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.