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Having given up on trying to sell the car, we decided to have one last road trip with it! We blasted down the only real highway New Zealand has then turned east. Our plan was to drive around the peninsula and camp two days, mixing in some hiking along the way.
The first city we passed was Thames. I could see why many Aucklanders would want to have a place here. In the summer this area is buzzing with activity. With the start of the southern hemispheres very few people were around. We drove into the Coromandel Forest Park and found a place to camp near Kauaeranga. Seeing no signs prohibiting it I decided to make a fire. I found plenty of dry wood and by the miracle of god actually was able to start one. This was our first and only fire out of the 40+ days we spent on trail; we loved it!
It got pretty cold that night. When we woke up there was ice over the car. After picking a trail we headed out. It was only a 4 hour hike but took us up along many ridge lines. The forest had been logged a
Sean's Campfire
The only real campfire we had the whole trip!century ago and we passed many preserved tram lines and carved stone steps (for the horses before tram lines were in place!).
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as we passed again through Thames. It was a perfect day to do another coastal drive. We had some lunch and continued our way up the west side. At this point we had done a few costal drives, this one was by far the most dramatic. Stopping at every lookout we were in no hurry. We were intrigued by the warning signs everywhere telling people to not wonder off any road or path due to a high number of mines in the area and thick vegetation covering any holes! Rounding the tip and heading down the east side we stopped at a hot water beach. Many others were digging for the hot springs. No one we saw had any luck. A few kids vacationing from England had a blast in the big hole that we dug, though.
On our last night in New Zealand we camped next to a river near Broken Hills. This site didn’t have any running water, so we used river water for our dinner. We
got up at 6am to pack up everything and throw away our torn to shreds pants and gators! Woohoo! Driving back to Auckland we saw a gorgeous sunrise complete with fog and rolling hills.
We drove directly to an interested car dealership who gave us an offer on the car. I took the offer, lowering the price a bit for a ride to the airport. We had a 6 hour wait but passed the time taking advantage of the air hockey and cheap alcohol prices.
So sad to leave....
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