Blogs from Coromandel, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 4

We left the beautiful Mangawhai and snuck back to home (Rotorua) for a couple of days. This is the first time back home in 4 months and the longest we have ever been away from here:). The sun is shining and the place is humming with tourists. A quick catch up with family then off to the Coromandel to help our Son and his partner with the big shift from Rotorua to Whitianga. A bit of spare time allowed us to visit Pauanui on the way. The place has developed significantly since we last visited. Gone are most of the sections which housed utility sheds and caravans. All replaced with baches/houses (some of them Mansions). Down the Northern end is the entrance to the Tairua Harbour, with views across the water to Tairua and Paku Hill. ... read more

Hi Family, friends and fellow bloggers, We woke up in Coromandel Town, we left by about 8.30am, driving all around the peninsular from Coromandal town to Whitianga on the SH25, then down to Hot Water Beach, then finally staying the night in a free self-contained camp ground about 10 minutes from Tairua. It really doesn’t take long to get all the way round (maybe an hour), so we had plenty of time to stop in the pretty town of Whitianga to see the immaculate beach on the east coast-a preferred holiday choice compared to the west coast of this peninsular. We stayed in the library for about 2 hours, and we had lunch in the camper. The town again is small, and a lot of these places are mainly seasonal, so it wasn’t busy as it ... read more

Hi everyone, no doubt you're Hobbited out !! So we left Tauranga this morning and headed to our next destination called Coromandel which is on the East coast at the last tip that sticks out on the North Island. We decided to take the coast road which is extremely windy, up and down the mountains, but very scenic, however bit 'Hairy Scarey' and that wasn't Stu's driving, believe it or not !!. The local's seem to drive these roads with their eyes shut !! I'm not kidding !! we were nearly wiped out !! with one taking a corner on our side, flippin heck, I said to Stu 'you should have hooted', he said what the heck for, he was gone'. Mad man, not Stu, but the other driver, so instead of a relaxing drive, you ... read more

Day two started very early for us! We were up at 4:15am and eating breakfast in the room at 4:30. That sounds really early, and it is, but you must know that after our fun morning at Ambury Regional Park yesterday morning, we checked in to the motel, had lunch, shopped for a few breakfast items and snacks, and decided to take a nap before a planned night out for dinner and a stroll in Auckland. We laid down for the nap at 3pm, and woke up this morning at 4:15am. Yes, we slept for over 13 hours! We were wiped out! We each woke up from time to time during that long stretch, but we were both so tired we didn't bother to wake the other for dinner. If you know me at all, you ... read more

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! ... read more