More stunning nature! This time it's arches, caves, and fern forests. All seen along the Heaphy Track, one of New Zealand’s nine great walks.

We stayed at Rough and Tumble, a charming - and quite frankly fancier-than-expected - rustic retreat along the Old Ghost Road. The native North Carolinian caretaker, Weasel (srsly), even cooked us a big BBQ dinner one night. It was just the kind of taste of home we didn't know we'd been craving. 

While Grace relaxed in the lodge, the rest of the group checked out the highlights of the Oparara Valley area: 

Uproar Arch: we followed the 1km track along the Oparara River to the larger of the limestone arches. 

Crazy Paving & Box Canyon Caves: A short walk through the rainforest brought us to the Crazy Paving Cave, which was chock full of cave spiders. In the Box Canyon Cave, we went down steep stairs to the cave floor. We were all thankful we'd brought headlamps along!

Moria Gate/Mirror Tarn Loop Track: we checked out another arch before walking over the top of Moria Gate.