North Island Road Trip!

The rolling hills of the Coro'
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We had finished work, we had packed up, we had prepped the van, we had said our goodbyes to Kris and Andrea, we were on the road at last! Heading towards our first destination of the Coromandel. We travelled across country then to the coastline of the Coromandel peninsula and stopped of for a pie with a view at Thames and then meandered our way up through gorgeous little bays with lovely views. Then we had more of a challenge as we hit some of the hills I’d heard about but we made it then into Coromandel town. We’d planned to stop the night here but arrived earlier than we expected so had a quick look around, bought some tasty smoked fish and mussels to have for dinner later on and carried on following the road across the peninsula and eventually ended up in a teeny place called Kauituna where we spent the night at a quiet camp by the beach. We had the beach to ourselves pretty much except a couple of aging body boarders and wandered along – lovely – just the NZ we’d been looking for!

My crazy hubby!
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The next day we chugged our way up hills and around steep bends and down the coast to Pauanui. The views were great and the coastline beautiful. We located my friend Steve’s place which he’d kindly offered to let us use as a base down there and got set up then had an explore and walked down the beach. We spent 4 nights there and managed to fit lots in. We headed up to Hot Water beach one day (where you can dig in the sand and hot water wells up from springs under the ground) which was sadly not quite the experience we’d hoped for. Firstly, we arrived to find throngs of people crammed into a teeny patch of sand all digging then giving up then digging again as they tried to locate hot water…then disaster – I (Mad) trod on a bee who decided to sting me in retaliation – right on the bottom of my toe!!! I’d forgotten how much bee stings hurt! Anyway, we sought first aid at the surf hire place and then I determinedly limped my way along the beach and we joined the digging crowd…sadly although it was low tides the tides were running higher than usual so even as we dug our hole it filled with sea water…still we managed to find a nice warm spot to have a foot spa…unfortunately this didn’t help my bee sting. We had planned to go for a walk but the sting was too painful to walk on so we headed back to Pauanui and Mike had a surf and I sat on the beach and sunbathed – all in all not too shabby! The next day we headed off to Cathedral Cove which we’d heard had a nice walk and some good snorkelling, although the weather was showery we tipped up to find perfect snorkelling conditions and flipflopped our way down to Gemstone Bay in our wetsuits snorkels at the ready – a rocky entry so we didn’t look too graceful but it was worth the trip as we swam around through a special trail and saw loads of fish including some huge snapper! Then we got out and slipped and slided our way back up to the car park in our wet flipflops and changed then did the lovely 45 min walk along the cliffs to Cathedral Cove which had lovely natural rock formations and lived up to its name with some big caves.

bee stings hurt!

Yummy smoked fish dinner!
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We also decided whilst at Steve’s to have a go at fishing so headed out to the rocks with some squid, our cheapy little fishing rod and one of Steve’s to have a go…sadly we only caught 2 inedible kelpfish which we chucked back in still, it was fun to try!

On Friday we decided it was time to move on to our next destination – we weren’t sure what that was but hit the road and pootled on down the peninsula til we reached Whangamata (NB. here ‘wh’ is pronounced ‘F’) which we’d heard was good for surfing. Sadly it was flat when we arrived so we had to keep heading South (ferry to the South Island to catch!) and ended up in a tiny place called Little Waihi where we camped in a lovely little place by the beach and had another go at fishing but not for long, as Mike cast out to sea we saw the weight go for miles, a great cast however the line we had been sold was too weak and the weight was on a one way trip out to sea! Again with no luck catching anything to eat…the next day it was right back on the road and we struck out down the east coast to Gisbourne (another surf spot!) and arrived to find yet again…it was flat! Yuck. With no time to waste we pushed on down towards Napier and camped the night at a DOC (Dept of Conservation) site by a lake. This is the first of what I feel will be many such sites as they are the cheapest around! Mainly as they have few facilities – long drop toilets and a stream for water kind of level. This one was stunning and there were black swans – made me think of Dawlish and home! We found a snug little spot for our van right by the lake side – it was great only 4 other vans and all far from us. We woke up and had brekkie looking out over the lake with ducks and swans swimming over to see if there were any leftovers for them.

Empty beaches...
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Then it was back on the road again and though we were sad to leave the idyllic little place we were getting more and more excited about the South Island! So off we went and drove all day through Napier and Hastings stopping here and there for breaks and sights but mainly just to swap drivers and we kept on going til we finally reached Wellington – the capital of NZ and where we would catch the ferry to the South Island. We had a full day in Wellington and caught the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens and walked back down through the gardens with lovely views of a very green city. Then we decided to look up my friend Lesley who was the receptionist before me at CourierPost as she was now working in the city. We had a coffee and catch up then wandered along the harbour and had lunch sat out in the sun at Mac’s Brewery before heading into Te Papa – a museum of NZ history. We went to an exhibit on Whales and the history of the Maori and of whaling – and now of conservation and it was really well done. Then it was back to the campsite for our last night on the North Island!!!