It was raining as we left Taupo. This is good, better to do our traveling in the rain so long as the sun shines when we get there, although BFTs are not nice in the rain.
We followed the same route back through Tirau corrugated town again but turned off east towards Coramandal soon after.
It continued to rain on and off for the first half of our journey although it became warmer as we moved north. Of course, we always expect the opposite in the UK!
En route we stopped so that I could photograph the very structural Chinese pink leafed deciduous Toon trees.
I commented on the single railway track. “Don’t your trains come back?” I asked Leigh. She seemed to find this a bit too funny. They have passing places for trains, which makes a lot of sense and certainly saves on track but then they don’t have so many trains. I didn’t see one!
We stopped for fuel at Matamata. Fuel is just over $2 a litre….. cheap or what!
We are now on the flat plains of Hauraki. This is rich, lush pasture, very similar to Cambridge. Here there are many horses, Jersey cows and rich farmers. I have to say that so far I have seen more cows than sheep and certainly more sheep than people. Hauraki is a milk production area and Waitoa has a large milk processing plant where most of the local milk products are processed for export.
A Pukeko, a marsh bird like a swamphen (bigger than our moorhen) hightailed off into the undergrowth when I jumped out of the car to photograph him. There will be others………
The temperature rose steadily from 13 degrees in Taupo up to 21 as we hit the mountain range of Kaiai on the Corrie peninsula. The mountain of Te Aroho means love.
We stopped for a flat coffee and an Anzac which is like a flapjack but there was to be a history behind the Anzac which Leigh would divulge later after the sun went down over the yardarm.
We found ourseves alongside the Kopu (Cowpoo) River, the only river in New Zealand that Captain Cook sailed up part way and then returned to the sea. I wonder why. I must do a bit more research on this as the town of Thames is a bit further up and he surely must have had somethng to do with the naming of it.
From here on in we followed the coast to the left of the peninsula below the range to our right and passed through some very pretty towns. These were full of hippies in the 60s and many of this species remain today. We also passed some older colonial style houses.
We stopped at Thames for major food shop as we would be far from any civilisation I was told and my goodness, you’d have thought we were gonna be holed up for a month!
Eventually, the populated areas gave way to a winding road dotted with Pohutukawa.
These are New Zealand’s Christmas tree and are a mass of red bottlebrush-style red flower in December. They were just in bud now with a rich dark green leaf.
The high rocky cliff walls to our right, with bright terracotta areas produced flame colours of bright oranges and blues from the carpets of Nastersiums and Cineraria. There were even clumps of Arum Lilies growing wild. I only ever see these in flower shops at home.
The seascape became more and more picturesque as we rounded each bend and now we were beginning to see the Oyster beds for which the area is famous.
A lone Dotteril was picking away along the mud flats.
The next stop off was at the Coromandel Smoking Company, a regular place for Leigh and Dan, where we bought a selection of smoked mussels, sweet chilli, garlic and a mixed selection.
The road to our remote retreat continued with much winding over the mountain range and the most beautiful scenery ever. Just such a shame the skies were grey so everything looked somewhat monochrome. Occasionally you could catch glimpses of awesome vistas between the trees at the side of the road where the ground fell away to mile upon mile of undulating hills and mountains finally giving way to the ocean. However, the sea in the distance was just grey mist. I will photograph some of these beautiful scenes on a better day.
Eventually we arrived at Mary’s bach house, which was built right on the beach in a remote part of the Coromandel peninsula. There were large windows looking out to the ocean and glass doors out to decking and a balcony. Just perfect and the temperatures here were a good 8 degrees higher than Taupo although some sunshine would have made such a difference.
So, first things first! We crack open a bottle and out comes the plate of smoked mussels and Mary, Leigh, Dan and I relax and enjoy our first evening at Little Bay, Coromandel with the ocean crashing on the beach below and hope for sunny skies tomorrow.
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