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Published: August 6th 2007
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Auckland is known as the City of Sails. The City of traffic jams would be more appropriate. Or the city of never ending rain. More of my rant later.
The Coromandel Peninsula is lovely. Big, vast, spacious, empty. We were going to do a hike (well, Mrs Deane didn't really fancy it actually) but the weather was getting worse in the arvo so we decided to head to the beach. You might not think that winter time in New Zealand is ideal beach weather but you would be wrong.
We took the long road over the Coromandel range to get from east to west via the big Square Kauri. This is a big tree. And very old. Extremely big. The loggers chopped down almost all the Kauri forrests way back when leaving only a handful. There is one in the North that is 2000 years old and enormous but there were much older ones that were chopped down as well. This is the biggest in this area and rougly 40 times older than me. And considerably more bulky despite the recent Australasian-big-portion diet.
Down the other side we headed off to Cathedral Cove for a walk along the
coast. It was about a 90 minute return along the coastal track to get to a huge cathedral-esque grand arch on the beach. Check out the photo of miniature Mrs Deane to see the scale of the arch. You can only get to it at low tide which was lucky as that's when we were there.
After that was our trip to the beach down the coast. We had our swimming cossies on and were all ready to go. We hired our spade from the cafe and headed off down the beach. This is Hot Water Beach with a couple of hot streams that exit out into the sea. The idea being that you dig a hole, let the stream fill it up and you've got a ready made spa. Brilliant.
But it's quite tricky. The stream is actually 64C and that is scalding hot. You need to dig your hole on the edge of the stream to get a mix of the hot and some cold. After a lot of trial and error we just about got it right and had a 37C pool to sit in and admire the freezing beach from. I even had a
dip in the sea. Lasted about 10 seconds before running back to the spa screaming like a girl. Certainly a grand day at the seaside.
Auckland next. We started driving. Got to the outskirts about half three. Got to our campervan site at nearly 6. You have a vast empty country and 1.4m people (a whole third of the Kiwis) decide to live in a big old bottleneck. The traffic was like being back in England on the M6. We went about 20km over the space of about 90 minutes. Crazy. And it was raining. Pouring with rain. Still raining now, two days later and hasn't stopped much in between.
If ever a town was in need of a character boost it is Auckland. There just seems to be nothing much about it. The pubs and bars are nice enough and I'm sure it must be much better in Summer but when we were here it didn't do that much for us. We handed the keys to Cookie back on the Saturday morning - at least we couldn't get snarled up in the perpetual traffic again. There's a big tower here, biggest in the Southern Hemisphere, and we
were going to go up and have a look but it was NZ$30 to go up which is daft as there isn't that much to see. They've got a big harbour bridge but it is nowhere near as nice as Sydney.
The afternoon and evening redeemed Auckland a little. After touring around the markets and a bit of the town we went to the Shakespeare pub and microbrewery. We wiled away an hour doing the 8 beer taste tray. Very good. That left me on the brink of my 150. I didn't know this however and so my 150th beer was a very poor Lion Red instead of something more memorable. Oh well, you live and learn.
We managed to chill the rest of the day away with some nice food and excellent company. And our final day in New Zealand is pure relaxation. We'll do a little rambling and shopping, maybe stop for a little drink but it will be relaxation all the way. Fiji tomorrow, sunshine beaches and ladies in little grass skirts hula-ing away. Unless thats Hawaii...
Au revoir for now,
The Deanes
Beer 141: Tui Dark, New Zealand, Draught, 4.0%, 8.0,
Very nice.
Beer 142: Barraclough Lager, New Zealand, Draught, 4.3%, 8.5, started off our taste tray with our favourite, crisp and citrus. Mrs Deane says "very nice pint"
Beer 143: Summers Day Bohemian Lager, New Zealand, Draught, 5.5%, 7.5, Rounded, smoother lager. Mrs Deane says "tastes wheatier"
Beer 144: Traditional New Zealand Draught, New Zealand, Draught, 4.0%, 5.0, Watery, no real flavour. Mrs Deane says "ooh, don't like that"
Beer 145: Old Gobbo's Nice Weiss, New Zealand, Draught, 6.1%, 6.5, OK-ish. Mrs Deane says "Not as good as some others"
Beer 146: Falstaff's Real Ale, New Zealand, Draught, 4.5%, 6.0, Nothing special. Mrs Deane says "hmmm, not bad"
Beer 147: Pistol's Old Soldier Ale, New Zealand, Draught, 6.3%, 8.0, Would go well with cheese. Mrs Deane says "mmmm, that's nice"
Beer 148: Willpower Stout, New Zealand, Draught, 4.0%, 7.0, Very different but nice. Mrs Deane says "oh, like raw cocoa beans but not cocoa"
Beer 149: King Lear Old Ale, New Zealand, Draught, 8.0%, 7.0, A big stout to round off the tasting. Mrs Deane says "That's quite surprising"
Beer 150: Lion Red, New Zealand, Draught, 4.0%, 5.5, Very average, even
below average. Such a shame as it was the big 150.
P.S. Hope you enjoyed the Mrs Deane beer quotes.
P.P.S. It's my birthday on Wednesday. All cards and presents can be left at our home address for our return. Currently I am looking for the following presents:
- A new car
- 50 inch plasma (60 inch would be fine)
- full sky package
- gym membership
- a job (I'm not fussy)
- a birthday cake (chocolate please) - this can be baked nearer our return time though to save it from going off
- new shoes and suit plus a few sharp shirts
- a haircut
P.P.P.S. Please liaise with Mrs Deane just in case she has already bought me some of the above presents
P.P.P.S. I'll settle for a nice pint of real English ale if any of the above presents are a little out of your price range
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Sara
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Birthday Boy
"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Da...ve (strung out to fit the tune), Happy Birthday to you!" Have a top day 2mo Dave, how are you celebrating? Sx