Week 5 - 18th to 19th of October

Monday Oct 19th, 2009
Outside of Oponomi not very visible to the public are the Koutu Boulders. In fact when we are in the Information centre, they copied the information Rita gave us as to how to find these boulders.

Oponomi is a small village on a bay on the Tasman Sea. Directly across the bay is this most beautiful mountain of golden sand and at the time of the morning that we were there it was shimmering in the morning light.

On our way to town we saw a calf being born!

At the local grocery story we make our purchases and the grocer puts them in the cooler so we can pick them up later.

I spy a local who tied his horse out back. He had come in from the hills. At the grocery store, a posted sign states, leave muddy boots outside and they do. Interestingly enough, they leave their boots outside and shop in their sock feet.

Rita’s directions to the Koutu boulders are perfect. It was 12 when we began, with the tide going out slowly. The best time to see the boulders is at low tide at 6 pm. Of course Alan and I can’t wait. We hike in at high tide. This meant that we had to scramble through sticky thick mud, through Mangrove trees over rocks and sometimes in water. The most difficult was scrambling up and onto the grass. This grass was deep, thick and springy almost woven together. This meant you didn’t know what the ground was like under it, and it was full of holes to trip on. Part of the beach is sand and some looks like rock, but it is clay in shades of blue and brown. It squishes under your foot.

When we reach the small boulders we are amazed at how perfectly formed they are. We carry on further, until we reach the big boulders and stand in awe at how many there are and how perfectly formed they look.

Here we eat our Yummy Pleasures’ cookie that Peter and Randy sent us. The tide is going out and we get to see a different perspective of the rocks.

At the Waipoui Park we see Tane Mahuta, the largest and oldest kauri tree in New Zealand. This magnificent tree, we understand is older than 2000 years. The girth is 13.5 meters. It is truly unbelievable!

Our final stop is at the Manganui Bluff. The winds off the beach are extreme. Alan and I park and head down to the beach. At the entrance we met a Mauri family who had just finished fishing on the beach. They had caught rock cod (catfish) for dinner. They showed us the fish and then, they tried to give them to us, but I already knew we wouldn’t enjoy them and declined. Well, they were so friendly with us and said they would leave us a big bag of spinach hanging on their mail box to pick up once we were done on the beach. We thanked them and headed down onto the beach.

We found many of these strange creatures and don’t know what they are. I thought they might be cuttlefish babies.

On our way back we found a bag of spinach on the mailbox. We waved and went on our way. We enjoyed a stir fry with spinach for dinner and have enough for tomorrow.

Sunday Oct 18th, 2009
We are leaving Keriekeri. What a lovely spot. We are heading for the Kauri Coast, on the west coast of the far north.

The Sunday local farmers market is our first stop. We purchase tomatoes, carrots, Tambrillo fruit paste (like jam), a cherimoya (a type of custard apple – has the flavor of pineapple and banana) , and a butter crunch lettuce. Across the road is the Arts and Crafts market.

At Rawene we catch the Hokianga Ferry. There is a great spit of sand that separates this area from the Tasman sea, so this is the only way down the coast. The water was quite choppy spaying the cars with sea water.

South of Rawene are the Wairere Boulders. It is quite a drive down a narrow road, almost a track to get there. We picnic on shrimp sandwiches before beginning the hike into the boulders. The owner, Felix, of the property met us on the trail. He and his wife, Rita, have lived on this property for 26 years. They only opened the boulders up to the public five years. They lived for many years on the property without knowing about them, as they were in dense bush. A loose goat caused them to see what they had in the deep ravine.

The fluted basalt boulders, are amazing, some the size of small houses, all helter-skelter around a small stream that the trail follows. The trail is comprised of steps, narrow bridges, cave walks and forest hikes as it traverses both sides of the stream. This two hour hike was awe inspiring, especially as we try to imagine how these boulders came to be.
Scientists speculate that this was once a volcanic plateau. It was through a combination of the kauri tree leaves on the plateau and rain causing acid erosion to create groves in the basalt. As the clay base eroded under the basalt plateau, it collapsed sending huge boulders to the stream bed below exposing their impressive flutes.

Rita fills us in on other local details such as the boulders at Kohtu (tomorrow’s adventure) and about Cannibal Jack. Jack was an Irish man who became a cannibal. He was feared by many even in death. The story goes when they buried him, there was a strong rain and he came out of the ground. When they reburied him, they placed him face down so that he could not get up again. Even today they are afraid to touch the soil in the area for fear they unearth him.
The road through the forest is 24 kms of twists and turns. We pass the spot where the great Tane Mahuta stands and will return tomorrow to see this wondrous Kauri tree.

Week 4 - 14 Oct

Had a great day today going up to Cape Reigna. This is the top of New Zealand... the farthest north you can go.

The bus took us on a drive up 90 mile beach, in the water. He drove 90 to 100 kms most of the way. It is a very remote beach. They have an interesting policy here in NZ. You cannot drive rental cars or campervans on beaches. I think it is their way of keeping this beach so perfect. We dug and ate raw clams on the beach. The waves looked so slight but were over knee deep. I was soaked...but had a blast. Missed the wild horses along the beach...oh well it was such a large tract of land.

The kauri trees were amazing. It is hard to believe they are digging Kauri trees, stumps and branches from the bogs that are 4000 years old and turning it into furnature.

Very expensive furnature. We later walked down to the cape lighthouse. The driver was great filling us in with lots of Mauri stories, folklore and history. We ended up on a much longer trip as he was having such a great time himself.

Some family news... Congratulations Lisa and Peter with the new addition to the family... Hunter, a greyhound!

Week 3 - 6 Oct - Smoked Mussels

We walked to the down town of Coromandel for coffee today and had the best "flat white" ever. Alan also enjoyed a caramel, ginger, coconut crumble square, which was terrific.

Mussels and Oysters are farmed locally on the coast. We picked up garlic smoked mussels for lunch...but ended up having them with dinner. They were so good, we are going to pick up more tomorrow with perhaps a bit of smoked fish. Alan made us scrambled eggs with gluten free ham and sheep cheese - delicious. We have enjoyed the citrus that is ripe on the trees. Here at The Loft there are lemons, tangellos and grapefruit available.

Spent the afternoon at Driving Creek Railway. This railway took us up into the hills with switch backs, zigzags and three tunnels. It was tortuous narrow gage railway track over ravines with high double deck viaduct (bridge) The area is renouned for its unusual pottery. The pottery is made from the clay banks in the area. The railway was originally built to bring clay down off the hills. Over the years the banks have been shored up with bottles and clay.

Had a chat with Annette and Tim, the owners of The Loft, where we are staying. Annette took me off to see the most amazing doll studio and jewelery shop. Lorraine Abernethy is an exquisite fiber artist. Her latest doll, Strelitzia Fuoco, is featured in Patti Culea's latest book- 'Creative Cloth Doll Beading'. I have never seen such intricate artistic dolls,truly inspring.

Tim also directed us to a very scenic walk. We drove down highway 309, a very narrow, but scenic gravel highway that connects the west coast to the east coast on the Coromandel Penninsula. It was very narrow with lots of truck on it. We also found loose cattle around one of the bends. We went to the Walau Falls. The bottom of the falls is a swimming hole in warmer weather. This is a very pretty spot set in an all natural forest. Many of the forests are replanted with Pine trees as the natural trees were clear-cut.

Next, we stopped at the Kauri Grove. It was 8 km from the beginning of the road. My first chance to breath, as it was even more windy than the coastal road. Here we hiked in to see 13 massive Kauri trees. There are few left on the island as they were exported to other countries between 1880 and 1930 they were logged from this coast. These are long lived trees with the oldes tree in the grove being 600 years old and 1.9 m in diameter. They are quite tall with the first branch beginning at 16 m. The biggest Kauri ever measured had a girth of 20 m.