Catching Up

After a couple of days with no posts, here we are again. We left Paihia as planned and travelled south to Orewa on the coast about 20 miles north of Auckland. We did a few detours to see small coastal towns, most of which were pretty deserted. For anyone used to European beaches and their regimentation and crowds it is really strange to see miles of beautiful sandy beaches, near the main North - South highway with so few people using them.

The only slight problem we faced was a timber lorry whose trailer had overturned spilling tree trunks over half the road and pulling down HT wires. For a while it looked like a long detour via the west coast was likely but they soon managed to start a contraflow system  so all was well.

We were staying at the Waves Motel and were greeted by a very enthusiastic English owner who showed us to our room and insisted on demonstrating all the electrical switches and appliances. The room itself was well appointed and had a spa bath. It is probably best not to dwell on the effects of adding bath gel to a spa bath - suffice to say that Sue nearly had hysterics as the bubbles rose around her.

Orewa has a long sandy beach and Sue managed some time on it before we went to look  for somewhere to eat. Both of use thought fish would be a good idea so  we went to the local fish and chip shop (complete with plastic chairs outside).  Although just a local fish shop the speciality was salt and pepper squid, also garlic prawn skewers and whitebait. Sue settled for fish and chips, the fish was gurnard. I had a seafood chowder - it was great! No comparison with the humble chippy at home.

Yesterday was another travel day, this time heading for the Coromandel peninsula south of Auckland. This is now a sleepy area with small towns and villages and little else but agriculture and tourism. In the 19th Century, though, it was the site of a gold rush. Some of the towns were clearly much more prosperous in the past and have buildings which reflect a wealthier past. We stopped at Thames which was a major part of the gold rush (pictures to follow). One feature of these towns is that they resemble cowboy towns of Western USA, a single high street with shops, pubs and banks.

We are staying at Cooks Beach, so called because Capt Cook landed here in 1769. He named the bay Mercury Bay as he observed the transit of Mercury while he are. The beach is about 3km long and is virtually deserted. Strangely for such a small town (village?) the "No 1 Restaurant of the Coromandel" is in town. We ate there last night and had a Kaizen Banquet ( no, we had not heard of it either), this consisted of 6 small plates of food ranging from fillet steak to squid. Very imaginative cooking with Asian, NZ, and Northern European influences - the best meal of the holiday so far!

The B&B is luxurious again, breakfast brought to the room each  morning, the owners (Chris and Paul!!) are really enthusiastic and even supplied us with a shovel (see below).

Today Sue wanted to go to Hot Water Beach, this is fairly local and is a place where hot springs are just below the surface on part of the beach. At low tide people dig holes which fill with hot water and lie in them! Sounds good, but it was chaotic - loads of people. We duly dug our hole, abandoning one which kept flooding, and - nothing!! Those in the know had arrived Early and snaffled the places where the hot springs were and left us with cool feet from the sea water. Sue did wander along the beach and find a place where the hot springs were, strange sensation to have your feet half in cool seawater and half in hot water!

Queen Canute surveys her failure

Tonight we are taking a ferry ride (two minutes) over to Whitianga a larger town over the river. Although only a few yard wide the river is not bridged until quite a way upstream and the car journey takes over half an hour! We hope to have some more seafood tonight!

Tomorrow we head towards Rotorua and its hot springs and geothermal vents - and a Maori Hangi (feast).

Photos for this post when I've taken them off the camera.