New Zealand Part 8 - The Coromandel

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Ha ha ?? ha he??? He hi??? No I got it - next stop Hahei

With the van still in the garage waiting to be fixed we finally left the Hearing dogs prison on Monday 4th January 2010!!! Got on the good old naked bus to Hamilton (half way between New Plymouth and Tauranga) where we were meeting Ben and Heather who had kindly offered to take us the rest of the way back to theirs after they had spent the weekend in Raglan. We were so relieved to see them both; I can’t say how nice it was to see friends after the rubbish time we had had. They had been away for the weekend (after recovering from their 2 day hangover after the new years concert we missed (dam it!!) and had bought themselves a shiney new tent they wanted to try out on the Coromandel with us at the weekend. Just typical I thought, I had planned our time so we would be back at theirs for the weekend, knowing they were working during the week and they had already planned to take us up and back again for the whole weekend. In my super eager planning and organising (which is actually now causing more trouble than good) I had pre booked all our tickets and they were non refundable so as nice as it would have been to sod it, we had to stick with our original plan. To come to a compromise where we all got to have fun, we were to head to the Coromandel as planned and they would join us for a nights camping and day at the beach before we would leave them there and head back for our connection to New Plymouth.

That night at Ben and Heathers we finally opened all of our presents and cards that had been waiting for us since Christmas. So many family and friends had sent us something it was really touching and would have easily made our Christmas day even better than it was. The next morning whilst Ben took Nathan off on another photo exhibition work thing, I sat in their home and enjoyed the best part of the trip so far…the final instalment of the Doctor Who Christmas specials, that everyone had got to see on new years day. I won’t go into it as most people don’t like the show, but oh my god; I cried like some little girl and loved every minute of it. I went straight on line as you do to discuss it with other like minded fans…so a productive day for me overall. That evening we watched some terrorism film with Ben, Heathers and their friends but were early to bed as we were due on the naked bus (should have bought a bus pass!!) to the Coromandel region.

I had booked us into a really nice looking hostel right by the beach at a place called Hahei. It is half way between the main recreation area of Whangeria and Hot Water Beach. I figured from the map it was best to be in the middle and the distances between the places looked tiny so we could probably walk everywhere (Its only the thickness of my finger away on the map!). No! It soon became apparent that the distances were deceiving and we would need transport to get to places - doh!! Anyway the hostel was really nice and clean, really modern, with loads of decking and outside areas which was great as the weather was boiling. We were right behind the small number of bars and a few minutes from the only shop in town, which as you can imagine was always heaving!! We had brought good old super noodles with us to try and keep everything as cheap as possible, so went to the shop to buy some milk (already had cereal and tea bags -c’mon!!) and something to go with our feast of noodles and fresh air. We settled on a piece of steak which was cheaper than some of the fake products!! It was divine, I don’t know if it tasted good because it was cheap, served with the super noodles or because we were so glad to finally be somewhere else….or maybe just because Nath was a good cook???

That night as we lay in our comfy beds, only to be woken by what can only be described as an airade siren. No one had told us about them and we were beginning to think we needed to grab our belongings and get out of the area. There had been signs we’d noticed that had said about tsunami warnings but it turned out to be the volunteer fire fighter call out signal. Can’t believe a little place like this has to rely on volunteers, but I guess they are miles away from any town and it would take too long to arrive. What with the blistering heat and very dry ground, the sirens went off regularly through out our time at the hostel but we soon got used to them at night. What we didn’t get used to was the hippo that was asleep in the same room as us. We couldn’t believe that anyone sucking that hard on inhalation didn’t move bedroom furniture. At one point I thought the lady had stopped breathing (or was that hopped???) but thankfully she was alive and still able to cause us further sleepless nights! It was soooo loud I can’t describe it, and whilst the others in our room got annoyed but dealt with it, I did my usual thing and did not deal with it very well!!! I found you could disturb the sleep pattern by making a loud noise so the lady would stop (for a short while) but this soon stopped working, so in the end I resorted to shouting out “for gods sake shut up!!” which did the trick!!

Next day we headed out for a walk along the cliff tops to Cathedral cove, a warn out archway formation with a pinnacle formation visible on the other side. Very beautiful place and very busy. But then we were in a holiday destination in the middle of the school holidays. The walk there was pleasant to start with as the weather was a little clouded over and cooler than the afternoons, but by midday it was sweltering. I actually walked around in a bikini top, something I’ve not done since Fiji (and Nath with his top off whoop whoop!!). We stopped at various bays along the way to take photos and walk in the surf, which was great. Wow very nice scenery (and that’s not just Nath’s opinion of the women there) it was so blue, with the beautiful Pohutakawa trees framing the area in red - lush!! We sun bathed for a short while and managed to stretch our pennies to a cookie each (having missed out on lunch) and enjoyed knowing that back home everyone was freezing in the snow heheheheh.

The walk back was even harder with the sun beating down on us and with our stomachs aching for food and with no food actually left over in our small amount of rations; we went for the next cheapest option. Burger and chips! If it wasn’t for all the walking we were doing I wouldn’t be surprised if we actually come back home weighing far more than when we left!! This was soon followed by the biggest hand made ice-cream cone ever which we ate as we walked along the beach in the evening sunset. We ended up walking for miles (again) along the beach and around the estate of holiday homes, most of them not even being used!! Each with their own boat and tractor to pull them into the surf. It was getting dark by this point so we headed back, calling home on the way and passing a huge beach bonfire. I was unsure whether we could just join in as everyone seemed to know each other, and it turns out from speaking to other kiwi’s that we would have been more than welcome - oh well we’ll remember that for next time.

Whilst Nath continued to chat to his parents I settled down in the common room area to read a book to try and make sure I was tired enough to sleep though hippo lungs lady…….no chance!!!!

Next day during breakfast we had managed to get chatting to an older couple whose names I forget now, who offered us a lift to Hot Water beach. What a life saver, we had tried everyday without luck as you have to go at high tide to be able to dig out the sand baths of hot water, we were beginning to think we would have to hitch hike. But as we weren’t going till later that day we headed out for another walk. With some luck there seemed to be some kind o Sunday hippie festival/market going on, so we had a walk around that and then headed out towards some look out point I had read about in my trustee (7 year old) rough guide book. The weather was warm on and off but also very grey but we figured they never get rain up here which is why they have all the fires, so what’s the chance……anyway the walk up to the rocky point was an easy one, luckily, although we stopped to look at what looked like grey candyfloss on some of the plants only to find out by a local sticking her finger inside it, that it was actually a baby spider sac full of thousands of them…run away!!!!

After some shots of the bay once we’d reached the top, it was looking decidedly blacker in the sky so we headed back. This is where I had another little highlight into what we are actually like as British people - I passed a kiwi couple who said morning and commented on how good the weather was, instead of saying yeah sweet as, or not bad etc I said “could be better” to which their rather shocked reply was “oh”. I walked off feeling like a moaning Brit who was never happy with anything - you have no idea how much we do actually moan about everything and are completely unaware of it. Other nations we’ve met along the way have commented - so you’ve been warned people, bloody cheer up!!!

Needless to say the black sky soon turned to rain, pouring rain when we were quite a way form the hostel. So we were drenched and as we had already technically checked out of the hostel, we managed to sneak back in and dry off. On the way back to the hostel we had stopped by the hippie market one last time to buy some local smoked fish (one I’d never heard of - Gem fish if I remember correctly) for lunch as another cheap option - getting good at this. It was however heavily smoked, in fact I think it wasn’t fish at all but a piece of burnt fire wood as afterwards I felt like I’d smoked 10 fags!! (Nath enjoyed it though and cleaned every last piece up, as usual) We chilled out for the rest of the day before being taken bags and all (as we were meting Ben and Heather at Hot Water Beach to go to our campsite for the night) to the beach by the older couple we had befriended to dig our personal bath we had heard so much about. Although we thought we’d got there really early, we hadn’t, most people had already started well before us and were enjoying their own little thermal pool.

It was a weird sight, loads of people all gathered in this very small section of beach digging holes. Form a distance animals would look and probably cry “watch out there’s a group of beached human over there”. There was load of people all fighting for a space. Between the four of us we searched of places that felt like they had warm water coming up from them but without success, the only luck we had was where the tide was till coming in so we had to wait. Eventually we were able to start digging, and when I say we I mean Nath; I just played foreman (and took photos - so very important) but the waves still weren’t quite that far-out so every time we got a wall built up the tide would come and wash it away. Finally a small bath like pond was dug and we all jumped in to make the most of our efforts. The water in places was as expected in a thermal area boiling hot, but most of it was luke warm, a little disappointing really for all the effort we’d gone to. Never mind, Ben and Heather arrived shortly afterwards so we all went off to find our campsite but not before some more fush and chups for dinner!!).

With all out gear and Ben and Heathers camping stuff squeezed into their car we managed the short drive to the campsite to try out their new tent. Now this was a brand new tent which they erected before and it was now getting dark so it was a mad rush to get things up. I wasn’t really allowed to do too much as I have a habit of forcing things and breaking things which I guess Ben remembers from living with me, so again I played foreman and took pictures. It was actually up relatively quickly and we were inside and beds arranged just as it got really dark. Out came the bubbly we had bought for New Year to celebrate with Ben and Heather with, we’d been saving it for this instead. So with a couple of glasses downed very quickly it was bed time as we were all knackered. Nath and I were in what I think is affectionately referred to as the dog/child/Erin annex, which was the smaller room off the main entrance. This was still a good size but obviously without camping gear of our own we borrowed what Ben and Heather had left. So with our sleeping mats and bags all sorted we settled in for the night.

Phew that was a freezing night’s sleep!! I don’t know if it was because we were close to the ground or that it was a cold night, but we struggled to get any sleep. Even Ben and Heather had been cold on their inflatable mattress so it must have just been a cold night. So what with that, the hippo snorer and a 7 hour bus journey back to New Plymouth ahead of us, we were beginning to have bigger bags under our eyes than the ones we were carrying on our backs!! That morning after a leisurely breakfast we headed back to Hot Water Beach to just chill out as this is where we were being collected form for our trip back to Tauranga. We weren’t there long before we had to say our good byes to Ben and Heather as they were staying for the weekend, it was very sad as technically we wouldn’t be seeing them now until they decided to come back to the UK to visit. Once on the little transfer bus our adventure wasn’t over as due to a traffic accident the minibus had to re route through the actual Coromandel Mountains to get us to our connection in time. This was a fun ride down gravel roads, around very tight corners and with very big and steep drops at the roads edge!!! What didn’t help was that people coming the other way didn’t slow or stop or move over so we were the ones often pulling to a sudden stop so we didn’t fly over the edge of the cliff. Honestly kiwi drivers are mad, and if you’re a pedestrian don’t expect them to stop!!!! Not even on a zebra crossing, even my guide book says you take your life in your hands if you walk out on the road!!!

With out connection made an hour late (good thing they waited for us) we headed back super fast to Tauranga. We would be staying at Ben and Heathers house that night whilst they were away as we had an early (7am) bus connection back to New Plymouth the next day. So early the next morning we were sat at the bus stop we’d used before to get into town. However it was a Sunday and it had crossed our minds that maybe over here buses didn’t run on Sundays (as everything else is so quiet normally) as we hadn’t actually seen a bus for half hour of waiting. We were beginning to worry slightly, but luck was on our side in the form of a drunken person, staggering back from town which for him must had seemed like days of walking. He had forgotten his bag somewhere and when we asked him about buses he just laughed and said there weren’t any. So now we were nervous we’d miss the connection in town. Luckily even in his drunken state he managed to recall the taxi number which picked us up just as the bloody bus arrived!!! We had to go with him as we’d already ordered the ride so paid double the amount to get to town and followed the bus all the way there- god dam it!!!

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Photos

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First night back travelling again!! so wine it is

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Hahei Coastline

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One of the many little coves we stopped at

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California quail

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Cathedral Cove stack

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Cathedral cove itself