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Published: January 30th 2015
Monday was spent travelling from Paihia to Coromandel through more stunning scenery. We stayed in the YH in Coromandel Town which was a caravan shaped log cabin with a toilet block and kitchen facilities. Tuesday morning we went on the Driving Creek Railway, a narrow gauge railway which zig-zags up the side of a densely forested hill to a height of about 175m above sea-level. This has been the life's work of one man, a railway enthusiast, who began the project in 1974 to source clay for his pottery business. Under pressure from the bank to repay his loan he opened his railway to the public. The company now employs 16 staff but the owner, Barry Brickell, 79, doesn't take a salary but lives on the sale of his pottery! After a 90 minute drive we were on the right hand side of the peninsular staying at Auntie Dawn's B&B at Hot Water Beach. After a quick lunch we headed north to Cathedral Cove - a perfect illustration of different types of Coastal
Erosion. To reach the cove you have to follow a coastal path for 45 minutes which requires a certain level of fitness! The purpose of the visit to Hot Water Beach was to experience the phenomenon of the hot water springs under the beach. 2 hrs either side of low tide hoards of people descend on the beach with spades and buckets to dig their own personal hot water jacuzzi. Unfortunately the waves were still crashing onto the beach long after they were supposed to have abated and were washing all the sand back into the holes. You could feel the areas of heat through the sand but after over an hour (of me watching Tom dig! ) we gave up and went back to the B&B to eat.Wednesday 28th Jan we drove from Hot Water Beach to Waitomo with a short stop to
pick up supplies in Paeroa We discovered, sitting in the Countdown Supermarket car park we could hack into the adjacent library wifi- result !! As we arrived in Waitomo, after about 5hrs on the road, we were greeted with a thunderstorm - it's just like being back in Blighty!!
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