Coromandel Peninsula Part 2

After our nice morning of biking and pancake consumption, we headed North along the coast towards Coromandel Town. Along the way we stopped in Thames for a walk around town to stretch our legs. We ended up working our way through the Thames City Museum, which was largely a reflection of the towns development through the gold mining days. There was an interesting collection of historic farming, gold mining, and manufacturing equipment, as well as a replica of what the downtown used to be. Many of the original structures are no longer standing, either from demolition due to age or severe damage from fires.

A man trap, you know, useful in keeping
other prospectors off your claim

Wouldn't biking be so much cooler
if we still rode these? :)

Historic wheelchair

Notice displayed during the
days of Women's Suffrage

The rest of our trip, other than enjoying a bit of time on the beach and sleeping in, was spent exploring a water park and hiking. One hiking excursion took us to Cathedral Cove. See posts from December 2013 for photos of that. The other major excursion was climbing Castle Rock.
But first things first, the Waterworks Park.

We picked up a brochure for the park by chance when looking for something else. It turned out to be an excellent way to spend half a day, and was a nice detour from what we normally end up seeing/doing while traveling.
They call themselves the quirkiest theme park, designed for kids up to the age of 84. Park founders/directors/maintainers have designed a wide variety of attractions, powered by water and using 70% recycled materials. There were occasional signs around the park describing how a particular attraction had been put together, and then asking for donations of things like old buckets or spoons for when it will have to be replaced.
Some of the cool attractions include flying bikes, a water powered clock, a music made from a car axle and knives, and a bicycle with a steel pole rider that appears to float on the water. There was also an impressive high-speed flying box (known in the states as a zipline). On hot days you can enjoy a swim, and if you are prepared (we were not this prepared) there are picnic and BBQ facilities.

Riding lawnmower

Old bones--a floating bike!

Cool fountain

Gumboot dogs!

Created by a local artist

Add caption

Flying bikes

When we had seen all there was to see at the water park, we thought we might just head a few kilometers down the road to Castle Rock. Castle Rock was something recommended to me by a few folks who heard where we were headed, as it was apparently known to be a nice climb that offered gorgeous views of the Peninsula.
So off we go, and find the turn-off. Now you might remember from my last post that when attempting to find a waterfall, I took us through the very scenic route to get there. I sort of did again when finding Castle Rock. We had found the right turn for the place, and did in fact find a parking lot next to the road which said it led to to the rock. What it did not say is that if you parked there, you had a 2km walk UPHILL on a dirt road until you got to the parking lot right next to where you can start your climb. So, park there we did and trudge up the hill. Gotta tell you, my calves did not thank me later haha.

Anyway, so we find Castle Rock. In my head I had imagined it was something like Mt. Paritutu that we have in New Plymouth. I guess it sort of was, but not really. Because it was an hour up to the top, where I ended up feeling a bit like a mountain goat, using roots and trees and vines to pull myself up the steep bits. Tough? A little bit (probably more because of a lack of fore-warning). Worth it? Absolutely. The views were stunning, even with it being somewhat cloudy. We could see Coromandel Town where we had stayed the night. We could see the Whitianga-Tairua area where we would stay the night before heading home. We could see islands around the top of the Peninsula, and a ways South towards the bottom of the Peninsula.

Follow the yellow.....painted rocks

Our destination 

 A nice woodland track

And climbing up the side of a rock

Hope everyone has settled into the new year. We are enjoying hot humid summer here, beaches and BBQs. Speaking of that actually, we are having one tonight. Shrimp and veggie kebabs, sausages, and a new coleslaw recipe with apples and bacon in it, yum!

Coromandel Peninsula Part 1

Last year, Troway and I travelled to Lake Taupo for New Year’s. This year, we decided to do the Coromandel Peninsula. Since we both had extra time off work this year, it was easier to plan a trip that took us a bit further away.

We saw and did quite a lot in the week we were gone, but at the same time it was also a nice chance to catch up on rest and enjoy being away from the normal busy-ness that is everyday life. So I do not have as many photos from this trip as from some, but I do have some fun adventures to share.

Important things first, we found some delightful restaurants, including one that automatically makes dairy free pizzas (definitely going there again haha). One of our other favorites was called “The Bistro” and was a rustic country place that served delicious food in a lovely setting. It was essentially a pole barn with roll-up walls that was out in the woods across the street from a waterfall. They could also do dairy free pizza, and had an incredibly delicious brownie on the menu J  But the winner for the coolest place we ate on this trip was a delightful little place we happened on in Paeroa called “Cloud 9.” It is a pancake and ice cream parlor. Most of their pancakes come with a scoop of ice cream, and all of their pancakes are HUGE and incredibly filling. I had two and barely made it through that.

Now for the real adventures: I tend to feel as if I have developed a fairly decent sense of direction after the amount of traveling I have done (and after my parents taught me to read a real paper map!). However, our first night there, I failed at this and got completely lost down a bush track when in search of a waterfall. Owharoa falls was said to be a mere 5 minute walk from where we were staying the night. I confirmed this shortly after we checked in and it seemed easy to find. So after letting the drive wear off, we thought we would head down to take a look. Since it is a 3-tier waterfall, we thought it would be a lovely way to start the trip. I am sure it would have been if we really had found it in 5 minutes. However…. Yours truly decided to brave the rain armed with nothing but her umbrella and the conviction that she could in fact find where she wanted to go. An hour later, I had gone down the road, crossed the Hauraki Rail Trail bike track, and headed down what appeared to be a path to the waterfall. I was a bit hesitant since it was somewhat overgrown (not normal for most tracks in NZ, in my experience at least) but decided that since it was in the direction of the waterfalls maybe it was just not popular with the locals. I know it was in the direction of the waterfalls because we had seen the very top of the falls from the road. However, after getting completely drenched and slowly stumbling our way through, we found that the track went straight PAST the falls with no view whatsoever. I was hungry and it had been a long drive so being rained on definitely did not make me un-cranky so we decided we would head back and get ready for dinner (which was at the afore mentioned Bistro and completely got rid of my crankiness!). as we emerged out of the bush back on to the road, the first thing we saw was a track leading from the road down to the falls. We had missed it before because there was no sign and several cars were parked blocking the view to the track. Needless to say I felt a bit silly, but I did finally get my pretty picture of the waterfall J

The bottom tier, which can be viewed via a track
that is right off the road, very quick and easy
to find for the savvy traveler. 

The middle tier. We did not manage to find the top tier.

 The following morning we biked partway down the Hauraki Rail Trail. Someday I might be adventurous and try to do all of it. For this time though, we explored the Victoria Stamper Battery and rode through a 1 kilometre long rail tunnel!

The arches supported giant drums which were used to
crush iron ore.

River through the gorge

Entrance to the 1km long rail tunnel.

 More adventures to come in my next post. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and I wish you and your family a very Happy New Year!

White Cliffs Walkway

When I first moved here, I quickly set about visiting as much of the North Island as I could get to, without paying much attention to what was nearby. Now that I have been here awhile, I have had time to start exploring Taranaki with day trips and short excursions when time and weather allow. While I had time off over the holidays, in between holiday things and the beach, I took a day to go hiking and check off something that had been on my Taranaki To-Do list for quite some time.

Not far down the coast from town you will find the White Cliffs. On clear days you can see these from Mokau, one of my favourite places to stop along the way from New Plymouth to places up North. Alternatively you can see a better view of the cliffs from out at sea, but I do not have a boat so this is not a likely a way for me to view them anytime soon. However, what I have glimpsed out of airplane windows, and from the beach at Mokau, is lovely. The tall flat side of the cliffs, which is right at the water’s edge unless the tide is out, is completely white.

There are three options for hiking along this track, depending on how ambitious you are. The longest route takes you from the start of the track outside of Urenui all the way to Tongaporutu, which is next to the Three Sisters (a 14km track). The second option takes you to Mt. Messenger (an 11km track). The third option, which was the one I chose, is 6.5 km, is a loop through beach and farmland. Since the beach portion is only accessible at low tide, I only did the farmland bit and doubled back the way I had started, but I did get to enjoy lunch on the beach.

The track follows the route of the Kapuni to Auckland gas pipeline. The laying of this pipeline enabled the track to be built, since the work there allowed walking access to the area.

The track starts out on a one-lane paved road which soon becomes a gravel road.

 Shortly thereafter, like any good hike in NZ, you are walking through farmland. I got to wave to sheep, horses, and cows as I made my way through the fields. There was a nicely laid gravel track to follow so it was easy enough to find my way. 

The next portion of the track was a path through the bush on land belonging to the Ngati Tawa Iwi (tribe). At the highest point of this section, there was a beautiful view of Mt. Ruapehu. I still find it amazing that you can see all the way across the island. 

From there I went down a few hundred stairs, which I was glad to find since it was getting a bit steep by that point. At the bottom I found my way to the beach where I had lunch before turning back to head home. Had I wanted to carry on, I could have followed the track on to Mt. Messenger or Tongaporutu. However, it is a one way track if you do not do the beach loop, and I did not quite feel up to doing 22-28 kilometres in one day! Someday maybe I will, or someone will love me enough to meet me at the other end with ice cream and a ride home J

Some portions of the track were tougher than I had anticipated, but the views were gorgeous and as always I found the adventure to be a rewarding one.