The Coromandel

---

East of Auckland across the Hauraki Gulf extends the Coromandel Peninsula. Coromandel Town home to a few thousand lies in an area of really attractive countryside. I managed to get to Coromandel in my new car. I purchased a car in Auckland, $1400 NZ, 1987 Mitsubishi Lancer estate, I should be able to sleep in the back of the car, save money on hostels occasionally, sell the car on at the end of the trip. I get to go exactly where I want to, when I want to, and New Zealand is really nice to drive in, the roads are mostly empty.

So I drove to Coromandel, 3hrs from Auckland, enjoyed the freedom. Stopped in Thames, found a really nice hostel in Coromandel, Lion’s Den Hostel, run by Lynda. Lynda is really nice and gave me cake and tea when I arrived, and at dinnertime had mussels for all of the guests, all 4 of us.

I spent the afternoon driving around the Coromandel Peninsula, taking photos of sights that interested me, the coast, the vegetation and the livestock of the area. Some young carves posed for the anchor diary cow shot, they followed me from one end of their fence to the other, trying to work out what I was doing.

I spent a really quiet night relaxing after my a hard days touring the peninsula.

The next day I drove across the Peninsula on the 309 road, giving a lift to Ameal (an Israeli traveller). Stopped off at the Kauri grove. The Kauri tree is one of the largest in New Zealand, and although not the tallest tree on the islands, easily contains the most timber. In the 1900’s a huge logging industry saw the destruction of most of these majestic trees, turning them into houses, masts and other products. The Kauri forests once stretched across most of the top half of the North Island, now only a few isolated pockets remain. The amount of timber that is availble in just one tree is vast, so much so that three or four houses would often be built from just one tree, unfortunately the trees take up to 800 years to reach the size needed to accomplish this.

Drove on through Whitianga and made my way towards the East Cape.

---