Author: Mrs A
Location: Omokoroa and Coromandel, New Zealand
Friday: It was another fine day in New Zealand, I’m sure you’re tired of hearing. Blue skies over Omokoroa prompted Mr A and I to pull out the walking shoes and head off on another hike. We drove just 10km up the coast to Aongatete and set off on another walk in the lower Kaimai Range. The cloud hung down over the peaks but did not rain.
We saw a lady with her two young children who were doing a shorter hike, but otherwise no other people as we walked the circuit. I relished my open airway and good breathing as we hiked up and down some relatively steep valleys, crossing a couple of streams as we went.
Other than slipping on a green rock and getting a wet foot, there were no mishaps, and we were reminded once again the contrast with similar hikes in Australia – no ticks, leeches or snakes here.
Saturday & Sunday: With one more week left here in New Zealand I decided to paint a couple of artworks for dad and Sue as a thank you for their hospitality. Over the weekend I clocked up about 8 hours of painting – it was good to get back working on paper!
Saturday night dad and Sue hosted neighbours Den and Angie for dinner – delicious mussels and prawns with a couple of tasty sauces. Much laughter ensued as we had an enjoyable evening with a few bottles of wine under a starlit sky.
Mark and I strolled down to the beach on Sunday afternoon at low tide, feeling wistful at the fact we only have a few more days left to enjoy this very special location. The sand flats were covered with birds; herons, black swans, Canada geese and oyster catchers mingled with godwits, gulls and stilts. We were the only people down there as we sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet from the white sand.
Monday morning began nice and early, with workmen arriving to commence repaving the back patio. Mark and I packed up the car with some clothes and our camping gear and headed off a couple of hours up the coast to the Coromandel peninsular.
It’s a lovely drive up, with the Coromandel mountain range on our left, and fleeting turquoise water views alongside the forest and valleys to our right. The road is very windy and popular with motorcyclists, but less so with me and my weak stomach. I was relieved when the winding ceased and my travel sickness abated.
We set up camp at Hot Water Beach, stopping in the garden beside an orchard of an old house near the beach. It wasn’t a fancy location by any stretch of the imagination, but it was peaceful and the ground was flat.
The owner of the location came down to see us, showing us the resident eels living in the stream behind our camp. “Keep your toes away from the edge, they’ll attach onto one and suck off all the flesh, leaving a bone.” Ugh! 
I revisited my foot slipping into the stream a couple of days ago with a new perspective! Maybe there are things in New Zealand that can hurt you after all!
We stuck to the beach instead, doing a lovely long walk along the coast. What we didn’t do was dig a hole in the sand and sit in it, like so many other visitors. Hot Water Beach is named for the hot springs which rise in the sand, accessible by shovel. The springs only appear in about a 50 metre wide stretch of the beach, and it is here that people sit in wet holes, cheek by jowl admiring the incoming tide. We very briefly considered doing this, before returning our shovel and exploring the quieter parts of the beach instead, no tourists around.
Tuesday – after a slightly disturbed sleep (very strong winds) we arose and drove a short way up the coast to Hahei. A very pretty settlement, this is the gateway to the famous Cathedral Cove. Accessible only by foot or boat, this is on everyone’s ‘must visit’ lists for the Coromandel.
Mr A and I have been there at least twice in the past, loving its picturesque gentle turquoise waters dotted with rocks and islands and white sand beaches. We parked up on the seafront at Hahei and took the coastal walk along.
Things have changed somewhat in the five years since we last came this way. Firstly, there is a water taxi that loads up people for $15 a head and whizzes them along the coast, meaning there are many more families with young children at the cove. Secondly, the pathway that follows the coast has now been surfaced, making it more of a footpath than a bush walk.
We hiked our way along, passing many people approaching and coming back from the beach, finding them differing from the usual hikers we come across. When you see someone on a bush walk, 99% of the time they will look at you, smile and say hello as you pass. Here, people avoid eye contact and rarely have a smile. If they are under the age of 30 then they will fill the path three abreast and scowl if they have to step aside to allow you to squeeze past single file. Very different souls indeed!
Of course the beach and cove was beautiful, but with many visitors. I jumped in for a refreshing dip (fulfilling a promise to my sister that I would do – brr! Helen I hope you appreciate my sacrifice) but Mark got no deeper than his ankles.
After half an hour we headed back, calling in to Stingray Bay on our way around. In contrast to Cathedral Cove, there was hardly anyone here, but it was equally spectacular. I wish I had saved my swim for the turquoise waters here instead. True to its name, we watched stingrays whizz around the water’s edge catching lunch, and a couple of feral goats munching on some trees on the side of the bay. If you visit these parts, I suggest you plan to spend most of your time in the serenity of this beach rather than Cathedral Cove – total bliss.
We tore ourselves away and continued our return to Hahei and lunch – 8.5km having worked up a nice appetite!
I decided to fight the travel sickness and do the winding road driving on the way back to Omokoroa – a wise decision it turned out – I felt fine being in control!
Another lovely evening ensued with dad and Sue – a glass of wine on the patio followed by pork steaks, rice and vegetables. Delicious.
Mr A and I drove into sleepy Canowindra to send off the last of our eBay sales, a couple of Christmas gifts to the UK, and return our tyre-pressure monitoring kit back to the factory for testing. Despite fully reinstalling the monitors from scratch in the morning, they still failed to show all our wheels on the system.
We farewelled Jo and Alan and drove to our next destination, Bathurst. There we stopped the night with friend David and his two boys, Felix and Rory, enjoying steak and salad and a good night’s sleep. This is where the Cruiser will spend the next few weeks while we are in New Zealand.
The afternoon was spent doing a little Christmas shopping and a visit to my ENT surgeon (iSGS followers – I had my first awake steroid injection into my stenosis!).
Jenny and David had invited a bunch of their friends over for Christmas drinks and nibbles in the evening, so Mr A and I helped prepare the apartment for visitors, starting with quality testing the beverages – a glass of French Champagne before the guests arrived.
A fun evening proceeded – delicious food and drink accompanied by much laughter and interesting conversations. Fabulous!
The weather didn’t stop us, and we enjoyed the hike with the rain and wind at our backs, with the shower stopping in time for our return route.
We enjoyed a great evening with Barb and Omar, a delicious chicken hotpot and some fine wine of course, before retiring to our bed up on the hill, lulled to sleep by a chorus of croaking frogs. Very relaxing indeed!
We had a delicious breakfast in Berry with Barb, Omar and another friend, Joanne who happened to be in town, before taking our kayak down to Broughton Creek and launching it for a paddle. After all our hard work the past few weeks, this was finally us reaping our reward, and the morning was perfect for it.
Spring has truly sprung here, and the riverside was lined with young calves, staring in shock at this 7+ metre giant boat cruising past. There was not a breath of wind, providing us with some amazing mirror-like reflections.
We paddled just over 9km, before returning for hot showers and a relaxing afternoon. It’s been a while since we’ve been allowed such luxury!
Super smart and famous for wearing crazy shirts, Dr Karl appears on an Australian radio show on Thursday mornings, TripleJ. This program condenses all his segments within that hour in to a 30 minute podcast, answering callers’ bizarre science-related questions.
We have to admit we were somewhat latecomers to this one, but we have binged on it ever since! Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski interview some absolutely fascinating people about their lives. Often it is a particular event or series of events covered, frequently linked to a book the interviewee has just launched.
An academic from Canada, Malcolm Gladwell offers fabulous insight into events and situations from the past, often recent history. Much of it is USA focused (we skipped past a couple of the overly basketball or American football based ones), but also touches on relevant global events, such as Toyota’s recall of cars after a failure of brakes in 2006, or the treatment of female politicians. He revisits events, shedding new light and often turning stories completely on their head.
From the New York Times, this was absolutely fascinating, crossing the lines between journalism and documentary. We often listened to two or three episodes in succession (there are 10 in total), following the investigations of a brave journalist looking into the activities of ISIS.
This podcast we left towards the end of our day, for that final hour of our journey where we needed less education and more entertainment. Essentially this is a bunch of three friends reading out (and critiquing) a chapter of a very bad porn ‘novel’.