The Coromandel

Last weekend I decided to use my Coromandel ferry voucher. The weather was supposed to be pretty good on Saturday, but horrendous gales and torrential rain on Sunday. I bet you can't guess which day I picked to travel! I caught the ferry at around 9am, and it arrived at the Coromandel at around 11am. There was a free bus that picked us up and took us on the 10 minute bus ride to Coromandel town. There was also the option of free transport to your accommodation if you were staying overnight. 

The town itself is absolutely tiny, and made up of predominantly bars, coffee shops, and takeaways. There were also a few gift shops, and bait and tackle shops for the fishermen. The town itself was absolutely packed, everyone was very kind though and stood behind me so I could get a clean picture of the main street.

I knew that the weather was supposed to be best in the morning, so I decided to go for a walk and then look around the town on the way back. I didn't have long as the ferry was picking us up at 4pm, so I planned a shortish walk to the end of a peninsula and back. As I left the township I turned around a took a picture of some of the local scenery. I wished that I'd had time to climb some of the mountains! I also got a good shot of the local wharf with a few boats tied up.

The route along the peninsula was quite hilly, but very scenic. The houses along the way were very quaint. I think a lot of them were probably holiday homes, but I could see a few that were obviously lived in all year round. From the tops of some of the hills there was an excellent view of some of the surrounding small islands. I would build my holiday home on one of those I think, you'd definitely have peace and quiet!

The peninsula walk took me down to a bay called Wyuna Bay. The wind had started to pick up by this point, so I was quite glad to find a bit of shelter. I decided to stop and eat my lunch (homemade sushi) in the bay, and recover from the hills. Although the bay was pebbly and probably not the best for swimming, the surrounding scenery was great. The best thing about it? NO SEAGULLS! I managed to get through my entire lunch without being pestered - brilliant :)

After lunch, I packed up my things and headed back along the road. I found a short forest walk, with a lookout halfway along, which took me a scenic route back towards the town. The area used to be a gold mine, but it had long gone. The locals had been planting Pohutakawa trees (native to New Zealand) to try and rejuvenate the area, and had put a short track through the subsequent forest. Just after I had reached the lookout point the rain began. At first I was fairly angry as I had wanted to make it back to town before the showers, but after I had found some trees to shelter under I noticed a beautiful rainbow in one of the valleys. I  wish there really was there was a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, as I would have certainly been the first one there!

After the shower had passed, I continued on down the hill back to the township. I had a look around the gift shops and bought a pair of earrings and a necklace, I also bought a bottle of wine, and then popped into the local bakery and purchased a blackberry and apple crumble pie and a plain apple crumble pie. I was considering eating them immediately, but decided it was best to wait and have them with a 'dash' (i.e. a pint) of custard. I was feeling peckish though, so went into one of the local takeaways. I bought some 'kumara' (the Maori word for sweet potato) chips which came with a huge dollop of sour cream. The slightly sweet and hot kumara chips went very well with the cooling sour cream. I think I still prefer normal chips, but would definitely buy kumara chips again. Of course, while I was eating I had a feathered audience, but they seemed pretty timid so I didn't have to watch my food too closely.

After my chips I climbed aboard the bus and we were driven back to the ferry. Once I had boarded the ferry I took some last minute pictures of Te Kouma Harbour and the local wharf. I was disappointed to only have a few hours in the Coromandel (the ferry picked us up at 4pm), but have already purchased another discounted ticket which is valid until the beginning of October. I'm hoping the weather will be slightly warmer and I can find time to stay for an entire weekend as opposed to a few hours. 

Once we arrived back in Auckland I made my way to the supermarket to buy some custard. The very first thing I did when I got in was warm up the blackberry and apple crumble pie and smother it in custard. It was absolutely delicious, and so was the apple crumble pie on the following day. I can't wait for my next visit! I'm not exactly sure where my next adventure will be, but I'll make sure to keep everyone updated via the blog. 

Coast to Coast Walk

On Thursday I was supposed to be testing my newly designed electrodes, but they never arrived in time, so I decided to join my cousin and her friend Melissa on the Coast to Coast walk. The route runs from Manukau Harbour on the west, over to Auckland city on the east. We started out at about 12pm and caught a bus over to Onehunga on the west coast to begin our walk. It was a lovely sunny day, and the views across Manukau Harbour were spectacular.

We started our adventure in suburbia, walking through the streets of Onehunga. The houses were lovely, and it was so peaceful. There were plenty of houses with fruit trees in the garden, and we managed to locate one with a giant tree overhanging the path. Needless to say we had to pick a piece of fruit and give it a try! There was a bit of a debate over what it was, but after we'd all had a taste, we came to the conclusion that it was grapefruit.

After walking through Onehunga we proceeded to One Tree Hill. It is so called because when Auckland was founded, there was one tree near the summit. This tree was cut down soon after but another was planted, and there have been plenty of instances of trees being planted and then chopped down over the years. At the moment there is just an obelisk at the summit, but there are plans to plant a new tree. Apparently there is some debate over what species should be planted, and that is why nothing has been done as yet.

It was a struggle climbing the huge hill, but the views were well worth it. You could see the Sky Tower, Rangitoto Island, and got a brilliant view across the Manukau Harbour. We ate our lunch on top of the Hill, and had a much-needed rest.

After the dizzy heights of One Tree Hill, we walked across town to Mount Eden. It was another huge hill to scale, but after stuffing our faces with sushi on the top of One Tree Hill, we were prepared for the challenge. It was a lot steeper than One Tree Hill, but as we took a very direct route (up a mud path on the side of the hill), it was a lot quicker to climb. Once at the top, we were able to look down into the huge crater, and also across the whole of Auckland. You could see the Harbour Bridge, Sky Tower, Rangitoto Island, and I also managed to get a great pic of Juan stood on top of Mount Eden with Manukau Harbour in the background.

The walk took pretty much the entire day, and I arrived back home at about 1830. It was a lovely day, but positively exhausting. I'm travelling to the Coromandel on Saturday, so expecting another test for the legs and feet!

Boat Trip

Last weekend while I had been on my Coastguard shift, I'd been chatting to one of the guys about my desire to go out on a boat and try my hand at fishing. I got an e-mail from him on Thursday saying he'd checked the weather for tomorrow and it was looking good for a boat trip. Hannah and I got up early on Friday and she baked some scones while I went to the supermarket and purchased some jam and cream to drown them in. 

We got picked up at about midday and headed to the boat ramp. The boat is kept in the local boat park (Orams Boat Ramp), which is kind of similar to a multi storey car park for boats. Hannah was in awe of it as she had never seen anything quite like it. I guess I hadn't until I came to Auckland!

You just call the people at the boat ramp about 1 hour before you want to leave and they get the boat down for you and put it in the water. We boarded 'Triple Play' and made our way towards Rangitoto Island. It was a little rough on the water due to some easterly winds, but once we had made our way to Mckenzie bay, it was much more sheltered.

Triple Play was a pretty luxurious boat. It had a cabin with small kitchen, flushing toilet, and enough room to sleep 4-5 people. On top there was a little table and some seats for us to picnic on. There was also motorised dinghy at the back for emergencies. 

After managing to safely anchor (it took a few attempts as the sea floor was quite rocky), we cracked open the wine and brought out the scones. It was lovely to sit in the sun drinking wine, eating cream teas and enjoying the scenery.

Once we had eaten our fill it was getting quite late, and it was obvious there would not be much fishing time. The weather was also closing in and the wind was getting up. We decided to drop the line in the water with some squid on for 15 mins just to say we had done some fishing. Unfortunately we didn't catch anything, but after the scones we were pretty full anyway. On the way back to Auckland Hannah got to do some driving and managed to do an excellent job of avoiding all the crazy yacht people out on the water that evening. 

We arrived back at the boat ramp and both Hannah and I did our crew duties by grabbing the ropes on the marina and tying the boat up tightly..... at least I hope we did, or it won't be there any more! Once back in the apartment we defrosted some fish (since we didn't catch any) and made a delicious curry. We then watched some TV, ate some cake, and went to bed.

A Few Randoms

So, since my cousin (Hannah) has been here, we have done so much that I've found it quite difficult to scrape enough time together to post on the blog. I have therefore decided to do a little mish-mash of the stories from the past couple of weeks. As you read on, you will come to see that there is a theme to this post.... FOOD!

The first couple of days involved ice-cream and Mexican food. Early on in Hannah's stay we walked up the hill to Parnell to get my watch fixed. While we were waiting we decided to pop into a gelato shop and grab an ice-cream each. It took an age to decide since there were so many yummy flavours - snickers, hokey-pokey (similar to crunchie ice-cream with honeycomb), butterscotch. We each opted for a sundae with hot caramel sauce. whipped cream and crushed nuts on top. I chose a scoop of mars ice-cream, one of coconut, and one of chocolate sorbet. It was PHENOMENAL!! The chocolate sorbet was my fave, so rich and chocolately, and when drenched in hot caramel sauce...... I'm wiping drool from the corners of my mouth right now!

A few days later (I think it was actually the evening after) and we decided to go out for some food at a local Mexican restaurant. It was located right by the ferry terminal so we had a lovely view of the harbour while we ate. I opted for a burrito with grilled chicken, rice, beans, hot salsa, guacamole and loads of jalapeño peppers, and Hannah chose nachos with marinaded steak on the top. Both were lovely, and we sat outside and had a good gossip (predominantly about food I think).

Last weekend one of my friends from the Coastguard kindly offered to take us North of Auckland, over to the west coast to a few of the towns, back across to the east coast, and then home to Auckland. We first popped to a place called Kaipara which has a huge harbour, apparently it's the fourth biggest in the world. It's also a place the Coastguard get a lot of calls from as it is a dangerous crossing to get from the harbour to the sea.

On our way to a place called Helensville we made a few stops. We passed several farms selling some interesting fruits, so pulled in and purchased some 'nashi' and 'tamarillos'. Nashi are kind of a cross between an apple and a pear, they are shaped like an apple and look like an apple on the inside, but have the texture and taste of a pear. Tamarillos look a bit like a plum on the outside, a passion fruit on the inside, and taste quite bitter. They're ok with a bit of sugar on the top though.

We also made visits to 'Macnuts' and 'The Honey Centre'. Macnuts is a place in the countryside that produces macadamia nuts and then delivers them to retailers all over New Zealand. They also have a little coffee shop where you can buy some of their products including hand cream and a variety of cakes. I bought a bag of dark chocolate covered macadamia nuts and they are LOVELY. I would definitely buy again!

The Honey Centre was more popular than Macnuts, and there were quite a tourists inside. The first thing that greeted everyone was a little table with about 15 pots of honey and some tasting sticks. Needless to say I spent quite a lot of time tasting each one very carefully. At the back of the shop there was a wall of bees.... Yes you read it right.... a WALL OF BEES making the honey. Hannah and I managed to locate the queen with a little help from the shop assistant. I purchased some Pohutukawa (a NZ tree that has lots of red flowers on it at Christmas) honey and considered getting some honeycomb too. o

After the excitement of the Honey Centre, we went on to a little place called Warkworth which reminded me of a sleepy British seaside resort that would come alive during the summer. It was really quiet when we went though so the queues were pretty small. I bought a chicken, spinach and feta pie and then followed it with a rhubarb slice and pot of tea. 

We then travelled to Mahurangi (a place I have been to before) and then on to a small township called Puhoi. Puhoi has a great cheese shop and Hannah and I spent a phenomenal amount of time tasting all the cheeses (in all fairness we did actually buy some) and then moved over to the ice-cream counter and did some more tasting. We bought Puhoi triple cream brie, Puhoi goats cheese and some Puhoi cheddar. I also had a berry fruits (yes I did choose it purely because of the name) sorbet ice-cream cone.

We arrived back in Auckland at about 5.30pm, pretty exhausted, but ready to eat more cheese. Hannah put together a delicious cheeseboard while I went to the supermarket and bought some crackers and pickles to add to our collection. We then stuffed our faces while watching tv and then went to bed. A fantastic day :)

Tiritiri Matangi

I had been waiting ever since first arrived here to visit a little island called Tiritiri Matangi. It's a dedicated bird sanctuary, and many native New Zealand birds that faced extinction have been bred and released on to the island. As my cousin is currently visiting I thought it would be nice to get a couple of Groupon vouchers and make the ferry journey out to the island for the day. Sunday was a glorious day, not a cloud in the sky. It was a little chilly (since it's winter), but still got up to around 14 degrees. We packed an epic lunch of ham and egg rolls, cheesy Doritos, some chocolate bars, a couple of bananas and a packet of ginger nuts, and walked down to the ferry terminal. We picked up our tickets and climbed on the ferry. The journey took around an hour and a half, and we made one stop at Gulf Harbour Marina to pick up some more passengers. Once we arrived we got a quick talk from one of island guides about the rules and were then free to roam.

We decided that the best thing to do first would be to make a plan, as we didn't have long to see the island (the ferry left at 3.30pm). We headed up to the Visitor Centre to get our complimentary cup of tea and broke into the ginger nuts. As soon as we did, the birds laid siege to our table, but in a nice change they were sparrows instead of seagulls. They were still pretty brazen though and came very close to us.

After finishing our all important refreshment break (we hadn't actually done anything yet) and receiving advice from one of the guides, we made our way towards the track. We passed the island's lighthouse and some Takahe birds. These are roughly the same size as a large rooster, and very inquisitive (we were under strict instructions not to feed them). Apparently the first two of these birds were released in 1991, and now there are a total of 10 on the island. They are considered a protected endangered endemic species, so I feel very lucky to have seen them. We also saw a feeding station they had set up for the Tui birds which have a very interesting call.

We then took a walk over some of the islands tracks (there are many depending on which birds you would like to see). Firstly we went to the highest point on the island to see the panoramic view, and then moved down the hill to Fisherman's Bay. The bay itself was beautiful and had a fantastic archway formed by the rocks below being washed away.

After Fisherman's Bay we walked further along the path to Pohutukawa Cove. The whole time we had been walking along the coastal path we had been followed by several small birds called Fantails. These birds are about the same size as a sparrow, move extremely quickly, and their flight is similar to that of a Swallow. They would get so close we were afraid that we might stand on them. Initially we thought that they were following us because they liked us (we even named them Trevor), but apparently they follow humans because as we walk we disturb the insects in the grass and they get a good feeding. We were thoroughly disappointed when we found this out! Once at Pohutukawa Cove, we took a few photos and made a plan of where to dig into our feast.

We found a lovely little quiet beach called Hobbs Beach to eat our lunch. It ate pretty much everything in the bag and decided we had to wait before we could move again. We were considerably slower once we had eaten, but managed to find our way back on to the path.

On our way along the path we found a couple of nesting boxes, where you could lift the lid and have a look inside. In one there was a egg inside, and the other had a Little Blue Penguin inside. We weren't sure at first whether it was a stuffed one to illustrate what they looked like...... but then it moved a little bit! We couldn't really get any photos as the sun was reflecting off the perspex cover, but I found a picture online to show what the Little Blue Penguin looks like. 

After looking at the Little Blue Penguin (the first wild penguin I have ever seen), we went back up to the Visitors Centre for another cup of tea and some more ginger nuts before our walk back to the ferry. I loved basking in the sunshine while listening to the birds, and drinking tea and eating biscuits. I think it has made me realise how much I miss having a garden, and opening my window to either silence or the sound of birds. 

After polishing off the last of the ginger nuts we walked down to the ferry for the journey home. We made sure we got a seat inside, as from previous experiences, I knew the ride home would be freezing!

Once we got back, we both slumped on the sofa and then stayed there for the rest of the evening. We were both shattered, so just had some pizza and ice cream for dinner, and then an early night.