Around and about in Thames

Dear all 

Yesterday was predominantly a driving day with us motoring down the SH1 to Thames .  Yawn Yawn.

Before we left  though we did have time to visit the Waipoua Kauri Forest. This is the largest remnant of the once massive kauri forests of northern NZ.  The first stop was to Tane Mahuta (named after the Maori god of the forests) the largest Kauri in the forest at about 51 metres and is about 1600 years old.

 Te Matua Ngahere (The father of the forest), with a 5m diameter and believed to be about 2000 years old is pretty jaw dropping and if trees could take I bet this one would have a lot to say!! It just looked all gnarled and old. Nearby are 4 huge trees which are very close together and are know as the four sisters and even though they were only about 800 years old they were still impressive.

Today we decided to chill out in Thames on the south Coromandel and have a break. The main reason was that we found a very pretty campsite which was surrounded by forest and due to its layout felt very private, yet was pretty busy. It also housed a butterfly and orchid garden.

 We spent the morning wondering around Thames itself as it had loads of 19th century wooden shops and a Saturday street market until 12.00pm  selling organic home grown fruit and veg and handicrafts including a very lovely lady who is a full time carer and makes cards to sell on a stall to supplement her income and in her words 'keep her sane'. This was the only time she left the house each week and she valued it as her time despite working a stall.

On the way back to the campsite we stopped off at a hide on the foreshore. Its at the end of a boardwalk through a mangrove so the birds don't get spooked at all. If you go 2 hours either side of high tide you get really good views of all of the seabirds. In the afternoon Dean sped off on a goldmine track up around our campsite which took him about 3 hours and I sat in the sun, finished my book and got ahead with the blogging etc.

Tomorrow we are heading up and around the Coromandel and I am really looking forward to it.

Thanks for looking

Sara