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Published: October 29th 2009
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Our campsite at the Dickins Motor Canp in Thames on the peninsula. afternoon we departed Auckland heading south and then east to the very popular and beautiful Coromandel Peninsula. The Peninsula is due east of Auckland separated only by the Hauraki Gulf. The peninsula starts southeast of Auckland but juts out into the Pacific well north of Auckland. We’re hoping to see Auckland at night from the peninsula. This area we have been told has some of the finest and whitest sand beaches on the North Island. So we’re off to find out the truth and fiction of this well promoted vacation area. Hey we also got our first phone call on our cell phone. It was my friend Jeannie from Napier on the North Island where we’ll be staying for a few days. Jeannie’s warned us that they have some construction going on at their house but they’ll have a room available for us. I have not seen Jeannie in 22 years (1987?) so this is going to be a great reunion.
Well we arrived onto the peninsula late afternoon in Thames on the southwestern end of the Peninsula. We stayed at an out of the way Holiday Park/Campground just 3 kilometers north of Thames. Great hike nearby
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Shags hanging out on the rocks near the beach on the way to Coromandel. and good views of the Hauraki Gulf. The manager of the campground had come to New Zealand three times before and on his fourth visit - stayed. He was originally from Switzerland and said there were too many people there and everyone in a hurry so he stayed here in NZ. Thames (10,000 population) and the region is famous for the gold rush that occurred around 1867. Captain James Cook had arrived here and named the Waihou River “Thames” because it had some resemblance to the Thames River in England.
1-26-09 - Monday we ate a great breakfast of sausage, eggs/toast, oranges and of course tea and coffee. We got on the Internet for an hour to touch base with someone who is hosting us in Rotorua in several days. We found her/she found us on CouchSurfing.com or org. Great site check it out. Today is Labor Day in New Zealand which means large numbers of people are heading back into Auckland from the Coromandel Peninsula after a 3-day holiday.
We continued to head north on the Coromandel Peninsula towards the town of Coromandel. There was this mad rush of cars and trucks going the opposite way as
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Views north of Thames on the Coromandel Peninsula they were leaving the peninsula. Good for us as we want this place all to ourselves. Just shy of town we came across the Coromandel Oyster Company (see photo). We were hungry and decided to pull in for some seafood. We are mostly eating breakfast, lunch and dinner from the food we are buying at the grocery stores but on this occasion we are splurging a bit so to enjoy some fresh seafood. Well we had the Mussel Chowder and some garlic bread and it was outstanding!!! We would highly recommend this place for some good food and fresh seafood. We bought a 5kg bag of fresh uncooked mussels for our dinner and they were cheap! When we arrived in the town of Coromandel, we checked out the town for about 30 minutes, then continued to head north towards Colville but ultimately to Port Jackson at the top of the peninsula. The drive from Colville to Port Jackson is 30 Km (30Km X .62= miles). Only 3Km is on a sealed road and the rest of the drive is on a relatively well maintained gravel road. We got to Port Jackson about an hour later going about 30 miles an
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More views along the west coast of the peninsula. hour most of the way and avoiding the holiday travelers heading back to Auckland.
Weather is moving in across the Gulf and from the North and we were expecting rain at any time. Low clouds, blowing wind and light misty rain greeted us - typical so far for this trip. The DOC has a great site here at Port Jackson. There is also a DOC campground just south and north at Fantail Bay and Fletcher Bay, respectfully. Before we depart tomorrow we’ll head up to Fletcher Bay which is 6 Km north for a short visit. The resident managers, Bill and Ann, here at Port Jackson arrive in October and depart at the end of April. They have a fine bus/RV with solar panels, small wind turbine to recharge batteries, satellite dish, 4-wheeler, nice boat and WiFi Internet. She told us about the scare they had here after the Samoan earthquake and Tsunami. After a timely phone call from friends in Auckland, they alerted all the campers to evacuate up the mountain just behind the campground for safety. This time there was no big wave to hit NZ but better safe than sorry. We noted all of this in
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Eating at Coromandel Oyster Company. case we get a rude shaking during night or someone screaming for us to evacuate as well.
We cooked all those mussels (Kutai) and they were outstanding (see photos). By the way, is there any part of the mussel that you should not eat - well other than the shell? Someone do a check on the Internet for us and let us know if we should have not eaten the …. which is poisonous. So after eating the 5kilos of mussels, we basically chilled out - literally. Rhea for the first time commented on the fact she wished she had brought her nice warm winter gloves. She was cold so she has gone to the car (we’re sleeping in the car tonight since the weather may get much worse and a soaking wet tent is terrible to put back into the storage bags.) where we have our sleeping bags, sleeping pads, and blanket ready for us to climb in. I’m boiling some water to make some hot tea and hot chocolate so she’ll stay warm. Yes, Port Jackson at the end of the Coromandel Peninsula is today windy and a bit cold - but very very quiet. So if
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Hey Jim - this photo is for you. We found Little Bit's sister in the town of Coromandel. I have a choice of cold, windy, and no people or warm, calm and crowded with people, I’ll take the cold any day. The wind and pounding surf was all you could hear and it was sweet. I highly suggest this location to any traveler heading anywhere near the Coromandel Peninsula.
We shared the campground with 7 other vehicles which seemed like a lot less because everyone was spaced so far apart from each other. Did we say it was windy and cold here??? New Zealand has not heard about Global Warming obviously. If I thought it might warm the climate up here and didn’t cost us too much, I might just leave the car running and help add to the CO2 emissions to elevate the warming process here. Actually, the wind has now died down and it is very nice out so we’re just hearing the crashing waves now.
10-26-09 - Tuesday - Hello is anyone reading this blog or are we sending messages out into the Internet world without readers??? I know a few of you are reading since we got some very lovely comments. Thanks by the way! Hey Eve Wells - thanks for your
message. Keas are found only on the South Island and we have not gotten there yet. Yep, I know all about this bird’s mischievous behavior and we’ll be ready for them. I think they are supposed to taste like chicken -we’ll let you know. Also to our favorite Priest in Clinton, MS - Mother Ann please have everyone there at Creator pray for some warm weather here in New Zealand. We’re actually doing very well. We’re staying incredibly warm at night partly because of our nice sleeping bags but also because Rhea purchased in Auckland at the Thrift Store a nice flannel sheet and a comforter cover. All this has kept us toasty at night. By the way, our tent has been wonderful. Anyone wanting a bomb proof 2-3 person tent should check out the Sierra Designs Tiros. Extremely sturdy in these high winds.
BLOG TEST ALERT! We want to hear from our friends. Just for the fun of it, the 28th person who sends us a comment after we publish this page will get a special New Zealand treat. Oh and by the way, we have not gotten any new subscribers to our blog site. Hello, let’s get
on the ball people. Get your friends to subscribe to our Blog site. The 18th newest subscriber to our Blog site and the person getting them to subscribe will each receive a big Cadbury Chocolate bar - yummy! Did you know Cadbury chocolate bars are made in Dunedin on the South Island? We’re going to visit the factory and sample each of their chocolate bars - it’s a tough job but someone has to do it. So if you want a Cadbury chocolate bar get some of your friends to sign on. We’ll try to make the site interesting, amusing and sometimes even educational.
Well, during the early early morning on Tuesday at Port Jackson the rain returned. Started off very lightly, then was heavy for about 20 minutes, then back to light again. By the time we got out of our sleeping bags the skies had mostly cleared and just a light wind blowing. You feel like you’re literally all alone at the end of the world at this location. Well anyway, we ate our breakfast of oatmeal, apple, orange, and coffee/tea. We walked the beach a bit and took some photos before climbing into the car and heading
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Goat grazing along the road between Colville and Port Jackson. to the vert extreme north part of the peninsula to Fletcher Bay.
We also had a visit that morning from a Kiwi bird. It flew from a tree directly into our car (see photo of the bird). It’s a great traveling companion as we’ve discovered. Not very talkative, quiet most of the time, but flies around the inside of the car when it sees other Kiwi birds flying past. Truth or Fiction?
When we arrived at Fletcher Bay, it was nearly deserted except for one tent camper. There is a hike from here to Stony Bay that takes about 3 hours one way but you need a vehicle at the other end since it is not a loop trail. We were content to just enjoy the peace and quiet at the most northerly point on the Coromandel Peninsula. We turned our trusty car southward and headed back to Colville 37 Km away and a long gravel road ahead of us.
Our game plan today is to cross over the mountains in the center of the peninsula to get to the east side of the peninsula by way of the 309 Road which again in mostly gravel road.
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Views along the road heading to the DOC campground at Port Jackson. The road snakes its way through some beautiful forest along the way and passes the 10 meter high Waiau Falls (see photos) and a stand of thirteen 600 year old Kauri trees (see photos). We’re heading to Whitianga and then on to Hahei. Whitianga is located on Mercury Bay with beautiful sand beaches and an absolutely fine harbor. We ate lunch, walked a bit around the area, and then drove around the town as well. We finally loaded up and headed to Hahei which is located on the Pacific Ocean with yet again another beautiful sand beach and a popular tourist attraction called Cathedral Cove. Anyone traveling in this area has to take the 45 minute (30 for us) one way hike to this beautiful sand beach cove with some drop dead views of numerous islands just off the coast of Hahei. At the cove there is this gigantic limestone arch. Apparently a portion of rock has recently dropped from the ceiling of the cave/arch so they have roped off the two entrances and asked people not to enter due to the danger of future collapsing limestone. Our biggest disappointment was we had arrived at Hahei during high tide which
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More views heading to Port Jackson. meant we would not be able to enjoy Hot Water Beach. Hot Water Beach, just south of Hahei, is where you can dig a hole in the sand along the beach (2 hours either side of low tide), it fills up with hot water from springs below the sand and voila - you have a hot tub/spa.
Fortunate for us our disappointment missing Hot Water Beach changed quickly once arriving in Opoutere on the Pacific Ocean about 20 Km south of Hahei. There is nothing here for miles except for this unbelievable, unspoiled and peaceful white sand beach. To make it even better we discovered the Opoutere YHA (hostel) - all of this thanks to the Lonely Planet Guide Book on New Zealand. If you are within 150Km of this location you need to spend at least two nights here. That’s is exactly what we’re doing. So we setup our tent on the grounds behind the hostel buildings, prepared dinner and chatted for several hours with two New Zealender’s from Motuihe Island just off the coast from Auckland.
Things we’ve noted during our travels so far. We have not seen hardly any police driving the roads in New
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Mussels steaming over the stove. Zealand. We don’t see any billboards along the highways or roads. We wished we had brought our Solar Shower for use at the DOC campgrounds where there is no hot water showers (only cold water) but nice hooks from which to hang your solar shower. We’ve decided that the New Zealand Transportation road crew in some areas just flips a coin on what speed limit sign to put-up for a stretch of road. We’ve been on some really narrow and windy roads and have seen “100” for the speed limit. That’s 62 miles/hour in US. If we had been doing a 100 K on some of these roads we would be in the bush or launched off one of the cliffs and into the trees or ocean below. The hot water at the hostels and campgrounds is scalding hot. We’re not sure why since these facilities have great programs for recycling and water conservation, yet waste energy heating the water to scalding temperatures. I’m going to have a talk with them. Nearly all the toilets have two buttons that you can choose from to push after you’ve finished doing your business. One button releases like half the amount of water
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Mussels ready to eat with our salad, fruit and hot tea. than the other. Just a few thoughts.
28-10-09 - Wednesday we awoke to what we believe is going to be our finest day in New Zealand. We have finally spotted the rarely seen Solar Sunshine!!!!!! OMG, the sun is out, the skies are clear and we are leaping out of the tent to enjoy a day in the New Zealand sun. This is a day of discovery, new adventures and kayaking on the water. We put on our shorts - YEAH!! and our short sleeve shirts - YEAH!!! and cooked breakfast and swiftly moved to the outdoors. Our two new friends from the Auckland area informed us that we can harvested shellfish from the bay at low tide. In particularly Cockels and Tua Tua are harvested. Cockels from the bay and Tua Tua from the surf on the beach. These are very small shellfish (see photos of our harvesting) and you’re only allowed 50 per person daily. After spending some time harvesting these, we headed to the beach for some fun in the surf - now that the sun is out!!! We have actually put on our bathing suits and went partially into the surf - the water is
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The resident managers at the DOC campground at Port Jackson. still cool. What a great time we were having and then I spotted it. Down the beach I spotted someone who I thought was mining for gold ( this peninsula had a gold rush in the 1800s). The sun is out, it’s now warm and I’m energetic to find out what he’s doing. I get there and he cranking on a drum with a handle and pulling in a loooooooong fishing line. Ok - this I’ve never seen so I start asking questions. See photos to further explain what I’m seeing. He has a device that looks like a model submarine (about 30 inches long) that weighs 10 pounds ( I later learn it is called a torpedo), has a propeller and rudder, and 12-inch high red flag. Anyway, the little unit floats in the water, he launches it from the deep surf and it heads straight out away from the beach carrying with it 400 to 500 feet of fishing line with baited hooks every 10 feet. At a certain point, an automatic timer shuts off the propeller and it just floats out there still holding onto the long fishing line. When I caught up with him, he was
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The New Zealand flag flying with the heavy wind that late afternoon at Port Jackson. reeling this line back in and had caught several nice fish including Snapper and Guinard. The Guinard was a very beautiful fish (see photo). He said it was fine eating as well.
We also watched from the beach 3 people surfing and one person surfing his kayak as the waves ranged from 4 to 5 feet in this area. We headed back to the hostel checked out two of the kayaks (their free to guests) and put them into the bay across the street from the hostel and spent 1 ½ hours on the water just paddling around. We came back in, relaxed, read, worked on the blog text and downloaded photos from the camera for the past two days. All in all a very relaxing day.
We steamed the shellfish that we had harvested and ate them along with some other food for dinner. We also watched the rest of the movie “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks and Catherina Zata Jones. OK - we have our travel hard drive that’s the size of two small cell phones side by side with 50 of our favorite movies stored on it so we can watch movies on the computer
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The DOC shelter at Port Jackson with nice tables, sink, gas grills and good cover. from time to time. We watched Second Hand Lions a week ago.
10-29-09 Thursday morning started off with sunshine when we got out of our tent. Then the showers came in briefly and departed. We had a good breakfast and prepared to depart the Opoutere Hostel. This again was the best hostel we have stayed in since being in New Zealand (see photos of the hostel) and we highly recommend this hostel. Clean, quiet, friendly and very environmentally conscious. The views from the hostel to the bay were wonderful as well. Put this place on your list if traveling here.
We continued south from the peninsula towards our ultimate destination of Rotorua. We passed through several small towns along the way including Waihi where there is still an operating
gold mine right adjacent to the town. The forests views on the road from Opoutere to Waihi were quite nice as it was a change of pace from the ocean views. So on to Rotoura which starts our next blog page for the Bay of Plenty/Rotorua. Stay Tuned - Cheers!
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peggy wilder
non-member comment
Fabulous Pictures
We are praying for you daily. What an absolutely wonderful adventure you two are having and making us all jealous. The sceanary is something to behold. I was fascinated with the man fishing in the Pacific and wondered if you were offered any of the catch? Happy Trails to you.Til your next report.