Coromandel Town and Fletcher's Bay

We drove to the local bakery in Coromandel Town first thing today to get a loaf of bread for our breakfast. The multi-grain bread was fresh out of the oven and still a little bit warm - perfect for our scrambled egg, tomaaahhto, and onion open-faced sandwiches that we prepared in our kitchen. Here is a pic of one of my new favorite fruits, tamarillo:


After a leisurely morning, we decided to drive up to the top of the peninsula to a place called Fletcher's Bay. It's the start of a 6-hour round trip coastal hike that we would have done if the weather was better. We had heavy rain last night, with some ominous clouds out at sea this morning and a few sprinkles. This weather combo was great for beach combing and picture taking, but a little risky for a long hike, especially since the road up to Fletcher's Bay included unsealed, muddy roads and a few water crossings in the car (Dylan did that part of the drive, thank goodness!) The last stop before the unsealed road was Colville General Store where purchased a bottle of water:






This area at the top of the peninsula is wild, very green and blue, and drop-dead gorgeous. We arrived at Fletcher's Bay, an isolated, rocky beach, as far north as you can go. The storm off shore had intensified, though we had glints of sun close to shore, which made for some great photo opportunities. Dylan also found a bunch of nice shells which he presented me with:

Whakatane to Coromandel

This morning before departing from Whakatane, I had a delicious breakfast of golden kiwi and passion fruit (halved and scooped with a spoon) in Steve and Vicky's kitchen. They also sent us off with a bag of golden kiwis that we will be enjoying for the rest of our trip. This was my first time eating passion fruit and I must say that I'm quite a fan now.


Last night at the party, we made friends with Paul, the husband of one of Steve and Vicky's co-workers who has a farm about 30 minutes west of Whakatane. He insisted that we come to visit in the morning so he could show us his farm - something that was quite interesting for us since we don't get to see that kind of thing in San Diego. We drove to the farm after breakfast, and Paul gave us the grand tour including their pet pigs, the cows, sheep (and lambs), deer, sheep shearing station with an explanation of how that works, and their sheep herding dogs, along with a new and very cute little puppy who was being trained to be a herder. We also saw caves on his property that were formed and used by the Maori to store supplies close to one of their pa sites.








Afterwards we had coffee inside and chatted with Paul and his brother, John, who is his partner in the farm. They sent us off with a bag of golden kiwi and avocados. This visit was a true highlight of our trip!

For lunch we stopped in Whangamata at Craig's Takeaways for fish and chips. I had read about this restaurant in one of my guide books, and the author went absolutely bananas for the fish and chips there, saying it was the best ever. I had the snapper and kumara (sweet potato) chips, while Dylan and had the Terakihi and regular chips. Extremely delicious - best fish and chips yet in my opinion.


After all that greasiness, we needed to redeem ourselves with a visit to a fruit stand to stock up on some nutritious, locally grown goodness for the kitchen in Coromandel Town. We got passion fruit (my new favorite), persimmon, plums, tamarillos (also a new favorite), tomatoes, onions, garlic, spinach and the truly necessary staple of brussels sprouts.



After the fruit stop, we crossed through Thames and into the Coromandel Peninsula. It is paradise here! Dense hillsides of native bush and farm land dangle over the ocean, with bright blue sky, fluffy white clouds and rainbows overhead!!! Our studio apartment is in Coromandel Town, surrounded by trees, with no other houses in sight. The owner is an artist and designed the interior which has some of her artwork, a wood stove, an earthen floor and lots of other funky touches.



We found a bakery and butcher in town, so have covered all the bases with our produce stop earlier today for a nice dinner at home.

Whakatane

Yesterday we woke up in Whakatane at Steve and Vicky's house, set on a beautiful hillside above the ocean, with great views of White Island and the beach towns below.


Unfortunately our White Island tour was canceled due to winds (which make it hard to land the boat), though it was a gorgeous sunny day. We did a morning walk to Toi's Pa, a significant Maori fortification - not too far from the house, then had lunch at a cute place in town with delicious sandwiches. The downtown of Whakatane is great - we both commented that it's our favorite town we've visited so far on this trip.


In the afternoon we walked along the Whakatane river front, on a path that lead from the statue of Wairaka to several other important Maori sites, and finally the botanical gardens which included beautiful autumn foliage, roses and a Japanese garden.






Last night we attended a party! Steve and Vicky are going to be traveling for the next six months, and the staff at their office planned a farewell party at a restaurant with dinner and some excellent karaoke. We forgot the camera, so all you blog readers will have to close your eyes and imagine Dylan up there singing California Dreamin'. We loved it and felt that it was very special for us to be included. Steve and Vicky made us feel incredibly welcomed in their home, and it was great for us to meet their friends and co-workers - a terrific group of people.

Kuratau to Whakatane: Taupo, Huka Falls, Wai-O-Tapu, & Zorb

Another driving day...at least one filled with some fun stops and activities! After leaving the bach in Kuratau, we headed north around Lake Taupo to the city of Taupo. Vicky had recommended that we try the 'Replete' cafe for coffee and a light something to eat, which we did. Again, the coffee didn't disappoint. We had a little trouble finding the cafe and asked one of the store-workers on the main drag who told us it was the 'awesomest cafe ever'.

Then we moved on to Huka Falls, which is a narrow canyon that tries to squeeze a lot of water through it:



After that we stopped for quite a while at the Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal Wonderland. We had been seeing geothermal activity for the past couple of days, but this park is one of the best examples of the different kinds of pools and mineral deposits that can occur. Here is Dana standing in front of one of the craters caused by superheated water eroding the ground from the bottom:



There was a strong sulpher smell all throughout the park and in fact throughout most of the drive today - it drove me nuts!


These are called the Devil's Ink Pots:


And here are a couple of shots of the Champagne Pool, one of the more famous pools in the park:





We took the long trail, about an hour and a half.


At the end is Devil's Bath, which is green because of excess water from the Champagne Pool mixing with sulphur and ferrous salts:


After getting our fill of sulpher smells we got out of there and headed on to north of Rotorua where we hoped to try zorbing. Unfortunately the 'dry zorb' run wasn't available today because of high winds so we watched a couple of people do the 'wet zorb' and decided it wasn't quite the right time to do that, and so we pressed on.


We arrived in Whakatane around 5 and were able to find Steve and Vicky's place, where we were treated to a great meal, a lovely guest room, and wireless internet! Life is good :).

The Tongariro Crossing

Today we did the Tongariro Crossing(19km / 7 hours) , one of the NZ Great Walks, and also known to be one of the best one day hikes in the country. The track winds up the Mangatepopo Valley to the saddle between Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe. It climbs to Red Crater (altitude gain of almost 1km) and then drops down to the vivid Emerald Lakes. After passing Blue Lake, the track descends around the northern slope of Mt. Tongariro, then descends in a zig zag to the Ketetahi Hut. The last part of the track goes through the Ketetahi Hot Springs and then some very pretty forest. We woke up early to meet the 7am bus from the Turangi information center, for the 20 minute drive into Tongariro National Park to the start of the track:














This was an amazing hike - so beautiful and varied. We especially enjoyed climbing the Devil's Staircase, walking across a crater, looking into Red Crater at the top, and popping over the edge of the ridge to look down at the spectacular emerald and blue lakes.