Coromandel

Monday 5th December
We had not really intended to spend all day in Coromandel Town, but events rather overtook us - we have had such a fascinating day, and there is a lot more to see.

We began by eating our breakfast outside on the deck in the blessed sunshine - which didn't last long, unfortunately. After packing and checking out, we made our way to the Driving Creek Railway. Driving Creek had originally been covered in kauri trees, and was comprehensively logged. Hence the name; the creek was dammed fairly high up the hillside to make a lake and the logs were rolled down the creek to the lake. When the lake was full with water and logs, the dam was opened and that drove a mass of water and logs down the hillside to the harbour, for easy collection. So it was given the name Driving Creek.

The clearing of the forest and resulting erosion revealed some gold-bearing rocks, so then the area was mined for gold. Once the mining came to an end, the bush was cleared for pasture. In 1961, a man called Barry Brickell decided to give up being a teacher and become a full-time potter in a rural setting. He bough some land at Driving Creek, and in 1973 started to build a narrow gauge railway to carry clay and logs for his kiln. He brought in local contractors to do the major earthworks, but he laid the track himself.

In order to re-pay the bank, the railway became a very popular tourist attraction. It has expanded to nearly 3 km, and has taken Barry Brickell 32 years to build. This is the station.



We had to wait until the 11.30 trip, but there was plenty to see, and at 11.30 we set off. We sat near the front of the train. The ride takes you through thick forest. There are a number of viaducts on the route, this is the first.



It is hard from my photo to see how high it is, because the slopes have been re-planted with native species, including kauri trees. Here, the main things you can see are tree ferns. The most celebrated viaduct is the double-deck viaduct.



The train passes along the lower deck, then spirals round a hill, climbing all the time, and re-crosses the gorge at the higher level. Here you can see we are at the higher level.

Instead of tight corners, the track uses reversing points; the track is built in a Y shape.




The train above has just come down the right-hand slope of the Y and down to the base of the main stroke of the letter. The driver has just got out to change the points. The the train will then proceed up the left arm of the Y.

The last reversing point, atop a high ridge, is a platform which projects out over a void.



If my photo hasn't printed too small, you can see the track sticking out on what looks like part of a bridge. This is the train driving out onto this platform




The driver has to get out (on the left, the right is hanging over nothing) and walk to the back of the train, then he will reverse it out.

At the end of the track, the highest point has a viewing platform (called The Eye-full Tower) where you can get out and take pictures. Even on a rather dull day, the views are wonderful.




After our ride, which we really enjoyed - I think it was one of the highlights of our holiday - we found a picnic spot to eat our lunch, then went off to the Gold Stamper Battery. We found there was a tour at 2, and worked out that there wouldn't be time to go elsewhere for the night, so we rushed back to the place we had stayed in last night to book ourselves into the same room for tonight. When we returned to the Gold Stamper, we discovered a group of about 20 teenagers had arrived for gold panning, so we agreed to return at 3.

We went to the museum while we were waiting. It has the most amazing collection of stuff. This is a model of the Gold Stamper Battery, which was convenient, since the real one is too large to make a sensible photo.




There are some wonderful old photographs of the town through the ages. Everything is somewhat jumbled together, and some of it reminded me of things I have taken to the tip in the past. Maybe I should have found a local museum! There were lots of objects I loved, but my undoubted favourite was this.



At 3, we went back for our stamper battery tour. The stamper machine is powered by this huge water wheel.



It crushes the quartz rocks. They are ground small, and pass down a channel to be mixed with water to make a slurry.



Here you can see a couple of the channels down which the rock slides, and at the bottom right of the picture is a tank of the slurry. Mercury is added, and it forms an amalgam with the gold and silver. The geologist giving us the tour filled an old plastic water bottle with the mixture, and we watched it settle. It was very heavy, and we after a short while we could see the mercury at the bottom, with a yellowish gleam on its top surface. That's the gold.

The mercury amalgam is removed and it is boiled in a retort and condensed and re-cycled. What's left behind from the boiling process is a mixture of slag, gold and silver. The gold and silver can then be separated by heating and electrolysis.

We were chatting there for ages, so it was nearly 6 when we left. The sun was shining again and the weather was beautiful, so we hurried to take a few more photos while the weather was nice. This is a view over Coromandel Harbour.




After supper, the rain started again, so heavily that conversation was impossible. We are hoping for a dry day tomorrow.

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Auckland to Coromandel

Sunday 4th December
We woke this morning to the sound of rain hammering down overhead. We did not have to hurry ourselves, check-out time was 10, and the car hire company was not due to pick us up until 11. There was a nice pool outside the lounge, but it was just as wet beside the pool as in it. So we vacated our room at 10 and spent a pleasant hour sitting in the lounge reading - this is one of many establishments we have visited with a book exchange, so we exchanged what we had read for new ones. Sometimes you can't do an exchange as they don't have one, or their shelves don't have anything you want to read; occasionally, the choice had been between foreign language books, lots of Dan Brown, and a few romantic novels. But often we have been quite lucky.

At 11, we were ready to be collected. At 11.15, Paul rang the rental company, who had probably forgotten. At 11.30 he rang again, and they said the driver was possibly lost! I wasn't surprised, we were close to the airport, but in a rather out-of-the-way place. Anyway, eventually he arrived and we visited the rental office to sign the paperwork, and we were off somewhat later than hoped - through the driving rain.

We had briefly visited the Coromandel Peninsula on our tour, and we wanted a chance to see it in more detail, so we repeated the start of the route we took from Auckland on our tour. The highways weren't particularly memorable, and we couldn't see much of the scenery through the rain. We made a lunch stop at little cafe endearingly called The Pukeko's Nest and then pressed on. We see Pukekos quite a lot. They are apparently a member of the rail family. They are also called the Purple Swamp Hen although they are not really purple at all but, for the most part, a deep almost iridescent indigo blue. The back and wings are black with a greenish gloss. The large scarlet triangular shaped bill and orange-red legs and feet complete a very exotic picture.

We skirted Thames and joined a road the tour hadn't taken, up the west coast of the Coromandel Peninsula. No wonder our tour hadn't gone that way! The road was very narrow, hugging the rocky coast, a series of small headlands.



On the left of the car, the so-called 'shoulder' was frequently only a foot wide, then there was a sharp drop of 6 - 10 feet to a rocky beach. On the right, there was a rocky cliff, and plenty of signboards warning you that the cliff was likely to throw boulders at you! We couldn't imagine the bus managing a road like that!

It really was a beautiful drive, though worrying; there was a lot of traffic coming the other way, and a fair number of them had boats on trailers. I guessed that some people had taken advantage of the beautiful weather on Friday and Saturday to have a sea-side weekend; and when they realised how truly awful the Sunday weather was, they decided to go home. There are some boat trailers which are wider than a car, so we had some anxious moments on the narrow road.

Sometimes there were a few yards of sandy or gravelly beach. If it had been a nice day, I daresay everywhere would have been crowded with bathers and fishermen, but today there were few people stopped in the lay-bys.



At this point, it was only drizzling, so we could stop to take pictures. However, you can see it was quite a dull day, and the headlands just melt away into the mist. We had our last sight of the sea as the road turned away to the east and started to climb.



We twisted and turned our way through a volcanic landscape, with steep sides and sharp peaks and deep wooded valleys. We did keep stopping to take photos, but it was hard because the rain was now so heavy you couldn't see much, and often both cloud and curtains of rain filled the valley. My raincoat is more shower proof than bucket-of-water proof, so I got quite wet whenever I climbed out of the car. The photo below was taken when the rain wasn't quite so heavy, and, if it isn't published too small, nicely shows the steep slopes nibbled to a sort of green corduroy by the sheep and cows.




There's no sign of the sheep and cows, of course; the poor things are standing dejectedly under a tree somewhere wondering, like us, if it will ever stop.

Eventually, we got our first sight of the other coast, again through the mist and driving rain



and we descended towards Coromandel town. While we were searching for the place I had in mind to stay, we saw this historic barge and could not resist stopping for a photo. If we manage to visit the Visitors' Centre tomorrow, we may find out exactly what it was and why it is there.



Eventually, we found the place I was looking for, and were fortunate in securing the last double room with en-suite bathroom; some people who pulled in behind us were not quite quick enough getting out of their car and into reception, and drove away to find somewhere else.

We are fervently hoping for better weather tomorrow, there's a narrow-gauge railway which does one hour trips, but the carriages are relatively open so it wouldn't be pleasant with all this water being thrown at us. At present, it is getting even worse and there is a fierce wind as well, so we are not hopeful.

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Christchurch to Auckland

Saturday 3rd December
We had rather a late night with packing and throwing away; we seemed to have accumulated a great many important pieces of paper and leaflets. It has been very hard to get Paul to throw away food we have bought - we have been making our own breakfasts in motels and hostels, and often making sandwiches for lunch as it is so difficult to buy a sandwich not made with white sliced polystyrene. For some reason, Paul cannot bring himself to throw food away, and it has to be wrestled from his unwilling hands.

We managed to return the car on time in the morning, then caught a bus into the city. It was a shame we had to return the car in the morning when we weren't flying until the evening, but that was the consequence of Qantas' not giving us the flight we had originally requested, even though it had free seats. We had booked the car on the assumption we would get the flights we wanted, and the car booking could not be extended until evening.

We went to the Botanical Gardens which we had not had time to visit so far, and it was too beautiful a day to want to be inside.

The gardens are part of Hagley Park, and are bordered by the River Avon, which arises from a spring out near the airport. It is very shallow, never more than a metre, and is popular for punting, rowing and kayaking.




We wandered around at first, admiring the huge trees




and some of the strange sculptures; I never found out what his one was about.


We spent a long time in the Rose garden, where there are thousands of roses. We just sat in the shade and chatted with somebody on the next seat and appreciated the birdsong, the colours and the perfume.




Near the roses was a fragrance garden specially created to appeal to blind people, where we found this beautiful white wisteria.



We ate our sandwiches near the lake




and soon attracted a flock of ducks, sparrows and chaffinches and several seagulls, who all thought they could learn to like ham sandwiches.

We took a trip round the entire gardens on a little bus, which was very interesting, as we looked at native New Zealand plants and some Australian ones. Some of the ponds suffered from liquefaction and had to be re-lined as they were full of little heaps of very fine sand. The driver told us she had been out driving the bus round the gardens when the earthquake struck, and had no idea that it was so serious until she and her passengers became aware of the numbers of people rushing out of offices and shops into Hagley Park.

I couldn't resist a photograph of this wonderful Edwardian fountain, a gift of a Mr Peacock



It was put away in the 1940s as it was felt to require too much upkeep, but brought out 30 or 40 years later when it was recognised as a very decorative object.

The wind was a little cold, so we went into the museum to see a few things we missed last time. The streets of old shops were really wonderful. My father would have loved the old chemist's shop - in fact, it would have looked very familiar to him.




There was a wonderfully detailed doll's house in the toy shop; the whole house is full of Victorian furnishings and ornaments.



There were lots of fascinating old shops from around the turn of the century; there was a barber, a bookmaker, an ironmongery, a china shop, a saddler and a clothier. Some were just windows. Others, like the toyshop, you could enter and admire the many objects.

We also visited the Paua Shell house. Fred and Myrtle Flutey, a couple who lived in Bluff (near Invercargill) started to put the shells up on the walls inside their house during the 1950s. You can buy whole Paua shells, but they are more usually made into jewellery. Fred collected the shells on beaches and polished them; they are about the size and general shape of a saucer, though they are oval in shape and quite deep. The colour is on the outside curved face of the shell, and is a mixture of green and blue iridescence, so rather eye-catching. The sitting room walls are completely covered in them, and there is lots of other kitch in the house as well. Everything that could be covered in a gleaming shell or inlaid gleaming bits of shell was covered.

People came from all over the world to see the house, and now that the couple are both dead, it has been re-created in the museum. I wish I could have taken a picture, but I was being watched! Anyway, I see from YouTube that it doesn't photograph very well.

We caught a bus back to our luggage, which was being stored where we had spent the night, and as we were earlier than needed, we spent a pleasant half hour in the sunny sheltered garden.



We really have been very lucky with the weather in the last few days, it has been beautiful. The Met Service here seems to think this is the last day of beautiful weather though. It will probably rain tomorrow.

The shuttle got us to the airport in plenty of time, and we dined at the airport at the somewhat antipodean hour of 6. I was able to post most of today's blog using the free airport wireless, which was convenient as I have nearly used the 500 Mg of data I bought in Dunedin about 10 days ago. I'm sure I have no idea where it went!

The flight was uneventful, and now we are back in North Island until December 10th.

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Hanmer Springs to Christchurch (via Akaroa!)

Friday 2nd December
We didn't make an early start today, because of laundry. We needed to do it, and were too late last night. By the time we had packed everything into the car, breakfasted and washed and dried a pile of clothes, it was after 11. I had been intending that we should drive slowly to Christchurch via various seaside places along the way, but Paul had had several conversations with people who had told him Akaroa was wonderful, so he wanted to go there. This involved going around Christchurch to the west, then heading south east of the city for about 80 km onto the Banks Peninsula.

The scenery round Hanmer Springs really is lovely, and I was sad to leave such a beautiful place, surrounded by mountains and with so much bird life.




We still found ourselves stopping to photograph things we had photographed before. This is a rather better picture of the bridge over the Waiau River. You can bungee jump from it, apparently.



This is the river a little lower down, once it has stopped flowing so fast and cutting itself such a deep gorge.




And this is the amazing rocky outcrop I photographed before, but from the other side. It is called Frog Rock. I'm not sure I can see the resemblance, from either side.




We rejoined State Highway 1 towards Christchurch, across the Canterbury Plains, stopping to eat our sandwiches beside a river. The highway became very busy as we approached Christchurch, and there were no signs for Akaroa, or even for SH75, which was the road that leaves SH1 and crosses the Banks Peninsula. Eventually, I managed to find the way.

At the start, the road along the Peninsula is flat and surrounded by what looks like old sand dunes, overgrown with grass and trees.




Eventually, the road starts to climb into steeper hills.




The first view of Akaroa Harbour is stunning, and I'm afraid my photograph doesn't do it justice.




Apparently, Akaroa is one of the best examples of an eroded volcanic crater in the world, and though it is hard to see in such a small photograph, the sides are steep and the road is very twisty. There are numerous occasions when the car seems poised above a very steep drop. Mostly, I was too terrified to take pictures and it wasn't safe to stop anyway, with narrow roads, no crash barriers of any sort and people driving very fast.

Akaroa was indeed charming. It was originally a French Settlement, and lots of streets have French names. Quite a few of the buildings fly the French flag, and some have French names too.




You may not be able to read this, it is called La Boucherie du Village. One of the Hostels is called Chez la Mer.

Many of the buildings are old. You won't be able to read the one below either, but it is the Madeira Hotel, and has a date of 1872




This is the rather charming General Store




The statue below is of Charles Meryon, a lieutenant aboard a French naval escort ship which was in Akaroa between 1843 and 1846. He is apparently a quite well know artist and engraver in Paris, and his work is said to reveal the influence of his time in New Zealand.



The harbour is very pretty. There is a cruise ship in, so presumably the far side is deeper than the side where the village is built, where there is a nice beach.



We had coffee and cakes at a delightful place called The Stables, in a building dating around 1870.




You can see how beautiful the garden is; we sat there in the shade. I have to record that this is the first time in years I have been given a cake fork to eat my cake! Much nicer.



I was sorry not to be able to stay longer, it seems there are plenty of walks as well as small harbours and hamlets to explore, but we had to get back to Christchurch, since the car has to be returned by 10 am tomorrow. This was our last view of the upper harbour, the bit above the town.



The wake you may just be able to see disappearing behind the trees is of a boat towing water skiers.

We drove back along the twisty roads through the volcanic landscape



And eventually arrived at our Christchurch hotel about 6.30. Now we just have to re-pack and throw away anything not required in North Island so our luggage is not overweight!

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Hanmer Springs

Thursday 1st December
Well, as promised, today has been a restful day. We rose late and breakfasted late, then sat on our deck in front of our little cottage



and appreciated the peace and quiet, the birdsong, and the lack of impetus to jump up and go somewhere.

We did eventually jump up and go somewhere, we went for a walk. There is a good walk up a hill called Conical Hill, through forests of planted trees, giant fir, Lawson's Cypress, Japanese Cypress and Atlantic Cedar. I assume these to be the giant firs.



The walk is quite steep in places, but never very steep, and the path is good and wide. The views from the top of the hill are terrific. This is part of the town; you can't see all of it because some of the trees are too tall; there's a lot more on the left of the picture which you can't see from the hilltop at all.



To the west, you can see for miles. There is still snow on the high tops in the distance, and I do not think the weather on the west coast is as pleasant as here.



We came back to our little cottage for lunch, which we ate sitting on our deck again. Then Paul spent quite a bit of time on his computer, so somehow most of the afternoon slipped away. However, I was determined to try the thermal pools, so in the end we both went.

There were lots of different pools, of differing temperatures. The spa type ones are for adults only, but children are allowed in all the others. However, most of the children were in the children's play pools, where there are lots of slides and things to play with. The adult pools have seats at the edges - one even has some in the centre - so you can just sit and relax and chat.




We tried every single pool. I liked the warmer ones best, though I spent quite a while in the coldest; it is called 'The Lazy River' and has a current which floats you round a track. We also sat in the spa pool for quite a long time, having our backs massaged by the jets.

Paul did not like the sulphur pools.



We stayed until our fingers got all wrinkly, then we came back to change and have supper. I am so relaxed I am almost comatose. I expect to sleep well.

Tomorrow, we have to leave and go back to Christchurch; we are booked in somewhere close to the airport tomorrow night, and we fly to Auckland the following night.

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