Our Coromandel Holiday ...

…gets off to a slow start as we try to combine packing the car with transferring £lots into NZ$ not being entirely sure that the internet transfer will send it to the right account in the UK. I was being all blasé with Chantelle, saying we should leave it until we got back. She suggested we sort it before we went as we could lose all the money. I felt a cold sweat run down my back at the prospect and sent the boys out to the car again.

We had hoped to leave Kaitaia at 10 in order to clear Auckland by 3, but it didn’t work out like that. We got some sense of how far North we are as it took a good 2 hours to get to Whangarei over wooded mountains and through lightly populated farmland. We made the harbour bridge at about 3.30. Got over it and saw the Skytower again. Then we hit slow traffic, crawling along with sophisticated city drivers slowly south towards Bombay. We persuaded the driver to hit the burbs for a break and a stretch and a promised ice cream. We cleared Bombay at dusk and headed for Thames in the gloaming. There is an Autumnal feel to the sky down here, helped by the larger number of deciduous trees that are dropping their leaves.

Dickson’s Holiday Park was a few K’s along the coast from Thames. Friendly owner showed us our shed, a little caravan with a permanent ply board awning stuck on the side. Tiny 2 ring stove and 2 sockets for the whole shebang. Either I am getting soft in my middle age, or it was freezing and I was tired from the journey. We went back to Thames for a KFC and light and warmth before an early crash out. Fortunately we had brought the laptop with DVD’s to chill the boys into a pre-sleep torpor.

Friday
The forecast was best for today so we decided to do the most outdoorsy things we had on the itinery. Drove up over the mountains to the East coast to Hot Water Bay. Scenic drive through mountainous terrain with bendy roads that would keep Uncle Giorgio happy. Hot water beach was well worth the journey, a huge deserted beach apart from one spot where lots of folks were gathered. We had timed our arrival (showing an unusual degree of Bryan organisation) to coincide with the low tide. Hot water was seeping out of the sand and we were able to dig our own bath in the sand. Great fun especially when a friendly nearby family let us borrow their spade. Our bath grew in complexity until we had a lower deep pool that could be topped with hot water from a header pool. Gradually the tide came in and restored all the sand works to flat sand, beat that for ecotourism.

From there we went on to Cathedral cove. This involved a 30-minute walk from the car park through bush and down the hillside. Fantastic views out over green water studded with steep islands; giving the feeling that any moment a whale would jump out of the sea.

Stuart has had a nasty cough for the last 10 days and he did find the walk difficult. It really was worth the effort to get down to the steep sandstone lined cove. It made it more magical. The final descent was down a set of steep steps into a huge Puri (?) tree. When one walked through the branches out onto the sand … WOW! One of those places that it is impossible to capture in a picture.

Saturday
A bit cloudier today as forecast so we went to Thames so that the boys could spend their saved up pocket money and we could check out the market. There was the usual mix of second hand tat, veggies and crafty stuff. We sampled kiwi berries very tasty and got some decent apples (Kidd’s Orange) at last. Salami smoked over manuka and a charming bright picture of 2 pukekos for our new house. Patrick had not managed to source anything so we went to the other end of the retailing spectrum The Warehouse to buy Lego. The Warehouse for those UK readers who are not familiar is a bit like Wilkinsons, cheap and cheerful. Eric was throwing a wobbly cause he had managed to spend all his money before we went on holiday. We went a bit past our site to Te Tapu School. This was where some Lancaster friends had spent a year with their children. School right on the shore with a fantastic ship adventure playground.

In the afternoon we split up and Chantelle went on a goldmine tour with Master History (aka Eric) and Paddy, while I took the other one dripping nose and all in search of the Karaka bird hide. It was found pretty much next to the Warehouse car park and gave some protection from the elements and a view out over the estuary. There were several thousand pied oystercatchers and maybe 1000 pied stilts plus a couple of spur-winged plover but no other waders in view. This surprised me as Thames is reckoned to be one of the best over-wintering estuaries in NZ. They seem to have a lower species diversity than in UK but more of the species, so harriers are very common as are kingfishers. It is sad that the commonest passerines by far are all introduced, house sparrows, starling, blackbird and mynah. I have high hopes for our visit to the Miranda Naturalist’s Centre tomorrow.

Sunday 24th April
Ma and Pa slept badly last night what with high winds and rain combined with an uncomfortable bed, so we got up feeling a bit fragile.

Sold the boys a deal based on them going to the Miranda Hot Pools complex IF they co-operated at the bird place. They just about held it together. I was disappointed with Miranda. The centre was well laid out with some excellent displays showing how it fits into global migration. There was a good display of shells and some stuffed bird displays.

The wind was very strong on the estuary and as the tide was some way out the waders were thinly scattered. Would really need to be there at a high tide in the right place. Did get closish views of a couple of wrybills and a bar-tailed godwit. Later on we found a White heron hiding behind a bit of reed on a slack. It was a bit like a trip to Hest Bank on a low tide with unfavourable light and wind. The difference that conditions made there to viewing was considerable. Never mind, it is only 7 hours from home, so I might visit again!

The boys were less impressed and a minor revolt broke out when we decided that the Hot Springs were not worth it at $41 a family! It was cold out and the pools were out and we would have only been in there an hour so it didn’t seem worth it.

Mum made up for it by buying them a few gems each from the Gem shop in Ngatea. I am not a big fan normally but was impressed. They were further impressed by the trip on the model railway - even Eric!

Back at base camp we crashed out and caught up on sleep and then Eric and Paddy braved the outdoor pool. It’s amazing how much you can pack in on holiday when you don’t have housework and TV and telephones to eat up all the day! I haven’t even mentioned the walk up the valley where we went into an abandoned coal mine, or the epic game of Monopoly we played after tea that finished amicably.

Monday was our last day and we had a bit of a potter about. Went to see the butterfly house on site, very warm with some ace plants. Eric and chantelle hiked up the road to see the bloated possum.
We went out in the afternoon to see the square Kauri – huge but not square.
On Tuesday we drove home and it took us from 9am until 5pm! Coromandel looks quite close to Kaitaia and is about 450km away. We did stop in Auckland for about an hour trying to find Colin’s house to drop off a letter. And we sampled the dual delights of Whangarei and Subway (they have multi-storey buildings in Whangarei!; Subway has too much choice for children).