The Classic Kiwi Understatement

We spent last Saturday in the Hutt. My fabulous former coworkers invited us for dinner to their house where they live off the grid on some land in Upper Hutt. We decided to make a day of it, exploring this northern suburb that we never usually visit.

We have learned by now that Kiwi descriptions of hikes are notoriously understated. This was no exception. The Waterfall hike in Belmont Regional Park mentioned we'd be crossing the creek a few times and also that it was one hour round trip. Sounds reasonable...

Turns out it crossed the creek countless times. I was picturing some conveniently placed rocks so we could cross with our gum boots, but the water so quick and deep we had to finally remove our shoes to keep hiking on the trail. Also, not an hour, but two hours round trip so we never made it to the end.  We'll save the rest for another day or when the kids are a little older...

A cold winter hike so we stopped at the end for a little food and a change into dry socks.

After the hike, we headed to our friends' house, attempting to drive up their long dirt driveway to the house. In another classic understatement, they said we should be able to make it up the driveway. After going a little ways we realized the deeply rutted, muddy, eroded driveway would be impossible to scale, even in our permanent 4x4 drive car. So we slowly, inch by inch, backed back down the drive, with one of us outside coaching. Glad we did that before dark!