Around the Coromandel Coast and a very long mine!!

Dear all

Although Thames was wonderfully pretty we had to move on and decided to spend the day winding our way around the incredibly beautiful Coromandel coast.  The road winds tightly through beautiful rocky little beaches and sunny bays with loads of shellfish attached to the tidal rocks. We were lucky in the we were around for the last Scarlet blooms of the pohutukawa (NZ Xmas tree) that feature so much in this area turning the roadsides red. As you reach the northern part of this peninsula you reach the sleepy Coromandel Town.  At the height if its gold rush over 10,000 people lived in the town but its population of about 1600 is now usually outnumbered by tourists.

One of the draws is the Coromandel Smoking Company which sells a huge range of smoked fish and seafood. I had to order some smoked mussels and after some deliberation I settled on some Garlic smoked green lipped mussels which I had for lunch with some fresh bread - Yummy! Dean had another pie - I swear he is going to turn into one before we leave!

The journey was was via the infamous 309 route - a windy gravel track that has the worst reverse camber I have driven for a long while, but was worth it for the lovely walk we did. At the other end of the track on the east coast is Whitianga a very lovely small town, but as time was short we moved on to the south to two of the areas famous natural attractions, firstly hot water beach and then Cathedral Cove. Hot water beach is exactly what it says, where thermal waters springs seep out through the sand  just in front of a rocky outcrop in the middle of the beach. If you come at low tide you can did your own bath in the sand lay in it and relax as your bum boils in the sand below you. We missed the low tide, but arrived in time to stand in the surf and sink our feet into the sand and burn the soles of our feet instead! Its a very surreal experience, especially when most other people are just getting on with normal beach activities.  We then moved onto cathedral cove where there is a fantastic  limestone arch which you can walk to at low tide - missed as well but the view down the coast was still amazing.

Further down the peninsula we ventured back inland to the Puketui Valley where the Broken Hills gold-mine workings are located and a century ago about 200 men lived in this wilderness. We went on the Collins drive hike which took about 3 hours and starts by tracing along the water races and then climbs and climbs, until you reach the 500m long Collins Drive (mine tunnel) which we had to walk through with a tiny wind- up torch (thanks Hilary) and Deans mobile phone torch app! I have to say this was pretty scary and my mind kept shifting back to the earthquake that Christchurch had last September and collapsing roofs - not great, but natural I suppose. Once out we climbed again & then it was a long steep decent to get back to the car park.  I don't know how those men did it for a living I was knackered! One last push took us down to Katikati and our campsite just on the edge of the Kaimai range - beautiful. 

Once again thanks for looking - don't forget to leave a comment as we are missing you all!

Hugs

Sara