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Published: December 13th 2008
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Coromandel Peninsula
December 10, 2008
We are now in the upper right section of the North Island, the Coromandel Peninsula and I want to live here. There are many more people living on the North Island than the South Island but this part has an easy laid-back atmosphere that I like. We didn’t plan on coming here but our bus driver from the “Tamaki” experience the other night suggested this and she didn’t steer us wrong. (Bad joke, I know.)
The peninsula has been logged and farmed and there is little wilderness, but I think it is very pretty. The outer coast has some great beaches. We went to a wild place called Hot Water Beach. For two hours on either side of low tide one can grab a shovel and dig his own hot pool. The water coming up in the holes is very hot. It was a lot of fun with people of all ages trying to find the best digging spot. People would start digging then a wave would destroy all their hard work. The concession stands were renting shovels for $5 a day. We just used our hands and feet and did fine.
We keep seeing cattle that are black with a white broad stripe down their middle. I thought I knew about cattle breeds (all that 4-H training) but have no idea what these are. Dad, I'm sure you will be able to tell me what they are next time we talk.
We then took a two hour round trip walk from a car park on a cliff down to Cathedral Cove. This was a very lovely beach with pretty limestone arches and stacks and Joe was able to get some good body surfing in. The water was too cold for me, but I enjoyed sitting on the warm beach and people watching. Joe got a new bird, the NZ dotteral.
We decided to take the “legendary” 309 Road back across the peninsula. We never did figure out why it’s legendary but the scenery was beautiful. There were 14 kilometers of gravel, not too much considering some of the other roads we’ve been on. We had the road mostly to ourselves and we had a great time rolling down the windows and smelling the sea air and the fresh smell of green things growing. Tree fern forests dominated and we
were treated to a small grove of 600 year old Kauri trees, not old by Kauri standards. The only reason these trees still survive is because of their isolation and that years ago the land was owned by mining interests and these people didn’t want loggers on this land. I think the signs said that only the Redwood is bigger in volume. The Kauri certainly reminded us of the Sequoia and Redwood groves we’ve seen, albeit on a much smaller scale. It’s truly a shame that there aren’t more of these trees remaining here. I think we will see more farther north.
The afternoon ended with a stop at a wild nutty place called Water Works. This guy has about four acres of mechanical gizmos that run with water pressure. Each one begins with pulling a lever or turning a crank or pumping a pump. All were clever and it was clear this inventor had a great sense of humor. There was a playground area full of fun interesting zip lines, boat races, big swings, giant squirt guns, little animals everywhere, and swimming holes. My favorite was the flying bicycles. I felt like E.T. as I pedaled off into
Hotwater Beach
Joe found his hot spot! the air. We wished we had a couple of kids with us. There could be nothing like this in the USA, too dangerous.
We are in the town of Coromandel and wish we could stay here a week. There are very few tourists and the town is very small. We ate at a restaurant tonight where we had the best food we’ve eaten in NZ. I ordered the seafood risotto and it was filled with fresh calamari, scallops, shrimp, mussels, and some kind of good white fish all locally caught and all for $10. The town is famous for its smoked mussels that we will test out tomorrow before we head south so that we can go north again.
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Teri Brewer
non-member comment
those cows!
I think they are a Scottish breed called Belted Galloways. Coromandel Peninsula looks lovely!