New Zealand: Matakana and Coromandel Peninsula

Matakana

We drove to Matakana, which is a small town back in the direction of Auckland, famous for its café and wine culture, the guide book said.

Tonight we stayed in Sugarloaf Lodge, another cottage type arrangement with another amazing view - sweeping fields, a forest, and some buildings, which we were to discover, was the Omaha housing estate.

Sugarloaf Lodge

The view from Sugarloaf Lodge

We were greeted by Allan, who is British, and had been living in New Zealand for 38 years, and his dog, George. They had another custom which we'd not come across in B and Bs before but which turned out to be a feature in several of them here, and that was that Allan brought us a glass of wine and some nibbles at 6pm: pre-dinner drinks. 

Pre-dinner drinks and nibbles

He told us that George would probably hang around with us for a while, and he did - hoping for some leftovers, no doubt, as he soon wandered off again when the food was all gone.

George

Then it was time for a look at the town of Matakana. It's a small place, and it only took half an hour to see everything, including a rather wacky public toilet. 

The public toilet building in Matakana

We chose a place to eat for the evening and booked a table. I think it was called the Farmhouse Kitchen or something similar. One of the places Allan had recommended.

With time to kill, we decided we'd go and check out Omaha. At first, there didn't seem to be a lot there apart from some expensive looking houses, but we did eventually find the beach where people were surfing and stopped there for a coffee.

The restaurant had forgotten all about us when we arrived to eat. Since we knew they were expecting a party of 26 we feared the worst - but they rectified it quickly and made up a table for us. We feared that the party of 26, which had already arrived and taken their seats, would mean our food would take forever to come, but there was no problem at all. You'll hear more about the party of 26 as there's quite an amazing coincidence attached to them, although for tonight they were simply there in the background. 

I had stuffed mushrooms and Thai curry and chocolate bread and butter pudding. Arthur wasn't impressed with the choice of desserts. What, only four choices?

Stargazing

We spent some more time looking at the stars. Last night we'd noticed a light in the sky that seemed to be flashing red and green, and so had assumed it was probably a plane, and then when it didn't move, decided it must be a navigation beacon of some kind. However, when we saw it again tonight in the same position relative to Orion we knew it must be a star. Out with the Night Sky iPhone app to try and figure out what is was. We think it is Sirius. Even without a telescope, you can see a lot more of the night sky out there - in London you can never see stars that seem to be flashing in different colours. I guess that is what light pollution does. There was another that looked to be twinkling blue and orange and we think that one was Pictor A.

Day 15: 24 November: Matakana - Coromandel Peninsula

Breakfast in Allan and Vanessa's home and then on to the Coromandel Peninsula, specifically a place called Cooks Beach. It was a long drive, taking us back through Auckland. We didn't take the toll road this time.

We worked out that you can attach an iPod to the car's entertainment system and listen to your own music. Since you can't get Radio 4 in New Zealand, Arthur was willing to listen to my playlists as we drove.

The next place we stayed at was The Mussell Bed, run by Chris and Paul. 

They were out when we arrived, but had left us a note telling us where our room was, so we found it, unloaded and had a quick read of the blurb in the room, which included a potted history of the Mussel Bed. 

Our room at the Mussel Bed

We went for a wander up to Cook's Beach. Our itinerary had said we were "2 minutes away" from local restaurants, but we concluded they meant 2 minutes driving rather than walking. Still, we found the beach, so named because Captain Cook once landed there.

As we were walking, we had quite a scare when an extremely loud siren started going off. WTF?? 

There had been something in the room folder about what to do if there was a tsunami and assuring us that Chris and Paul would make sure we knew what action to take in the event of one, but of course, we hadn't even seen them yet. However, Arthur had read that the tsunami warning was a continuous blast and this one was more like an air raid siren. He'd also read that they test it periodically and so this could well be a test. However, it went on, and on, and on, but when nobody else seemed to be heading for the hills, we relaxed a little.

We had noticed, in fact, a plume of smoke rising from a wooded area across the bay - Allan had told us there was a drought and a fire risk, so we wondered if it was a forest fire. As the siren finally abated, a fire engine sped past us, it's lights and siren going, heading off in that direction. We concluded that the siren's purpose was to summon the volunteer fire fighters (the smaller towns often seemed to have a volunteer fire service and Cooks Beach was pretty small) and it had to be loud and go on for a long time because the fire brigade would not have been sitting in the fire station waiting for a call - they would have been at home or at work.

It didn't seem that there was very much within walking distance so we went back to get the car. By now, our hosts had returned and we were able to meet them, get recommendations where to eat and order what we wanted on our breakfast tray in the morning. 

Arthur was determined to find the plaque commemorating Captain Cook's landing, so we followed the heritage trail until we found it.

There isn't the same kind of sweeping view at the Mussel Bed as there has been at the other places - but they do have a really lovely garden which has a river at the bottom of it. 

The Garden at the Mussel Bed

If you were so inclined, you could borrow a kayak and paddle out to the beach. It seems kayaking is a big thing in New Zealand. Several of the B and Bs that were close to water had kayaks available for any guests who cared to use them, and it was often a possible activity on the boat trips as well.

The recommended place to eat was called Eggcentric - Eggcentric by name and Eggcentric by nature; it was a quirky kind of place. We stopped there for a coffee and booked a table for the evening. The garden was full of sculptures and there was artwork for sale on the walls. When we went back in the evening the waiter was practicing the piano in between taking orders. We wondered if this was the advertised live music. The food was very good and a nice atmosphere.

Sculpture at Eggcentric

Day 16: 25 November: Cook's Beach

Leopard Cruise trip

Today was our next excursion, a boat trip with Leopard Cruises. It was run by Chris and Paul's son, Jason. We were booked on something called the "Full Monty Tour" (which meant we were on the full 2 hour trip which took in all the extra sights, not that there were male strippers on board for our entertainment). 

It seemed wherever there was a better option or some extra you could have, Beyond the Blue had booked us on it.

The tour consisted of a fast boat ride around the highlights of the coastline, including all the area's iconic rock formations, like Shakespeare Rock (Supposed to look like Shakespeare's profile and while it did resemble a man in a hat, it could have been anyone, really) and sail rock, that looks like a yacht.

The main tourist draw and iconic sight there is Cathedral Cove, where a large cave has been eroded in the cliff and right through the other side so it's possible to walk through it onto the beach. It's famous as a location in Prince Caspian so I was able to post on Facebook that evening that I'd been to Narnia!

Cathedral Cove

We also saw some local wildlife - various birds, including a heron, fish and even a penguin. 

The trees on the coast are one of two varieties which break into glorious red blossom in December; here in the North they are the Pōhutukawa, in the South they have the Rata. Because they bloom around Christmas, they are called the New Zealand Christmas tree. Of course, it was only November so they weren't in flower yet, so we wouldn't get to see them in their full glory, sadly. Although the rata were beginning to flower by the end of our trip.

Jason told us about the geology of the area - most of the rocks we saw are made from lava and pumice from a volcanic eruption 80 million years ago. The rock is relatively soft which is why it erodes into such stunning formations.

At one point he was even able to take the boat inside one of the caves.

Inside a cave

Whitianga

Boat trip over, we had three issues to sort out, all of which appeared to involve a trip to a nearby town. One, we needed petrol; two, we needed to do some laundry (we could use a washing machine at the accommodation but due to the water shortages they would charge us $15 and we reckoned it would be cheaper to use a launderette) and thirdly, as I reached in my bag for the key to lock the room this morning, I pulled out the key to the previous room in Matakana, so we had to find a post office which sold jiffy bags as well as stamps so we could send it back.

We found a small petrol station near Ferry Landing, on our side of the bay, but still needed the post office and launderette. Of course, the easiest way to get to the other town (Whitianga, which for some reason is pronounced by the locals as "Fitianga") is to get the five minute ferry across for $5, but we decided that it would be easier to drive there than lug our bags of laundry on and off the ferry and round the streets of Whitianga. It would also save us the ferry fare.

So we drove. It took an hour. We had lunch on the marina and Arthur realised he'd left his hat on the boat. However, as we were wandering around killing time waiting for the washing, we saw Jason and Paul having lunch in Subway, so we were able to tell them about the hat. Jason said he would drop it by later as it was his mother's birthday so he would be coming over anyway.

Finished our washing and drove back again. Another hour. This incident made us realise just how deceptive the distances can be. The fact that we took a two hour round trip just to do our washing has been a handy illustration of that. 

It also struck me as quite a contrast: in the morning I was in Narnia; in the afternoon I was doing my washing!

Eggcentric was closed tonight so we went to the other restaurant in Cook's Beach, a kind of fusion tapas bar. We'd called in earlier to reserve a table. Our ideal time would have been 8pm, but the guy asked if we could come earlier as they weren't expecting to be very busy. So we went at 7. An interesting selection of food, I remember, although I can't remember now exactly what I had. It was made up of sharing platters - you chose three or four and shared them. 

They were indeed not very busy. Only about one other couple there. We talked to the owner a bit and he said that there can be a lot of passing trade in high season but it wasn't high season yet. That starts nearer to Christmas and extends through January. At one point, someone came in, but not to eat - he said he'd come to wish the owner a happy birthday. No wonder he wanted to close up early if it was his birthday. So we'd met two people with the same birthday.

Day 17: 26 November: Coromandel

We had a full day at leisure to do as we pleased, and so we decided to go and see Coromandel Town. There were two ways to get there. A highway, and a road called route 309. Paul advised us that route 309 was much shorter, and mindful of yesterday when it took us two hours to get to the launderette we figured that would be the best way to go.

I was driving this morning with Arthur navigating. Route 309 turned out to be a dirt track road, barely wide enough for two cars to pass. It was steep and bendy with sheer drops down one side in places. You would not have wanted to meet one of those massive logging trucks that barrel along the highways at breakneck speeds. I expressed the opinion that they probably don't use roads like the 309, but we did come across them on some quite narrow roads - though not on the 309. We only met two or three cars all the way along, thankfully, although at one point there were pigs running about in the road.

I'm sure the time Paul said we'd save by going that way was probably eaten away by me going much slower than he probably would, because I was getting used to driving an unfamiliar car, and didn't know the road, and I tend to be somewhat cautious at the best of times. 

I did notice that when we drove back, with Arthur at the wheel, we did not return via the 309. When I looked it up in my guide book, they referred to it as "the infamous route 309"!

Coromandel Town is another small place with a heritage trail and a museum that didn't open on the day of the week we were there. There was no shortage of places to have lunch, though, and we found a nice garden to look around, and a watermill which had a museum attached, but they weren't doing tours that day. We were allowed to look around the outside of it and walk up to a viewpoint.

Watermill and museum, Coromandel Town

There was supposed to be some sort of train ride but we couldn't find it.

The recommended activity in Cooks Beach, according to our itinerary, was to visit Hot Water Beach. Hire a spade, it said, and dig yourself a hot pool. Our hosts at the Mussel Bed had spades we could borrow so we threw one in the boot. You can only do the hot pool thing at low tide, which on this particular day was at 7pm. 

The problem was that there is only a small area of the beach where the hot water rises, and with it being a summer evening the world and his dog were already there and covering pretty much all of the available space. 

The very crowded Hot Water Beach

We dug several holes which quickly filled up with cold water, and realised the only way to get the hot stuff was to dig where the sea was still coming in. Where, no sooner have you dug a tiny hole a wave comes along and destroys it. We discovered that you can experience the hot water springs simply by walking on that part of the beach, and, in fact, were it not for the waves coming in and cooling it off you'd soon burn your feet.

Arthur concluded that, if you got there early enough before most of the masses and dug ditches connecting your hot pool with the incoming seawater you could construct a pretty good hot pool, but we had neither the space nor the time to do that, so we gave up.

Went back to the Mussel Bed and made sure we returned the spade as it would have been a real pain to have to post that on from the next place.

We remembered to wish Chris a happy birthday and she brought us a piece of her birthday cake, a carrot cake with icing, very yummy.

It was busier everywhere tonight. More guests had arrived at the B and B and Eggcentric, where we decided to eat again tonight, was also much busier. Whereas before we'd been the only people there, tonight we walked in and found three tables already occupied. Two of the couples were already chatting to each other and we clocked their British accents.

We had another nice meal. One of the English couples paid up and left. Then it started to rain, to pour down in fact. We were sitting under a canopy roof and it was raining so hard that there were waterfalls coming off it.

It was at this point that the other English people started to engage us in conversation. Were we getting wet? No, we said, but at least here the rain is warm.

Typical Brits, all of us - only get talking when there's weather to discuss! It turned out that they, as well as the people who'd already left, were staying at the Mussel Bed, too. Though that wasn't so much of a coincidence since there weren't that many restaurants in town and the proprietors of the Mussel Bed recommended Eggscentric quite highly. Anyway, these people had been given a lift to the restaurant, we presume by Chris or Paul, and they were going to need to arrange their lift back. Since we all finished our meal at the same time and were going back to the same place, it made perfect sense for us to bring them in our car. We found they had a similar itinerary to us, although they were with a different travel company. Perhaps, I thought, we'll meet them again.