Christmas in the Coromandels

We are all safely back home again - just for 2 days though. Just enough time to unpack, wash everything, pack it all up again, and get ready to go away again on Friday. Last Saturday we set off from Auckland at about 10, and had a very pretty drive south to the Coromandel peninsula. It took us about 3 hours to get there, including a stop for lunch somewhere along the way. Andy had gone with his brother Phillip, and his parents were in there own car, and we were still fully packed up!

The town we stayed in is called Whitianga, and is very pretty. We had a duplex unit with 3 bedrooms, right accross the road from a very sheltered beach. There was fortunately a kiddies park just down the road, as Logan needed to get out there to play fairly regularly. There was no enclosed area at Aquasoleil, so he set off at a run whenever he got the chance. There was a stunning swimming pool there with a huge top step, and he loved to play there. Also, when the tide was out, there was a long stretch of beach for him to be able to play on, but obviously he went directly for the water each time. The weather was clear, but there was a cool wind some of the time.

Cheryl had got food poisoning on the wednesday before Christmas, so she was feeling very miserable the whole time, and could not eat with us at all. She and Brent left on the Monday morning to go home again, then Andy and Philip left on tuesday, as Andy had to get back to work.

On Christmas day, after the pressie session and a good breakfast, we left Logan asleep with Brent and Cheryl, and set off to go tO Hot Water Beach - about 40 minutes drive away. We had a spade with us to dig into the sand to be able to sit in the hot water that wells up in certain areas along the beach. However, the tide was still a bit high, so we were not succesful. We did feel the hot water by digging our feet into the sand, but could not sit down without the waves still coming up and wetting us.

The whole area is so beautiful! There is very little flat ground around - it is all little hills, with a range of pretty high mountains running down the whole Coromandel peninsula. The roads are in excellent condition, but are narrow - definitely only 2 lane roads. So there is no passing at all untill there is a sign saying 'passing lane in 2 kms'. There is some clear grassy ground, with lots of cows and very few sheep, but mostly the hills and valleys are covered with trees and thousands of beautiful tree ferns. When we left this morning, we drove from Whitianga - which is 3/4 of the way up on the right hand side of the peninsula, further towards the top of the peninsula, then across to Coromandal town, and down the left hand side of the peninsula. Once we got over the mountains much of this road runs right beside the sea which is 3 meters to the one side of the road, while the cliff goes upwards 3 meters to the other side of the road. Most beautiful!!

Tomorrow I have to organise things for our New Year's weekend. There will be 4 couples going up to Russell in the Bay of Islands, right to the north of the North Island of NZ. One of the ladies suggested that each couple does a 'Come Dine with Me' each evening while we are there, so this should be quite fun. However, we will be staying in little cabins in a campsite, and will have to use the communal kitchen, so I am not sure quite how things will work! Will have to report back on our return.