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Published: July 30th 2008
Alice thought it a little strange to be flying from one country that we were only visiting to another, in a way it was but as they both spoke English we felt quite comfortable with it. So as we flew in from San Francisco to Auckland and crossed the Date line we arrived at a relatively quite airport in the wee hours after not getting too much sleep.
On reflection back, New Zealand has been one of our least prepared stops to date, not counting the one night in Madrid we had on the ad-hoc with Keely and David. I think it was because i only ever thought of the trip as being a means to an end, an extended stop over between flights, so there we were just days into our big adventure and we had come to a city in a country that we knew very little about, we had book our hostels and then we had not done really much else. Luckily we're not the first travelers to grace the Islands of New Zealand and the Information centres were ready.
Being the first ever hostel we have stayed in gave a little apprehension as we were
Auckland tower
from a little further awaydriven across city. I didn't really know what was going to confront me at the other end. It turns out just a big house full of beds, a room full of couches, a big kitchen and bathrooms so quite normal really.
We were shown our room and then went off to do a 'recci' of the area and find some food, whilst trying to stay awake and make sense of where we were. Up to now every foreign country I had visited was so obviously foreign, buildings, people and driving on the right, for the first time we had travelled to a place that felt more like home then any other, yet flown so far. After our months in France, so close to England but so different, it was extremely strange.
After we had had a little wonder and fond a grocery store we made our selves something to eat and chilled out for a while. I found a New Zealand book on a book shelf and Alice still pondered what happened to her Wednesday, finding the date line crossing hard to comprehend. Then we headed out for the first time to do what has now become a
ritual in every new town and city, find the I. Yes every significant place has one, an information point, a centre full of little flyers and curious looking women with strange pieces of knowledge to share with any person wishing to ask the right questions.
We fell asleep quite early the first night and didn’t wake up till the next morning, it helped though, we felt more human then we had in days. It wasn’t until we were about to leave New Zealand and had become fully adjusted to our clock change that we realised how jet lagged we had been in San Francisco. Our second day and we had a mission, we only had another night in the city and then were booked in to a holiday village backpacker lodge in Coromandel, but that was all we had arranged. We had thought little of how to get there till now, realising that the country was bigger then we first thought and picking up that transport links perhaps weren’t as regular as central London we had some investigating to do. So we headed off to the city centre, now there is one thing I must tell everyone about distance
in Oceania, everything is described in short but the phrase ‘just up the road’, can be anywhere between 10Km to 1000Km. We have to date walked a lot of miles finding places described as ’just up the road’.
After much leg work and talking to different people, transport office, tourist information and car hire firms, we found a little car and worked out that was the best way to go. We also found the harbour and a very tall spike tower that had a marvellous view, we were told, but didn’t fancy going up it. Partly due to the fact there were many people throwing themselves off it, it appears that if you can bungi or base jump off a building, then in New Zealand there are people doing it.
Our day to leave came and so did the fog, so we set off with a big map, well actually we had several maps that didn’t quite seem to link and some written directions full of the phrase ’just down that road’! But we found the freeway and after what seemed a lifetime we found our junction and through the fog we went on to some beautiful scenic roads,
well I think they would be.
The fog finally lifted as we headed over a long bridge and started to climb the Coromandel peninsular, dipping round sandy bays lined with cottages and then back out into the trees and rugged cliff top roads, every little settlement slightly different from the last. Then we reached our goal, the little mining town of Coromandel. The lodge was big and airy and our room had it’s own TV and door out to the decking. The town it self is an old gold mining town built mainly of wood, straight out of a wild west film, I thought it would have been more fitting to ride into town on a couple of horses, tether them up outside the salon and partake in beverage or two, but that was just a thought.
So new place new I, this one was of course a lot smaller but still had all the flyers and the obligatory strange women behind the desk, dispensing her advice. After a little discussion we booked ourselves on the Driving Creek Railway tour. Then headed back to town for some supplies. That evening we went for a jolly up the peninsular,
Alice at the helm, her first time in an automatic car!
Day two and after a good sleep we headed out to catch some fresh air and views, following a footpath we headed up a hill to see the view, a stunning 360 degree view across the town and out across the water to Auckland. I must admit it was about this point that I realised that Auckland isn’t the capital of New Zealand, just demonstrating again how little I knew about the place. It’s Wellington.
The Driving Creek Railway, world famous, I must add, built by an eccentric artist as a means to retrieve clay to work and wood for his ovens, it reaches high into the hill above his studio. We had a great driver/ tour guide that drove us up the line, past mining pits and art work, across engineering structures like his double layer viaduct up to the Eyeful tower. It was never meant to be public, we are told, but times were hard and the bank manager gave a grave ultimatum, public or bust. There were several places on the way up where benches and sheds stood, old lines lay at tangents and
dated plaques lay claim to being the top, but we are told that it now can’t go any higher as he’s at the edge of his land. A beautiful and interesting trip that Alice really enjoyed.
Unfortunately we then lost the good weather and fell a little ill, redecorating the bathroom, so we had a chill out day in the lodge and just watched some films whilst the weather past.
Feeling a little better and not wanting to loose another day, as I started to realise we had much more we could see then we had days to left before we flew on, we headed off round to the Pacific coast. We were advised on a great scenic road ‘the 309’ that climbed through the hills past beautiful views and waterfalls with pools for swimming, art galleries and generally the most scenic of scenic, but we took the other road. When we rented our car and told them were we were going, as you do, they opened up he terms and conditions and boldly highlighted that we were not permitted on gravel unsealed roads, so we had to leave and take the main road over the peninsular to
The Driving Creek Railway
view from the top station the other coast.
Our first stop of the day was Cathedral cove, a beautiful secluded beach with massive halls hollowed out of the cliffs, it was a long walk from the car park, made longer by Alice leaving the camera in the car. After we had spent sometime on the beach and made our way back out again it was off to Hot water beach, due to volcanic activity close the surface warm springs of water can be dug too. So even on the coldest days you can dig a whole and have yourself a warm dip.
After our four nights we said goodbye to Coromandel and headed back to Auckland, feeling that we’d seen some truly different sights and feeling very excited on what we had to look forward to.
Another early start and we were off to Sydney, the Australian discovery was about to begin!
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