Coromandel, Waikato, New ZealandCoromandel
Whitianga – on the other side
We left with sunshine and our
first stop is Whitianga (by the way we learned that “Wh” is pronounces as an
“f”), and it took us 30 Min by car – compared to the 2 km to the ferry station
and the 200 m over to the town… we are going shopping as where we will be
staying tonight are no stores around.
On our way out we stopped at
Buffalo Beach – to have some last glimpses to the Peninsula where we stayed and
to enjoy the beautiful views.
- Buffalo Beach: was named after the HMS Buffalo who got blown in here by a storm, wrecked and drowned in July 1840 – with 2 crew members dying. At low tide if you go out in the bay you can look down and still see some parts of it
- Whitianga is a “bigger” town with 5900 people (yes it has a New World Supermarket) and it started out with boat building, kauri tree milling, flax milling, gold mining and gum digging
- It was the main port for timber setting out for Norway, Sweden, France, Italy and Great Britain
Crossing the Coromandel
Peninsula
From here we are heading north and
west as we are crossing over to the other side of the Coromandel Peninsula. And
here the roads are super windy!!! I mean they have lots of curves with a 25 km
limit and even one with 15 km – wow. We got told that the Chinese do not like
to come here, as the roads are too windy for them and they get car sick.
We saw some beautiful hills; we
saw some amazing coastline – we had times when we went up and up: so, we were
not surprised when a sign came viewpoint – and what is better than you look to
the right and you can see the bay and islands of the Pacific Ocean and you look
left and you look down to the bay and the town of Coromandel – absolutely
breathtaking. And then it goes down and down around a lot of curves – no you
would not be able to count them.
Driving Creek Railway
Coromandel
- It is a narrow gauge 15in track and is the only mountain railway in NZ, going up to the Eye-full-tower
- It is the story of one man’s passion to bring art, engineering and conservation together to make Driving Creek: Barry Brickwell: Barry bought 22 hectares here in 1961 and started out with pottery, in 1975 he started to built the railway mainly to bring wood to his kiln. In 1975 he bought another 60 ha, he also used the railroad to replant the forest – it expanded over the next 25 years
Haere Mai “Welcome” we are driving
through the tiny town of super old historic houses super cute; we came here to
visit the Railway. We get tickets for the next ride (which is in a half hour), enough
time to look a bit around and check out the pottery shop. Time to head out onto
our ride – as the guy who built it was an Artists in Pottery along the way
there were lots of sculptures and cool things to see like a spring nicely made
up, the railroad was narrow and going through the forest, we drove through
tunnels (very tight) and one of them was made like a barrel, we went over
bridges and one spiral curve, and the best the train went zig-zag: that means
we had a lot of switch backs: when the guy went out – changed the rail went in
at the other end and we drove backwards (or forward) depending on how we were
sitting. Also cool were the stabilizers on the side made of bottles or old
tires, sometimes bricks… All I can say it was super cool!!!
We stopped at one time at a
viewing platform with amazing views down onto the Bay and the islands and then
again at the very top at the Eye-full-tower (they even had a little Eiffel (Eye-full)
tower there) where we could walk up and only look and look at the amazing views
– how awesome. Here we met another couple from Vancouver. Once back at the
bottom we quickly checked out the sculpture garden and on towards the next
adventure.
The historic town of
Coromandel:
- It has a lot of Victorian buildings and relics from the gold mining and timber industry
- This is the birthplace of New Zealand’s gold rush
- It is called after the HMS Coromandel who came here in 1820 to load kauri wood for the British
The park with two ocean views
and no parking
Gine found on Google the “Te Hohu
Kairui” Nature Reserve and thought we should stop here, a bit a detour out onto
a peninsula and also a very narrow road – but wow!!!! Those houses have amazing
views on one side the Bay and on the other side the ocean. Parking was not that
easy as each spot for parking was the entrance to a driveway. We then walked up
to the Trig station and what can we say: it is absolutely breathtaking. And the
best we found another cricket!!! I may should mention it is also very hot!!!
Back through the town – we are now
the 3rd time at the same Mini circle – as the town only I think has
this one intersection!!!!
Windy roads along the Bay
- Firth of Bay is a large bay in the North Island and it is part of the Hauraki Golf
- A firth is a word English and Scottish for various coastal waters
We are now heading south along the
“Firth of Thames” – and the roads are super windy again – halfway there, we
come to another viewpoint and as we head then on, we thought “oh no we have a
big truck in front of us” – ok this was no problem, as the truck driver was
driving super fast!!!! I mean I think it was nearly too fast for me: the roads
are narrow and sometimes so narrow that the truck had to stop when a car came
or go over the middle to go over the narrow curves. Paul had to work hard
driving around all those curves and narrow roads – and Gine enjoyed the amazing
ocean views – the color of the ocean here is amazing – I mean seriously that is
one scenic drive.
Our cute “Kiwi Bach” with ocean
views
- The tradition of owning a holiday home is strong in New Zealand. In the North Island the local word is “bach” and it the South Island it is “crib”: So where does the name come from: it is German and Bach means stream
- They are often located by the sea, river, lake or forest – they are all about kicking back
- Some say it is short of “bachelor pad”
- After WWII as better roads made remote places got more accessible, NZ’s began building haphazard holiday houses in gorgeous places up and down the country
The instructions we had were that
the driveway is right in the corner (and it is) we stopped and went inside –
wow this is so cool, we are in a real true Kiwi Bach place – it was built in
the 1940s and has a super sunroom with super old funky windows you have to push
out, a cool carpet with red flowers, a master bed room with ocean views, a
super old kitchen (I think all the cabinets and also the closets are from 1940)
oh and lets not forget the little round ship window in the bathroom. Gine fell
in love with this place. I mean it is way to big for us – but then who cares.
We made coffee and were sitting on
our patio enjoying the ocean view – amazing. Gine went for a walk along the
ocean to enjoy even nicer views, and on the way back I saw an Etzel – wow!!!
That is rare to see one of those here in NZ. Later Paul cleaned more around the
car to make sure it looks perfect when we return it soon. And we also checked
out the backyard with the huge banana trees. And we could see a perfect sunset –
right from our front porch.
2025-05-23