Archive for October, 2008
Panoramic Photographs
October 19th, 2008
I’ve finally got round to uploading some panoramic photographs from my travels.
These now have their own gallery link at the top of the page (or by clicking HERE)
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Mount Eden
October 18th, 2008
It was a sunny weekend (in between the random showers of New Zealand!) so we decided to head up Mount Eden to have a look at the Auckland views. The last time we came up here was in our first week of New Zealand and it was raining so hard we struggled to see very far. This time we were fortunate with the views – You could clearly see the city, Rangitoto Island, and Waiheke Island.
More images available in the gallery HERE
Coromandel Peninsula – Day 3 (13/10/08)
October 13th, 2008
We woke up early from our beach-side campsite to head towards Cathedral Cove. (The cave and beach was used as the tunnel through which the Pevensie children first re-enter Narnia in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian!)
The coastal path towards the cove took about 40 minutes to walk but to hilly route was worth the effort! The views from the beach were spectacular!
Along the walk back we stopped off at Stingray Bay and Gemstone Bay.
Our last stop of the trip would get us back into a thermal pool…except this time we’d have to dig our own on the beach! Hot Water Beach has thermal springs near the surface of the sand and so at low tide you can dig your own thermal pool! If you get the mixture right you can have a pool which is topped up with sea water to keep the temperature constant! After a few floods of our pool we finally got the design right and laid back and relaxed!
More images available in the gallery HERE
Coromandel Peninsula – Day 2 (12/10/08)
October 12th, 2008
After a great night in the campervan we woke up ready for a day of activities! First stop was a short drive out of the Coromandel town to the Driving Creek Railway. The railway has been purpose designed and built over a 27 year period by Barry Brickell. It uses innovatively designed trains to ride through replanted native kauri forest and includes 2 spirals, 3 short tunnels, 5 reversing points and several large viaducts as it climbs up to the mountain-top terminus. One of the best engineering features is a double deck viaduct which allows the trains to pass each other simultaneously.
The 3km track takes you to the “Eyefull Tower” with amazing panoramic views out over the island-studded Hauraki Gulf.
After a return journey on the train, we had a quick look around the owners pottery before heading off to our next stop.
About 20 minutes drive south led us to the Waiau Waterworks – which is a place full of “whimsical wonders are worked by water”. This has various attractions which appeal to the kids (as well as the grown-up’s!!).
As well as various water powered sculptures, there are lots of “hands on” activities to play with!
And obviously with water involved, there has to be the usual water fight…except this time we got water canons!!!
After drying off from our water fight we headed a little further down the road to quickly view the Waiau Waterfalls.
After all these adventures it was mid afternoon so we got the campervan back on the road and headed over the mountains to the east coast of the peninsula. Here we gained fantastic views of both coasts before driving down the eastern coastal roads towards Hahei.
More images available in the gallery HERE
Coromandel Peninsula – Day 1 (11/10/08)
October 11th, 2008
On a long weekend we decided to take the campervan up to the Coromandel Peninsula which is about 2 hour drive to the east of Auckland.
We arrived in Thames, one of the main towns on the peninsula, about midday and headed straight to the tourist information centre. Here we met one of the most informative ladies in the world! She outlined a 3 day trip around the peninsula, detailing all the activities we could take part in along the way! So after that we headed off to the north of the town to go look around the local gold mine.
The gold mine museum is located on a previous gold mine which ’struck it rich’ in 1867. We got to tour round the site viewing all the pit machinery, including a stamper battery (which is used to extract gold from quartz). After ‘panning for gold’ we headed underground to view some of the tunnels.
We then headed further up the west coast of the peninsula before stopping for lunch at the Rapaura Watergardens. A fantastic home-cooked meal filled us up for our adventures. We took a steady drive up the coast in the afternoon, viewing the scenery as often as possible! In fact we virtually stopped around every corner the views were that good!
After a good drive around the local area we headed for the town of Coromandel for the night. We found a good campervan site right in the town’s centre so had a quick look around before retiring for the night!
More images available in the gallery HERE