The finale

Warning: some of the content below is not suitable for small children.

This café rather summed up our mood on the last full day of our adventure.  Bugger, it's finally come to an end.  We had to smile though and that is the whole idea of the café.  Indeed it looks to be expanding to a franchise and they have their own website (for those who really do have the time on their hands to look it up)  www.buggercafe.co.nz. The idea was conceived of by John and Glenda Gourley who noticed that all the bars and cafés between Auckland and Tauranga are named after coloured animals eg. The Pink Pig, the Red Fox etc.  When asked what he would call a café if he owned one, apparently John replied "bugger me, I don't know" and it went from there.

So after a night in a beautifully appointed chalet looking out over the Firth of Thames we consoled ourselves with a latte and slice of apricot cake.

 

24 hours later we are sitting in Changi airport once again for the final leg home.  Thank you to Jo, John and the Barker boys for their hospitality last night and for getting us to the airport for our flight to Singapore.  Mixed emotions abound - we've had an absolutely fantastic time/what state will the kitchen be in when we get home?!

 





 

Blue skies, no wind = rather limp flag

 



Bye, bye New Zealand

 

 



Coromandel Peninsula

Just when we thought we had seen the last of the NZ summer weather with the ex tropical storm at the bach at Pukehina we seem to have hit on an Indian summer with blue skies and 25 deg C+ temperatures.  So rather than spend too much time in the car we have scouted out more great beaches. From Pukehina we headed north to the Coromandel Peninsula, a well know holiday area in NZ. On Chris's advice we decided to base ourselves in Whitianga for a couple of nights and hit on this rather nice apartment on the sea front.

 

 

 

Manana, manana probably equates roughly to "no worries" in Australasian speak and that's how we felt about this place.  The owners live in the rooms above with a super view over Mercury Bay, the guests below, in two well appointed apartments a stone's throw from the beach.

What a fascinating beach, long straight waves a couple of feet high so good for jumping in and just about enough for beginners to learn to surf in and the beach made up of sand and lots of shells.

The day after our arrival we went to explore the beaches across the bay via the foot ferry.

So as not to make it too easy, instead of walking along the road to the beach (5 minutes) we tramped along the Maramatotara track up and over the hill (40 minutes) and worked up quite a sweat which made the approach to the Flaxmill Bay beach all the more worthwhile.

After a very lazy day on the beach doing beach things we did take the quick route back to the ferry and came across the perfect retirement job for Denise - librarian of this little library which must contain all of a couple of hundred books.  Tidy up the shelves for 20 minutes and shoot the breeze with the borrowers (max 4 per day judging by how many of the adjacent properties look like holiday lets) then spend the rest of day on the beach, returning to lock up after the last ferry has left!

Today we drove towards the northern coast of the peninsula and at one point stopped at a scenic lookout atop the Coromandel Ranges.  As there were lots of other tourists there we branched off onto what looked like a well worn track into the bush anticipating a good viewpoint.  After 30 minutes we reached this signpost and decided to see if we could reach the trig point.  However Colin was only wearing flip flops (sorry locals, jandals) and after another 10 minutes of slipping and sliding on mossy rock and vegetation we thought we'd better draw stumps.

 

A pity, as given a good pair of walking boots we would have zoomed to the top and been rewarded with this view over Coromandel Town that we then saw from a lay-by further down the road.



Arriving in Coromandel Town out of synch with the famed train times to the pottery we just had coffee and cake and headed on to Thames.

Here we only just made it with 20 minutes to spare before closing time at the Thames School of Mines Mineralogical museum.  Nikki had spotted this in the Lonely Planet guide some weeks ago and was keen to see what it was all about.  It didn't disappoint, even with only 20 minutes to take it in.  A fascinating collection of rocks and minerals from NZ and all over the world, including a tray of granites etc from the Camborne School of Mines with accompanying map of the Lizard and Land's End peninsula where we used to live.

Whilst Nikki was indulging her interest in small local museums, Colin went in hunt of accommodation in Thames for the night and decided we would be better off at the motel he had spied as we entered the town.  Good choice, especially when he achieved a discount by helping the owner sort out his internet access problem (it wasn't his problem it was the providers'). This chalet overlooked the Firth of Thames and once again we thought it was a shame we weren't staying longer.

F1 2014 - First weekend

We hunkered down for tropical storm Lusi, well let's not be dramatic, it was downgraded to a depression as it reached NZ.  But it was still quite wild from where we were standing.

 

In fact where we were sitting, as that's what we spent most of Saturday doing, watching the waves and rain, along with reading and eating. Poor Colin would not have minded a weekend in if he had been able to watch the Australian Grand Prix - the first of the 2014 season.  But the Kiwis don't follow F1 so it doesn't appear on any terrestrial TV channel.  Colin then discovered that he could "hack" into someone's local Wi-fi signal and accessed Radio 5 Live.  So he managed to listen to the practice sessions on Saturday but frustratingly the signal kept dropping out on Sunday for the race itself.  He heard the start of the race but when Lewis dropped out Colin gave up.

 

Sunday was much quieter, the wind had dropped and the rain stopped so we went for a walk on the beach.

Admired the local geology and natural history and drift wood.

This poor seal looked very lethargic and lonesome, like he'd been battered by the storm and was just resting up.  Sadly we also came across 3 dead little blue penguins.

After all the strong winds and bad weather we were quite surprised to get a power cut Sunday evening so dug out the candles.  It was quite a fitting end to a great weekend by the beach, capped by a full moon rising over the sea.  Our poor picture will (we hope) prompt Chris to send us one of his professional shots.  We spent a while out on the deck under the stars and moon before retiring with torches for an early night.

The view this morning couldn't have been more different - brilliant sunshine, no wind and a friendly looking sea. We were quite sad to leave Pukehina after a great final weekend, but the Coromandel Peninsula beckons for our last few days.

Tropical Storm Lusi

Well it's Saturday morning and we are still here having survived the onset of tropical storm Lusi. Here being a friend of a friend's bach (holiday home) on the beach at Pukehina.  When we say 'on the beach' we mean it. There is about 50m between us and the sea.

Having spent most of the day meandering through the Waioeka Gorge (mediocre compared with some of the scenery we've seen but still impressive) we unloaded and a swim was beckoning.  The waves were getting a bit rough but a quick paddle and risk assessment determined that there wasn't a very strong undertow so we leapt in.

 



 

 

 

Some in a more controlled manner than others!  The excellent photos, by the way, are courtesy of Chris Sutton - the friend, whose friend Christine owns the bach and has kindly let us use it this weekend. Well you did see a BBQ in an earlier picture, and right on cue as we were drying off a neighbour leaned over the fence and offered us a fish he'd caught this afternoon.  An 18" sea trout.

 

 

 

Cupboards were scoured for suitable ingredients to stuff the beast and newspaper sourced to wrap it and put it on said BBQ.

 





 

As you can imagine the result was just perfect, never tasted fish quite so fresh. Accompanied by one of our vineyard purchases, it was the perfect end to the day.

But what about the tropical storm?  We watched the evening weather forecast intently but all was quiet overnight.  As we go to 'print' the sea is getting rougher and the rain is coming in - so we'll see you again sometime after Tropical Storm Lusi has blown through.

Lieutenant J Cook RN & logs

We left Hastings yesterday and headed north to cover the 200km to our next destination of Gisborne. We didn't get very far though before Colin needed caffeine so stopped in Napier.  He settled down in a Starbucks whilst Nikki had a swift walk round to admire some of the art deco buildings for which Napier is renowned.  Bright eyed and bushy tailed we set off again for a winding drive through some interesting sandstone landscapes.

 

After 2 hours we needed more caffeine so stopped at a remote but busy café which had this attractive sheep sculpture.

 

Also a camper van with a message.

 





 

Throughout our travels we have noticed the devastating effects of logging on the countryside.

 

 

Plus the huge tracts of newly planted hillsides keeping up with the industry.

 

When we got to Gisborne we realised the scale of this industry.  This mural depicts it in its early days but at the start of today's walk exploring Gisborne we became aware of the importance of logs to the area.

 

We were passed by a constant stream of these huge lorries with trailers piled high with logs trundling along the waters edge.

 

All became clear when we reached the summit of Kaiti hill and looked down on a vast area of stacked logs waiting to be shipped out. We think they were waiting to be shipped out.  Lorries were coming and going piled high and empty and it did look like they were unloading at one end of the yard and being loaded up again at the other.  But I guess someone knew where they were all destined for.

 

 

The other thing that Gisborne is important for is the fact that this is where a certain Lt. J. Cook RN first set foot on NZ in 1769.  It's hard to miss this fact in the town there are so many monuments, plaques and statues.  Here follow a few:

 



 

It's a shame he fell out with the local Maori natives and set sail again without replenishing provisions and exploring the area as it is a lovely place. Of course being on the coast we had to find a beach.  In fact we treated ourselves to 2 today.  This one, Kaiti beach, south east of the town with Nikki swimming with the cliffs of Young Nick's Head in the background (Young Nick was the cabin boy on the Endeavour who first spotted land).

 

 

Then we walked round to the main town beach of Waikanae which has a reputation for being a good beach to learn to surf on.  By the time we left at 1700 it was packed with children on boards of all shapes and sizes. Once again, if we were here for longer....

 



 

Gisborne proudly claims to be the first city on Earth to see the sun, we saw lots of it today and rate the city towards the top end of the inhabited parts of NZ we've seen so far.