Hokianga, Hastings & Coromandel


Advertisement
New Zealand's flag
Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Coromandel
April 8th 2008
Published: April 8th 2008
Edit Blog Post

hokianga harbourhokianga harbourhokianga harbour

my swimming beach
Hiya; I'm pleased the photos worked, getting to grips with all this techie stuff!
So, The Magic Bus swept me from Pahia on the east coast of the Northland to the Hokianga harbour region on the west; from the tiny village of Rawene across the harbour by dear old ferry to Kohukohu, where I was collected by my next hostel host, Phil. We called into the village for a few locally grown supplies briefly before heading the 6km back to the Tree House hostel, where I had a cabin all to myself, wonderful after sharing a 7-bed dorm for 4 days in Pahia.
Now I was completely in the sticks, or the bush they call it here. Isolated and surrounded by beautiful native trees and bush, I certainly didn't complain about a bit of rain here; felt quite appropriate for rain in a rain forest. I spent a lovely quiet 2 days, chatting to the ducks and chucks, and meeting some gorgeous permaculture folks, got an intro to them and spent a lovely evening up in the hills with them. The Hokianga area seems to be full of interesting alternative types, artists, craftspeople, people who care. Back to the other side
ancient kauriancient kauriancient kauri

lord of the forest
by ferry again, and a short journey along another part of the long harbour to Opononi, where I stayed at another backpackers hostel for a night, so I could attend a twilight tour of the ancient Kauri forest later.
I so loved being back by the beach, and managed several swims before we left there - by Magic Bus of course!
The Kauri forest was magnificent, the trees so old and huge it's hard to describe; I hope the photo will give you an idea. apparently the Father of the Forest is anything up to 4000 yrs old, depending on who you speak to, the God of the Forest, Tane Mahuta, pictured, approx. 2000! NB. I'm several metres away, possibly 5 or 6, so bear that in mind. And the sizes! 17 metres, now I can't remember if that's high or girth! Sorry, not too good on numbers. Majestic anyway, and we paid our respects with our 2 lovely guides, staying till it became really dark, and simply staring at this enormous tree in complete wonder. We sang prayers to him, and when they asked us too, I added our chant, the Earth is our mother, which they really appreciated.
pigs in cloverpigs in cloverpigs in clover

Hinarua piggies enjoy their brekky


The following morning off by Magic bus down southwards, calling in briefly at a museum of Kauri - from old saws and other equipment, to enormous slices of tree, planks, various artefacts carved out of the wood before it became understood that there was a need to stop chopping these trees down! Sadly most of the ancient forests have been topped now, but various attempts are being made to replenish the native woodland. Back to Auckland for a hostel night before meeting up with my friends, and a long day's drive down to Hastings. A couple of days spent sorting out stuff and posting some home, then we visited their smallholding for the weekend, and I enjoyed helping them to sort sheep, discover newly planted trees
and I just had to photo their delightful pigs and other animals.
Each new place shows me completely different landscape, I'm completely in thrall of the scenery here in this land - mainly tumps and bumps of land, looking like glacial morraines. then mountains, including volcanoes; I'm sad to see the loss of trees as farmland is reclaimed though. Lots of dairy cows and sheep, and drought conditions in much of the
Coromandel sunsetCoromandel sunsetCoromandel sunset

taking a walk in Coromandel town
North Island has resulted in too many poor cows chasing not enough grass.

A long bus ride (well, several buses) yesterday back up towards the north, I'm now in the Coromandel, another peninsula, at Tidewater hostel, and this time in a 6 bed dorm - on my own! Such a treat!
Another alternative and artistic area here it seems. I'm in a gorgeous cafe serving dandelion coffee and other fab things, surrounded by interesting papers and knowing if I stayed here for a few days I'd meet interesting people again. I've just been on the Driving Creek Railway: a narrow-guage railway built by Barry Brickell, using interesting engineering techniques to get the train right up high to the "Eyefull Tower"!
a fab view from here, see photos, plus pottery and whacky sculpture garden.

I'm nearing the end of my stay now, only 3 more days, so will most likely take the bus over to the Eastern side of the peninsula, to Whitianga, hopefully for more swims and perhaps kayaking, then it's flying over the Pacific to Vancouver - and therein lies another adventure!

I'm so enjoying travelling like this, partly staying with friends where I can get
Coro from Eyefull TowerCoro from Eyefull TowerCoro from Eyefull Tower

looking over the bay from the Eyefull Tower
a little "home-time" and partly in hostels where I meet other nutty folk like me!

lots of love to you all, again, thanks for the messages, take good care, Margot x

Advertisement



Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0487s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb