Blogs from Coromandel Town, Coromandel, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

Coromandel Town. Walked around town. Really quaint old gold-rush style buildings. Gold rush town mid-1800's. Gold mining exhibition here and rock battery. Waterworks. Lots of arty, creative people here. Main street in town has loads of Galleries. Met a Tom Bombadilesque character with other 60 boars as pets on way out to see the waterworks park. Intelligent fella even though he obviously hadn't had a shower in years. Lived in a hut with the pigs.... read more

Auckland to Coromandel (Well, let’s be honest, Auckland to Coromandel via all suburbs of Auckland SE and SW of the great Route 1 South Highway!) Whilst picking up the Spaceship© (ie small car masquerading as camper – won’t we all have lots of fun until it rains!) was straight forward, as was driving on the left in a RH-drive car-like vehicle , following our instructions to return to the highway was anything but. Our initial feelings that Auckland was a small city were completely squashed today as we drove through lots and lots of interlinked suburbs (with absolutely no signs telling you how to get away from them) – so that is where the 1.3 million people live! Finally, and swallowing all pretensions to be an Englishman abroad, I stopped and asked for directions. Five minutes ... read more

Hi it is Laura again. I hope all is good with you all. Now where did Sam leave off… We felt ready to leave the South Island and that all our expectations and hopes had been met. Christchurch definitely highlighted this: its best use the airport and our exit. Unfortunately our day of departure was long and when our shuttle bus driver for the airport turned up 30 mins early at 6 am we were not best pleased. Mam I can hear you laughing now imagining trying to move me at such time in the morning. Once at the airport we faced two flights and a bus to get us to our end destination that day, Lake Taupo at 17:30. Both flights were short and pleasant as we flew Air New Zealand. We did however have ... read more

Au sud-est d'Auckland, la côte forme une péninsule appelée Coromandel, réputée pour sa beauté naturelle préservée. L'endroit est certes touristique, mais la fin de la haute saison l'a rendu presque aussi solitaire que l'East Cape ; c'est pas moi qui vais m'en plaindre. Pour le reste, cette entrée marque la fin de ma "Quête", débutée sur la colline d’Edoras, voici un mois et demi. Je ne saurai dire si l'on a gardé le meilleur pour la fin ; mais le plus reconnaissable, ça c'est très probable. Un dimanche à Hobbitebourg Matamata est un petit bourg agricole comme tant d'autres dans le pays, à quelque 60 km au nord-ouest de Rotorua. En y regardant de plus près, toutefois, il y a des choses un peu plus singulières qu'ailleurs : ce panneau planté au milieu du village, indiquant ... read more

Took our time packing up and made some breakfast and then left our bags at the hostel and walked over to the car place. Signed the contract and got the keys. We get the car for $50/day with unlimited km’s and we just pay for petrol. Was then shown the car a little Nissan Bluebird. Never heard of those back home but was a cool car. Yes, luckily it was an automatic! I drove it back to the hostel which was so weird. First of all, you’re in the opposite side of the car of to drive and then you have to remember to keep left or the opposite side of the road and you have to remember to look the other way for traffic haha. But I got us there. Vera drove us over to ... read more