Blogs from Pauanui, Coromandel Peninsula, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

We had booked ourselves into a summer house for the last week of our trip. A kind of holiday from the holiday. The aim was to find our own space, wind down and have time to soak us the last of the sun and the waves before returning to a very wet and, in comparison, pretty cold northern Europe. If I have to say it myself, we did pretty well at just that! We spent the time at the playground, at the beach and doing a few trips. But not very many. We had rented a big summer house, so had invited new friends, that we met over Christmas in Bay of Islands, down to stay for the weekend. Only plan set in stone for the 7 days was a trip to see Cathedral Cove and ... read more

Après avoir travaillé le 31 Décembre pour finir en superbe soirée avec les amis et commencer la nouvelle année de la meilleure des façons, nous avons décidé de partir quelques jours en vacances (eh oui le 1 & 2 Janvier sont fériés ici). Direction le Coromandel. Un collègue de travail d'Astrid (Mike) nous a gentiment convié dans sa résidence secondaire pour passer quelques jours avec eux pendant leurs vacances annuelles. La France n'est jamais bien loin, destination : Holland Road. C'est bien la première fois depuis notre arrivée que nous avons croisé autant de véhicules sur la route, après 2h de voiture la destination paradisiaque nous tendait les bras. Un marche au bord de l'eau en escaladant les cailloux (sans nous faire d'entorses avec les tongues) nous a permis de découvrir des artistes jouant avec les ... read more

Saturday morning brought with it blue skies and bright winter sunshine. The weather couldn't have been more different from the yesterday - nor more welcome. We started our day with bike ride through Pauanui town and across to an area of canal-like waterways that looked interesting on the map. We came to a stop at a wooden octagonal showroom which had a sign offering free views across the canals. A lady sitting inside the sales office came out to say hello and instead of giving us an unwanted sales pitch, she kindly produced a bunch of maps and leaflets about the area for us to take away. She suggested we bike along the boardwalk nearby which we hadn't seen on any maps but sounded like a grand idea. The road to the boardwalk took us downhill ... read more

My luggage finally was delivered and I had my true test driving on the left hand side of the road with our drive to Pauanui on the Coromandel Peninsula. At about half way point the road took us into the mountains, narrow very windy, up and down with many turns and no shoulders plus a steady stream of traffic coming the other way. We are staying at the Grand Mecure Puka Park resort in a chalet within the forest. Upon our arrival we setoff for a walk to and along the beach, a long sandy beach with breaking surf and mountain islands out to sea. Our walk back took a little longer since our resort is on the side of the mountain and the climb up was a little breath-taking. On the 20th we ventured forth ... read more