We’ve already had a day up in the Coromandel region visiting the hot water beach and Cathedral Cove, however never quite made it to Coromandel town itself, to the very tip… so it beckoned another little day trip out there. This time we opted for a slightly different route and drove along the west side of the peninsular, still very windy but not quite as severe as crossing over the mountain ranges.
Pit stop cafe on the drive to Corromandel
Dotterel
White fronted tern
So to describe Coromandel Town itself… it had a very free spirit arty vibe to it, very quite with the odd art and bead shop thrown in for good measure. Our lunch pit stop on recommendation was a vegetarian backpackers house come second hand book shop. A hidden little gem and one of those places you need to be told about, otherwise you’d never find it as it is off the road up a steep drive hidden behind some fruit trees. The place just oozed rustic charm. Some people I guess would think it rather run down, but it had a cosy atmosphere, and the food was spot on, great slabs of freshly baked bread, home made fruit smoothies - all so delicious.
Next stop was the Driving Creek Railway, another rustic little stop. The Driving Creek Railway was a true labour of love built over a period of 35 years by a pottery artist Barry Brickell who wanted to bring people up to the top of his land to share its amazing scenic view. The little narrow railway winds up through the hillside and took around half an hour. Along the way there are various pottery objects set within the landscape, retaining walls studded with glass bottles, a cute picturesque brick tunnel and a double deck viaduct.
Once at the top we all got to climb up to the scenic viewing platform of the aptly named Eyefull Tower to admire the beautiful panoramic views over the Hauraki Gulf.
Right next door to the Driving Creek Railway there is a Bird Sanctuary, another little pitstop to add to our agenda.
Kererū
Canlifornia Quail
Always ones not to miss and opportunity we decided to squeeze one last walk at Waiau Kauri Grove Waterfalls. Another spectacle at some magnificent huge Kauri trees and hidden Waiau Waterfall amongst the subtropical forrest, another stunner.
First thing to note is never rely on the weather
forecast out here… we hadn’t really planned anything this weekend as it showed
Saturday with dark rain clouds…forget rain clouds, even the white fluffy sort
didn’t make an appearance and it was in the 30’s today!
I love days like today, wake up, haven’t a clue
what to do… pick a spot on the map and decision made. Today we chose the
Coromandel area to the east of Auckland, the mission...
Climb Mount Paku in Tairua
Hot Watcher Beach
Visit Cathedral Cove
The drive over was a long 2 hour trip, very wibbly
wobbly over the mountain ranges as we crossed over to Tairua. After a brief
visit to the information centre and a quick energizing drinky and muffin we
headed for our trek up Mount Paku. On reaching it at the base our first thought
were OMG a fairly vertical climb but it really wasn’t as onerous at it seemed
and 10 minutes of clambering up some steps we arrived at the top with the most
spectacular views of the beach.
Mount Paku, Coromandel
You are warned in the brochures and again at the information centre that the undercurrents can be quite strong along this coast line and to be very carful when swimming. From our view you could see really clearly the rip tide along the beach, an up churned muddy rippling water being sucked out to sea clashing with the waves coming in towards the beach. Forever drilling it into the boys about the currents and it was great to show them so they could see it for themselves. One of the things to mention is the deafening sound
of the cicadas along the walk – they were on top form, I’d like to say singing
their lungs, but their distinctive shrill noise is actually made by rubbing
their wings together and tapping their legs against the bark… difficult to
describe it but what I could liken to what I imagine a Tinitus suffer would
experience.
Cicada
Turn up the volume....
Hot Water Beach
You can only visit the Hot Water Beach two hours
each side of low tide. After purchasing our essential spade and a sneaky costume change in the car we make our way to the beach. Initially I’d envisaged a long
stretch of beach where you can dig away to make your little spa pool of warm
water to sit in, but oh how wrong was I! The actual warm area was teeny, not to
mention rammed with people. The “warm” areas were already taken by people in-the-know (in front of the large main rock on the left as you come down the path for
future knowledge). Nevertheless the boys still had a blast playing chicken with
the waves, digging away and building their fort in the sand… with the tide on
its way back in it really was mission impossible.
Hot Water Beach, Coromandel
Cathedral Cove
Then it was onto cathedral cove just a short drive
up the coast and a 45 minute walk to get to the cave, which in essence is a
huge caverness hole in the rock, and a stunning picturesque little spot.
Beautiful...
... here comes the wave...
... time for a quick exit!
We then embarked on our eventful trip home… my
navigation map reading skills not one of my stronger attributes it has to be
said, in fact pretty non existent! So Dan briefly mentioned he needs to pick up
petrol enroute, no great rush, still got about 100K to go…so pick up the
map…mmm… lets head along this road… looks like a short cut cutting through the
mountains… 10 mins in and tarmac disappears and we hit dirt road (look at the
key of the map… ohhh so that’s what it means when the road is a dotted line),
slightly putting an end to any intention of saving time.
While Dan was having fun skidding all over the
place, his fellow 3 passengers failed to share in his excitement however, and we eventually emerged on the other side 1 hour later, dusty and nerves slightly frayed, and petrol
levels substantionally lower. Not a problem, we’ll just pick up petrol at the next town, looks
like a main one on the map as it’s written in fairly large writing… so we slowly pass on through this ‘main’ town which consists of a few buildings out of a western
movie in under a minute, not a petrol pump to be found… onto the next town,
again nothing…next town the lonely petrol pump closed (it’s past 5pm). OK so it
wasn’t looking good and we were both getting quite concerned at this stage,
petrol light blinking away and nothing for the last 100km. The atmosphere in
the car it could be said was slightly tense, no one uttering a word incase of
jinxing the situation, complete stony silence and lots of silent praying going
on.
Finally the sun was setting and we came to a town called Thames, and at last a petrol station glowing in the distance and our silence was broken with
a unanimous “Thank God”… a massive relief!
Note to self – make sure to fill up when under half
a tank as petrol pumps are pretty scarce once you leave Auckland.
To celebrate we quickly picked up a MacDonalds at
the next door drive through and pulled up the car at the waters edge and
enjoyed the most beautiful sunset – phew that was a close call!
