Blogs from Coromandel, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 43

Well howdy folks Thankyou for all your comments, we only get a small amount of time to hop on the internet here - so apologies if we don't respond individually. We've both been having a great time, chilling out and exploring beaches, coves and the wonderful scenary here. This country is stunning, even when it is blowing a gale! The weather has been a tad blowy, yet now settled back down to lovelly sunshine! We have been sand surfing off 90 mile beach, eating plenty of cake and drinking coffee. Been to a water world garden, with kinetic sculpture, gadgets and BIG TOYS!!!! (for those of you who have also been, you know what I mean!!!!) Including a flying fox/deathslide *grin* :-) We are now looking fwd to some sea kayaking around cathedral cove tomorrow, then ... read more

- FOOD: Dodgy service station seafood, Nigel the chef's most amazing pub grub, our own cooked bacon sarnies on the gas stove. - AREA: Waihi beach all night session, first night in the van but shower in a nice parent house, deserted and beautiful Whangamata beach, Hot Spring Beach where we nearly froze, amusing road signs, Port Jackson peninsula and stuck in the sand saga. Petrol shortage saga. - PEOPLE: Lovely locals buying us drinks all night. Such a nice supermarket worker who gave us free food. The word 'eh' in constant use. Nice man who towed us out of the sand. Nice man in the Subway at Thames. Nice, nice, nice people (when we eventually see some anyway). Wed 27th July: After a few hours of driving and feeling pleased with ourselves (the only mini ... read more

We ended up staying on in Coromandel a few days longer than planned and took advantage of a sunny Sunday to visit Wyrna Bay, take a Kauri forest walk to Tuck's Bay and drive up to Colville for ice cream at the end of the day. The sunset on the way home was the most impressive we have ever seen. The highlight of the next couple of (rainy) days was cooking and eating fresh Snapper and Oysters (caught and collected by our mate Myles). On leaving Coromandel we drove around the top of the peninsular before turning south towards Tauranga. Even though we hadn't expected the weather to be good enough or the tide to be right we managed to be driving past the famous "Hot Water Beach" for a second time at exactly the right ... read more

We're now staying in Coromandel Town having left Northland and driven through Auckland and out east onto the Coromandel Peninsular. This is an area we should have visited some weeks ago but we detoured south to avoid the flooding that struck the area and destroyed some of the roads. After visiting Dargaville and the Kauri Museum at Matakohe we spent one night in Helensville as a stopover and were delighted to find an outdoor hottub from which to view the stars. We're in the countryside at "Tui Lodge" (surrounded by noisy Tuis) where we're making full use of the outdoor trampoline. We're also near some great beaches and coastal walks (including 'Cathedral Cove' where we picnic-ed on the beach in a tree while the tide was coming in and 'Hot Water Beach' although the tide was ... read more

Monday We finally left Auckland at about 2.30 on Monday, having spent the morning packing, tidying Kenny and Luke's house, doing laundry etc. We managed to miss the afternoon rush hour by about 30 minutes (phew!) and headed for the Coromandel. It only took about an hour and a half to get to our first destination - Thames, the main town in the Coromandel. It was getting to the end of the afternoon so we decided to spend the night in Thames rather than drive up the windy twisty road to Coromandel town in the dark. We booked into a backpackers (didn't fancy pitching the tent in the dark either...), which was very comfy but odd because we were the only ones there. On the bright side we had the kitchen to ourselves and cooked our ... read more

What a lovely place! We spent a week in the middle of nowhere! it was soooooooooo good! Hahei Beach and Hot water Beach Ca c'est la belle vie, une semaine de camping au milieu de nul part, avec pour seul voisin l'océan!!!!!!!... read more