The Coromandel Peninsula
The scent of wild jasmine greets me as I approach the beach this AM to catch yet another remarkable sunrise. Kids are asleep. life is quiet for the moment. A fire burns in the sand, remnant from some late night beach gathering. The sky begins its color parade, pink to red to orange to yellow, dark blue to steel, to various shades of grey to lighter blue. Glorious! Another outstanding gift.
We are on day three of our four days on the Coromandel peninsula, 2-3 hrs north of Tauranga and the Mount upcoast. Kids are on 2 wk school holiday so a few days off work and off we went. First stop was Hobbiton, movie set Peter Jackson and crew for LOTR trilogy and newer Hobbit movies. Not sure what we would encounter, a bit fearful of the "scene" but I knew the kids would enjoy it. About 45" drive to Matamata, then few kms down farm roads gets you there. Few signs and not much to see en route. One must take a guided tour, so I signed us up and off we piled into this cool old bus. Another 15" journey by bus into Middle Earth, over the green hills, past the sheep and new lambs (so cute!!) and there we were, in another sheep paddock. Actually, when all was said and done, it was one of the best tourist attraction type things I have ever done. No fast heartstopping rides or crappy food to buy, only rolling green hills with colorful hobbit holes (turns out only the facades of the holes, all interiors shot in a studio in Wellington) each with their own well kept vegetable garden and adornments. A true delight! with our guide we wandered through the paths between the houses, pretended we were growing hair on our feet, and envisioning all of the meals each day we would be sharing with our Hobbit friends! Details like the chimneys and the clothes hanging on the lines to dry, the gardens and the huge fake oak tree above Bag End. Wow!! Tour ends in the Green Dragon pub, replica built to resemble original, where we were given complimentary hard cider or ginger beer. A lovely structure on the lake, cozy with all things genuine and dear. I can't begin to describe the tranquility and beauty of the setting. Within minutes of being there one forgets the Hollywood influence and is swept away into the Shire's magic. Sorry, Disney, but this was by far the Happiest Place on Earth!! (Photos to follow, have yet to download...)
Leaving the Shire we continued north to Te Aroha, old gold mining town, where the kids soaked in some local hot pools and Lina and I enjoyed a bit of downtime reading and warming in the sun. Now that we are on the road so to speak, it is incredible what the major highways are like. Just two lanes all the way. And narrow! I'm certain as one nears a bigger city, the highway gets wider, maybe 4 lanes, but nothing like we know in our urban centers. We ended Day one in Thames, the jumping off point for the Coromandel, it too an old mining town. Dined on some rather yummy Thai food, and spent the night in a Backpackers. This is a hostel type setting, shared kitchen and bathrooms, better on the budget, great way to meet other travelers and tons of them in the country. We had a bunk room for 6 all to ourselves, and snuggled in for the night after watching a VCR of Return of the King to catch a glimpse of the Shire once more!
Friday we journeyed north to the town of Coromandel, a 60 km trip along a literally coast hugging road, again major highway, no guard rails and at times we were reduced to one lane. In those cases there are signs telling one direction to yield to the other, and then you pray for the best! did I mention that Lina was driving by this time? Spoiled again I am as she loves to drive and is good, I could care less really, love to navigate, and found early on I was needed more to mediate the monkey business in the backseat with the kids. Go figure! The drive brought back many memories of drives along Northern CA. coast with ocean views, great trees and small towns passed along the way.
glimpse of Gateway Backpacker's: our home first night on the road
Major highway up the peninsula
Rocky shores of the Western Coromandel
Another glimpse of highway looking North!
Coromandel is another mining remnant, now with a few small artisan shops and cafes, hardware store, gas station. Cute all around! Had to stop and have a "session" with lattes all around and the yummiest piece of beet root and red wine cake. Exploring there also led to my first artsy purchase from a man recycling old bee hive boxes and screen printing on them. Had to buy one along with some local Manuka honey. Keep hearing about this honey and come to find out the Manuka tree is the tea tree tree. The one with all of the healing and medicinal properties. It is rather divine.
Here is Coromandel and the cake!!
Just up the road we encountered an incredible place, the Driving Creek Railway, a narrow gauge railway built by one man on his own that takes you up into the bush about 5 km to a viewpoint called the Eyefull Tower, yes, pun intended! The whole thing is amazing from the fact this man came to Coromandel to be a potter, did this for years very successfully, collected and used the terra cotta clay from the hills above him, then needed a means to carry the clay down, so slowly over time he constructed this railway system that eventually led to this "major" attraction to the area. Now it is such along with having studio spaces for visiting artists (clay workers, glass blowers, blacksmiths...), a conservation space as he has replanted up to 26,000 native Kauri trees that were once all deforested by the colonists, and gathering place for parties. The rail has trestle bridges, zigzag tracks which led us going up the mtn forwards and backwards at times, tunnels, hillsides reenforced with glass bottles to keep them from sliding in. Everything about this place was so cool! Great view from the Tower of the entire west coast of the peninsula looking across to Auckland in the very far distance. Not to be missed for those journeying here!
Driving Creek Railway with conductor Pete
Through the fern forest
Double decker trestle bridge
Wine bottle reenforced wall
Poor panorama looking west but you get the idea
Off we went, crossing the peninsula on Road 309 (dirt road for the 14 km) for our destination. Crazy thing about here is one is never sure what one will find and around one bend there was a huge metal spider that had us all shrieking, and yet this was nothing compared to the wild pigs that were running about around the next bend. Had to stop for them, and all was fun and games and oh so cute until they found their way into our car (ok, who left the door open??!!) to snack on the trail mix. Stinky muddy wild pigs not good company in a small Ford Focus! Quite a memorable moment.
Wild pig encounter, Jack has the squealer!!
Scary spider esp after just watching the Return of the King!!
Across to the East side of the Coromandel, one leaves the rocky shores behind for expansive, white sand beaches and big cliffs. Dined in the sweet town of Whitianga before making it to our next backpackers in Hahei beach. A Stinson Beach/Bolinas look alike. Here we were able to secure a small cabin for us equipped with our own toilet and kitchen and DVD/TV player. Small holiday beach community, with incredible beaches and great vibe overall. We nestled in and were greeted by the fantastic sunrise I described above. Have I mentioned that the weather for this entire journey was superb! How lucky were we!
After Saturday's beach sunrise, we hiked into Cathedral Cove, claimed to be one of the nicest beaches in this entire area, a huge feat in itself. 30" down a well worn path and you are in paradise, white sand, blue water, the perfect body surfing waves, a huge cut out in the cliff you can walk through...if only all the other people weren't there too.
Regardless, we swam and enjoyed with all the rest, marveling over and over how lucky we are to be here at all!! Maggie really found her water legs here as Jack taught her how to dive through the bigger waves to avoid being dumped on.
Gotta run to work now, more later....
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