Now, we get to the real reason for this trip. Horses! We, aka The Six, did the Globetrotters 7 day horse riding trek at the River Valley Lodge. I rode Sarg, a lovely little Kaimanawa wild horse.
These wild horses live on the Kaimanawa Mountain range, and are descended from domestic horses brought in by European settlers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. They have unique genetics and so are recognised as a distinct breed. There are regular musters to capture them and cull their numbers so they don't over run the environment. Sarg was caught during one of these culls at the age of two years. However, he decided he didn't want to be captured and jumped over a five or six foot high fence to escape. He is only 14.2 hands high so that was a BIG jump. He galloped off down the main highway, but when he realised none of his friends had followed him, he returned and jumped back into the yard. He is now ten years old, quite forward and a bit cheeky but enjoying his role as a trail horse. All the horses are ridden in light rope halters, no bits in their mouths and no shoes on their feet.
We stayed three nights in rooms at the River Valley Lodge and four nights elsewhere in a combination of tents and rooms in a luxury fishing lodge and renovated shearers quarters.
Each day began with a cooked breakfast and a chef cooked our evening meals. It was pretty darn good. We met four generations of the family who run the business at River Valley Lodge. They provide horse riding, white water rafting and accommodation at the end of a road that leads to a deep river gorge where the Lodge sits on the banks of the river, opposite a waterfall. A beautiful wild unique location.
They call these steep grassy slopes 'rolling hills'. We road along farm tracks, up and down and up again, there was plenty of trotting and cantering and even a galloping race at one point, and a few little jumps over logs and ditches. All great fun on willing horses. We had two Kiwi women, Tina and Bettina, riding with us as well as two guides. Not sure what they all thought of our nutty group but there were plenty of laughs and chatting and fun.
Each morning, after a cooked breakfast, we caught our horses in the paddock where they had slept, saddled up and rode away up the hills.
A lunch stop. Sitting in long soft grass while our horses grazed. They were not tied up but did not wander away. Loretta's boy even came up to her to sniff her face and ask her to share her apple.
The views were stunning and never boring.
Day four was spent not riding, an unexpected rest day, actually a sick day. Most of us had zucchini poisoning from the previous night's dinner. Google it - it is a rare but real thing. Sometimes perfectly normal looking members of the squash family can have a high level of a chemical that gives humans diahorrea, vomiting and stomach cramps. Not fun at 2am when several people need the toilet. Luckily there were two toilets at the shearers quarters. Also, the weather was bad that day, a storm blew across, with heavy rain and lightning which took out the power for a few hours. Luckily jigsaw puzzles need no electricity, but the 500 piece jigsaw only had 460 pieces which did increase the difficulty as we searched for pieces that weren't there.
Plenty of green hills and sheep. This is New Zealand, after all.
Walking carefully along a river.
The hills were mostly bare of trees, apart from a few of the deep steeper valleys.
I love these hills. It was like being inside a work of naive art.
We saw numerous pink lakes. The colour is from a tiny fern that grows over the surface.
On one day, after our ride, we white water rafted down the river to reach our accommodation, a luxury fishing lodge perched on top of the cliff. Loretta was the only one of the group of eight middle aged women who had ever white water rafted. I did feel sorry for Jack, our young river guide but he patiently wrangled us into a raft, got us off the rocks we promptly got stuck on and kept us going for two hours of admittedly quite gentle rapids and paddling, and stunning views of cliffs and waterfalls.
The view from the fishing lodge back into the river we rafted along.
Another view of the river with the Lodge on the cliffs in distance. The Six - Loretta on Calibre, Lisa on Alby, Pen on Elvis, me on Sarg, Deb on Miss T and Fiona on Blaze.
On our last night at the River Valley Lodge, we were treated to a traditional hungi of slow cooked meat, vegetables and a sticky date pudding all cooked in a hole in the ground with hot rocks. Delicious!
One last ride from the River Valley stables.
Another hilltop view.
Toasting the ride with a glass of bubbly at our final lunch on the deck of the Lodge before they drove us all back to Taupo.
I miss my Sarg already. Thanks Nicola and Sarg and the rest of the River Valley Lodge horses and humans for a memorable week in the rolling hills of the North Island of New Zealand.
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