Day 5 - The Coromandel

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A couple of housekeeping points before I start:
1. In my last entry, the attempt to load a video clip did not work out. If I get a rainy day, I might look into this - and I might not.
2. The original plan to write every evening has been replaced by a better plan that involves enjoying the trip to the full, and only writing if there’s nothing better to do (like now, on the coach between stops).

So, for day 5, the focus is formally on a peninsular south East of Auckland called The Coromandel, though informally, I can see that the question I am working for these 2 days is ‘is New Zealand pretty much the same as the British Isles?’

Let me start with this question. If you were to take a bit of the west coasts of Ireland and Scotland, add them to North Wales, North Yorkshire, and maybe add a bit of Cornwall for good measure, you’d have something physically resembling The Coromandel. The land is green, the roads twist and turn, the east coast beaches are wide and sandy, while the west coast has numerous small coves and bays along the rocky coastline. As any Kiwi will tell you, The Coromandel is a beautiful part of the country, and anyone who has not yet visited the British Isles will be in for a special treat. As well as the pretty beaches, there are mountains running through the middle of the peninsular, and even though this is the middle of summer, there is a beautiful rich green carpet over much of the countryside here. And just like the top spots in the British Isles, The Coromandel gets completely clogged up with holiday traffic in peak season. It was this feature that nearly took me out of my relaxed holiday frame of mind as I sat in an enormous traffic jam for well over an hour at the Kopu river crossing. The bridge on this State Highway 25 from Auckland to the peninsular is, and always has been, single file. As I was contemplating drafting a strongly worded letter of complaint to “Whom it may concern”, I learnt from the locals that this has become a huge election issue, and the newly installed government has started the process of building a second river bridge. That’s a point for people power!

My plan was to drive around the top of the peninsular, and I soon realised that distances in New Zealand seem a lot longer than they appear on the map. There are hardly any dual carriageways in New Zealand, and although the speed limit on open roads is 100km/h (62mph), it’s simply not realistic to drive at that speed because of the curves, the hills and the existence of large lorries nearly everywhere. This turned out to be a long day.

Thames is an atmospheric old town. It came into being because of the gold rush in the late 1800’s, and the main street has a hint of the Wild West about it with lines of single storey canopied small shops on both sides. Much of the construction is of wood, which adds to the pioneer atmosphere.

Coromandel town is a big tourist destination, and on the day I visited, there was a Celtic Fair (just to emphasise the similarity with the motherland). Seafood is really special here, with snack bars offering gigantic barbequed mussels. There’s also an unusual mountain railway here that was constructed originally to transport potters clay and tree trucks down to the main road. It now also takes tourists up through heavy forest to a panoramic view point called the “Eyefull Tower” using very advanced articulated multiple unit trains that were designed and constructed by the railway’s owner just 20 years ago (Google Driving Creek Railway if you want to know more).

In between Coromandel town and Thames is a coastal road that hugs the bays and at this time of year shows off the Pohutukawa (Christmas tree) on nearly every bend. The red flower is special.

Having cut across the top of the peninsular, I arrived in Hahei where I took the coastal walk to Captains Cove. The white cliffs and blue water were a calming combination and the view out to sea is rather special as the bay is dotted with rock outcrops and islands. Just a few km south of Hahei is Hot Water Beach. At low tide, you can dig a hole near the low water mark, and hot water (up to 60 degrees C) will bubble up through the sand. Although low tide was not due for another 2 hours, groups of teenagers had already started the digging, in the hope that the hot water would magically rise higher up the beach. It looked a lot more fun than smashing up telephone boxes.

Returning to my initial question, I’d have to conclude that from what I’ve seen so far, much of New Zealand looks like parts of the British Isles, but looking past the surface, things are quite different as there seems less stress, less crime, less anti-social behaviour and a slower pace of life here.

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Photos

Rocky west coast
Is it Ireland, is it Scotland? No it's The Coromandel peninsular

Pohutukawa tree
This seems to grow on every corner of the copast road around Coromandel and blooms around Christmas

Coromandel's green carpet
Between Hahei and Coromandel, even though this is mid summer, the hills are coated in lush green vegetation

Eyefull Tower
The Driving Creek Railway offers two elevated look-out poinjts, one of which is 20,000km away.

Keith above Coromandel
The road to Hahei climbs into the hills and provides a view of the coastal islands near Coromandel