Blogs from Thames, Coromandel, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Geo: -37.1422, 175.542Well, we left Auckland behind around 9 am, with packed lunch of lamb sausage sandwiches!Rather than driving straight here (maybe 75 mins) we drove the coastal road the long way, and stopped to photograph many views of the mountains on this peninsula, and every bird. Many attractive little parks and pull offs. We chatted with volunteers at the Miranda wildfowl sanctuary - unfortunately tide was out so the birds were scattered. We passed many beaches with signs saying you could gather 50 cockles each, each day. We were jealous of these modest houses with the million dollar views. Arrived at our B&B by about 3 and explored the lovely grounds. I keep thinking how much Robin would love to see all these exotic flowers growing in what seems to be an English garden. Palm ... read more

Wednesday 21/1/15Checking out day, two days go by very quickly. Packed and ready to leave Paihia by 9 ish on our way back South past Auckland and on to Thames on the Coromandel Peninsula. Some good advice from Craig, the manager at the Admirals View led to us turning off the main SH1 just before the toll and having lunch on the beach at Orewa, another tourist hotspot and no wonder. Driving over the bridge through Auckland at about 3.30 was interesting, 3 and 4 lanes of traffic sometimes crawling along and sometimes flying and cutting lanes. I was glad to get past it and back to the relative calm of the rest of the NZ roads. Tonight's accommodation is a B&B, apart from the scarily steep driveway in it seems nice. Thames is a very ... read more

Bon bien me voici à Thames situé dans la péninsule de Coromandel.. 6 heures d'autobus depuis Pahia hier. Mais sur la route les paysages sont magnifiques, alors c'est plutôt plaisant de se déplacer ainsi. Pour ma dernière journée à Pahia j'ai visité Waitingi, l'endroit ou un important traité à été signé avec les Maori. Le site est magnifique. De cet endroit c'était le point de départ d'une belle marche de 10 km (allez-retour) pour les Haruru Falls. Les chutes sont plutôt décevantes, mais c'était la seule récompense rendu au bout du sentier. Mais la marche à travers la forêt et la mangrove valait la peine. Aucunes de mes photos peuvent rendre justice à la beauté de cette forêt. Le vacarme assourdissant des insectes et des oiseaux auraient suffit pour rendre ce trajet intéressant pour un aveugle. ... read more

Hey all, just checking in so you know I'm still alive. Unfortunately, I have quite literally nothing to report at present. I've cleaned a garage, spruced up some fridges, mowed a lawn and worked in the office at the weekend and that's been pretty much my life since I got here. Saw a cool band though on Saturday and was surprised to learn the bass player was the drummers 60 year old mum. We had a laugh though when I chatted to the drummer afterwards and said how they played some songs my band did and he said "typical isn't it? you fly thousands of miles to the other side of the world just to hear the same songs..." Went for a bit of a run this evening (it was quite literally a "bit" of a ... read more

So I was very skeptical of Thames at first, I'm not gonna lie (actually "skeptical" is a little soft, I HATED Thames at first haha). However, things have picked up quite a bit! I got here a few days ago, and am committed to two weeks of work here. The work is really not bad- it's cleaning and making beds and such, which I'm actually quite good at if I do say so myself. I know it's a dumb thing to be good at, but it's nice to do something well, even if it is just making beds and washing dishes and vaccuuming. I was super bummed about being stuck here for Halloween, and THEN I found out that the local musical theatre company is putting on Rocky Horror on Halloween night! When you buy your ... read more