

Preparation for this breakfast can't get any simpler, just grab a bowl and dump everything (listed  under ingredient list below) in, stir until well combined and transfer into your desired mould and bake at 190 degree Celsius for about 25-30 minutes (until it has dried up into a "cake").

I've also tried cooking it "pancake style" without a mould on a non-stick pan over the hob, on small to medium fire, and it works too, taking a shorter time of around just 20 minutes in total to get done, but you'll end up with pieces of torn up "pancakes" because they do not flip well. 

Doesn't matter if you're not making breakfast for The Gram, right? 

ingredient list

45g rolled oats

60g unsweeten applesauce

 1 tsp pyure (baking stevia blend)

1 tbsp creamy peanut butter

1 tbsp ovolmatine spread 

1 tbsp unsweeten cocoa powder

~2 tbsp milk 

(add more if oat-batter is too dry)

a pinch of salt

a handful (or more) chocolate chips

adapted from chocolatecoveredkatie

You can use other sweeteners like honey or maple syrup, but do adjust the amount of milk to get the correct pastey consistent of the oat-batter. 

And I always eat this topped with MORE ovolmatine spread or peanut butter (or BOTH!) which is why I'm taking it easier on the added sweetener, if you're planning to eat this as it is, perhaps you would want to increase the amount of sweetener too!

EDITED:

And so I deducted 5g of rolled oats (using only 40g) and added a tbsp of chocolate whey protein powder + 1 tbsp of wholemeal flour to the batter and they turned out so much easier to flip as flapjacks/pancakes! 

 But texture wise it's definitely slightly different as compared to the original baked oatmeal, as you can get tiny portions of "cakey" bits here and there in between the oats now. 

Next up on the list, FRENCH TOAST!

Did I mention that I LOVE breads?

There's many different variation to how I like my french toasts. Sometimes I sandwich some ham and cheese in between and turn it into a Croque Monsieur, sometimes I slather a thick layer of nutella/peanut butter/ovolmatine spread in between. sometimes I have them "plain" with some maple-flavoured syrup and butter. 

But now I'm showing you my most zhng-up (made fancy) version till date, niangao peanut cornflake-crusted french toast. 

This is two slices of thick wholemeal french toast with crushed cornflake crust, with slices of niangao (brown/coconut sugar glutinous rice cake) sandwiched in between, and then further topped with a layer of peanut butter AND ground peanuts on top. 

So first up, crush up some cornflakes, either with your bare hands or with a rolling pin, and set them aside in a plate that's big enough for your bread to fit in. Then, prepare your egg custard mixture as per usual (I usually do 1 medium egg to 1 tbsp milk, with a dash of ground cinnamon), and preferably do not sweeten your egg mixture as the nian gao will add ALOT of sweetness. 

First, dip your bread in the egg custard mixture until both sides are generously coated/soaked in the egg custard mixture and then plopped them onto the crushed cornflakes to coat. You'll have to get your hands a little messy here to make sure the breads are well coated. Pat the surface lightly to get the crushed cornflakes to stick better. 

In a non-stick pan, heat up a tablespoon of butter over low/medium heat and fry (one side of) both slices of your prepared breads at the same time. When the cooked side has turned golden brown, first flip just ONE of the two slices and lay your sliced nian gao over the cooked side, then pick up your other slice of unflipped bread and place it, COOKED SIDE DOWN, over the nian gao. 

Cover your pan with a lid and cook for however long it took you to cook the other side. Then, flip the entire sandwich over, cover the lid and cook for the same amount of time, and VIOLA~

Remove your french toast sandwich from the pan and slather on a thick (or thin, if you prefer) of peanut butter before topping it with some ground roasted peanuts. 

ingredient list

2 slices of your favourite (preferably) thick bread

(wholemeal, white, multigrain, whatever)

1 medium egg

1 tbsp milk

sliced nian gao 

(thickness according to your own preference)

crusted cornflakes 

(enough to coat both sides of your breads)

a dash of ground cinnamon

peanut butter

ground peanuts

salted butter (for cooking)

Next up, the final #cheatday breakfast on my list has to be PANCAKES (or hotcakes)!

Usually I'll make my own quick and super fluffy pancakes (recipe HERE), I just so happened to see this at Daiso recently.

credits to pinterest

Yes, Daiso now carries their own hotcake (Japanese style pancakes that's slightly thicker and with a sweeter taste) mix and I need to give it a try!
Making this can't be any simpler, just follow the instructions at the back of the package. HAHA!
They even give you the egg and no-egg versions. I followed the no-egg version as 1 egg is for the entire pack of 2 servings. I'm only making 1 serving at a time and I didn't want to use half-egg, so.... no egg it shall be!

The trick to getting that beautifully, evenly browned hotcake surface is to use as little oil as possible. So you heat up your oil in the pan and then literally go in and wipe off all visible streaks of oil on your pan, effectively you're just greasing your pan, not oiling it.

But I'm too lazy to do that extra step and butter shall NOT be wasted like that so I'll rather not have IG-worthy looking hotcake stack for breakfast. 

But of course, it's cheatday and I NEED to zhng-up my hotcakes too!

So I actually added two tablespoons of Nestum Multigrain cereal (and more milk to tweak the consistency) to my batter and a handful of chocolate chips into the batter for two of my 3 hotcakes. 

Without adding Nestum, half a pack should only yield 2 hotcakes instead of 3. 

ingredient list

daiso hotcake mix

2 tbsp nestum multigrain

milk

chocolate chips

salted butter (for cooking)

Last but not least, a bonus recipe from the talented Japanese youtuber, Ochikeron.
Tofu Brownies!

And of course, I zhng it up for cheatday by slicing it in half and slathering a thick layer of peanut butter and ovolmatine over it. 

I mean, sorry but these are diet-friendly healthy tofu brownies (~100 kcals per slice), even on non-cheatday I eat them with ice cream!

ingredient list

100g silken tofu

100g flour 

(I used wholemeal)

100ml milk

3 tbsp unsweeten cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

2.5 tbsp pyure (baking stevia blend)
30g chocolate chips
adapted from createeathappy
(watch Ochikeron's video recipe on how to make it)

Till then,
Mia Foo

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