13th -18th December
Sorry for delay in posting....Xmas and New Year got in the Way!! Hapy New Year Everyone! Oh by the way we are trying to add pictures! The first one should be Rowena on the Trampaline.
Lucy Says.........
Lucy’s turn at last..!!
Greg has waked into Coromandel town to use the phone, so I thought that as he has gone I could se the computer. Easy, I thought, just turn it on and away we go. Oh no it’s not. Anyway 15 mins later I am able to type something.
We left Auckland on 9th Dec and drove south (with me driving as Greg has hurt his back when he was out fishing with Alistair in the Bay of Islands) a round a bit and then up to Thames on the bottom of the Coromandel peninsular. Thames is a funny old town it once had 79 bars and hotels in the height of the gold rush but now just has a very long high street with not so many bars, much to Greg’s disgust! Stocked up on provisions at the wonderful Pak’n’Save, a bit like the old Kwik Save for those of you who remember it!
We stayed on a site which had a butterfly garden attached and a swimming pool but poured with rain so we didn’t use either.
Some of the motor camps are really well equipped with a fully equipped kitchen with microwaves and ovens others might only have a couple of rings. They all have cabins either with a kitchen or not, so with just a car you could travel around nicely staying in them. At the moment they are all pretty well empty, sometimes we are only 1 of 2-3 vans staying at them, but we have been told that just after Christmas to mid January they will be full up particularly around the coast.
Alistair & Rowena are fast becoming very competent trampoline jumpers as the camps almost all have trampolines in the play areas, they can both do forward flips and a variety of sitting to standing jumps. We had a go yesterday…..need practice…!! (and perhaps a new pelvic floor!)
While in Coromandel town we visited the Smokery and purchased a lump of smoked Kingfish (looks bit like a tuna with a spike on its nose) we had it for lunch the following day beside a water hole at a quirky water park which was full of models that were powered by water.
We also had been advised by a French Canadian family, who are cycling around NZ, Vietnam and then to Europe (hats off to you) (3 boys 8, 11&15) when they had never been further than the town to do their shopping before on there bikes!!!! To go to the gold mine battery, as it was a good home schooling opportunity, unfortunately the mine closed early and we couldn’t go, however the lady there lent us the panning pans to try our luck in the creek. Needless to say we didn’t find any gold (not sure what we were looking for really, we could have chucked loads down the river!!)
Moving on from Coromandel we headed over them their hills to the east coast and some stunning coastal scenery. Here there is a wonderful red flowered tree called Pohutakawa or NZ Christmas Tree as it flowers at---you’ve guessed it- Christmas!!! It grows on the coast and is a lovely contrast to the deep blue of the sea and the white sand. I might post a photo later. We stopped at HaHei , on the coast and the following morning, at the crack of dawn got up and headed over to Hot Water Beach.
HWB is a unique place, at low tide very hot water bubbles up through the sand and if you stand in the shallows the sea is very warm and in places you cannot stand on the sand. Everyone, including us, dug our selves a hole, or in our case several holes until the hot water peculated up through the sand and started to fill up the pool and then we sat in it until the tide turned and filled it in again.
When we tired of that little game we walked over to Cathedral Cove where Greg, Alistair and Rowena when snorkelling, I held the towel! Again a lovely beach with a huge arch way worn by the sea on a lovely white sandy beach.
When we bought the camper it was suggested that we join the motor caravan association as they gave you discounts and a directory of POPs (Park over properties) which are people who have space on their property to park a van sometimes with facilities, who like to have people to stay.
We got to Whatamata and I persuaded Greg (who was not keen) to try a POP. I looked in the book and rang Glyn & Jennie Thomas who were very welcoming and we turned up at their house to give this POP malarkey a go! We sent a very pleasant night in their garden! It felt a bit strange at first but lovely surroundings, Jennies garden was very colourful and Glyn gave us a tour of his space under the garage which was enormous, you could have lived under there. In the garden there was a large shed with a shower, power and sink. We had a very relaxing night ad left the next morning with a bag of home grown grapefruit and small plums. Thank you both very much for your hospitality.
We spent the evening at the rugby club at Whatamata were we went as Greg had seen that the Cheifs(a rugby team I think!) were going to be there. They were and Alistair was introduced to All Blacks player Keith Robinson(Robo) we stayed for a charity Auction which was good fun. Good fund raiser possibly for PTA?
We are now in Rotorua and my hot pool is beckoning so I shall sign off.
Back again- weeks later, I am being nagged because I haven’t published the blog! So I had better get up to date!
The hot pool at the campsite in Rotorua wasn’t very nice, it was like a small swimming pool which you filled yourselves and sat in, didn’t feel very hygienic and there were notices everywhere warning you not to put your head under the water or you run the risk of Amoebic Meningitis!
We decided to go the geothermal site at Waiotapu which is south of Rotorua. It is a huge area with geysers, bubbling mud pools and pools of steaming sulphur smelling water which comes out of the ground at temperatures of around 100 degrees C. There is a geyser that they set off at 10.15 am each day by adding soap powder which alters the surface tension of the cool water below the surface and allow steam and hot water to erupt from the chamber below. It was really spectacular to watch, it shot up to 20m high.
After getting our hydrogen sulphide fix we moved down the road to a campsite with a thermal swimming pool attached.
What a wonderful place we had access to these 3 pools of varying temps until 9pm and then from 5am if we wished. The pools varied in temp from very hot, can only sit in it for a while, to a swimming pool temp in which you didn’t get cold if you just sat around chatting!!
From there we moved on down to rainy Taupo to settle ourselves for Alistair’s impending birthday!
Lucy Says.........
Lucy’s turn at last..!!
Greg has waked into Coromandel town to use the phone, so I thought that as he has gone I could se the computer. Easy, I thought, just turn it on and away we go. Oh no it’s not. Anyway 15 mins later I am able to type something.
We left Auckland on 9th Dec and drove south (with me driving as Greg has hurt his back when he was out fishing with Alistair in the Bay of Islands) a round a bit and then up to Thames on the bottom of the Coromandel peninsular. Thames is a funny old town it once had 79 bars and hotels in the height of the gold rush but now just has a very long high street with not so many bars, much to Greg’s disgust! Stocked up on provisions at the wonderful Pak’n’Save, a bit like the old Kwik Save for those of you who remember it!
We stayed on a site which had a butterfly garden attached and a swimming pool but poured with rain so we didn’t use either.
Some of the motor camps are really well equipped with a fully equipped kitchen with microwaves and ovens others might only have a couple of rings. They all have cabins either with a kitchen or not, so with just a car you could travel around nicely staying in them. At the moment they are all pretty well empty, sometimes we are only 1 of 2-3 vans staying at them, but we have been told that just after Christmas to mid January they will be full up particularly around the coast.
Alistair & Rowena are fast becoming very competent trampoline jumpers as the camps almost all have trampolines in the play areas, they can both do forward flips and a variety of sitting to standing jumps. We had a go yesterday…..need practice…!! (and perhaps a new pelvic floor!)
While in Coromandel town we visited the Smokery and purchased a lump of smoked Kingfish (looks bit like a tuna with a spike on its nose) we had it for lunch the following day beside a water hole at a quirky water park which was full of models that were powered by water.
We also had been advised by a French Canadian family, who are cycling around NZ, Vietnam and then to Europe (hats off to you) (3 boys 8, 11&15) when they had never been further than the town to do their shopping before on there bikes!!!! To go to the gold mine battery, as it was a good home schooling opportunity, unfortunately the mine closed early and we couldn’t go, however the lady there lent us the panning pans to try our luck in the creek. Needless to say we didn’t find any gold (not sure what we were looking for really, we could have chucked loads down the river!!)
Moving on from Coromandel we headed over them their hills to the east coast and some stunning coastal scenery. Here there is a wonderful red flowered tree called Pohutakawa or NZ Christmas Tree as it flowers at---you’ve guessed it- Christmas!!! It grows on the coast and is a lovely contrast to the deep blue of the sea and the white sand. I might post a photo later. We stopped at HaHei , on the coast and the following morning, at the crack of dawn got up and headed over to Hot Water Beach.
HWB is a unique place, at low tide very hot water bubbles up through the sand and if you stand in the shallows the sea is very warm and in places you cannot stand on the sand. Everyone, including us, dug our selves a hole, or in our case several holes until the hot water peculated up through the sand and started to fill up the pool and then we sat in it until the tide turned and filled it in again.
When we tired of that little game we walked over to Cathedral Cove where Greg, Alistair and Rowena when snorkelling, I held the towel! Again a lovely beach with a huge arch way worn by the sea on a lovely white sandy beach.
When we bought the camper it was suggested that we join the motor caravan association as they gave you discounts and a directory of POPs (Park over properties) which are people who have space on their property to park a van sometimes with facilities, who like to have people to stay.
We got to Whatamata and I persuaded Greg (who was not keen) to try a POP. I looked in the book and rang Glyn & Jennie Thomas who were very welcoming and we turned up at their house to give this POP malarkey a go! We sent a very pleasant night in their garden! It felt a bit strange at first but lovely surroundings, Jennies garden was very colourful and Glyn gave us a tour of his space under the garage which was enormous, you could have lived under there. In the garden there was a large shed with a shower, power and sink. We had a very relaxing night ad left the next morning with a bag of home grown grapefruit and small plums. Thank you both very much for your hospitality.
We spent the evening at the rugby club at Whatamata were we went as Greg had seen that the Cheifs(a rugby team I think!) were going to be there. They were and Alistair was introduced to All Blacks player Keith Robinson(Robo) we stayed for a charity Auction which was good fun. Good fund raiser possibly for PTA?
We are now in Rotorua and my hot pool is beckoning so I shall sign off.
Back again- weeks later, I am being nagged because I haven’t published the blog! So I had better get up to date!
The hot pool at the campsite in Rotorua wasn’t very nice, it was like a small swimming pool which you filled yourselves and sat in, didn’t feel very hygienic and there were notices everywhere warning you not to put your head under the water or you run the risk of Amoebic Meningitis!
We decided to go the geothermal site at Waiotapu which is south of Rotorua. It is a huge area with geysers, bubbling mud pools and pools of steaming sulphur smelling water which comes out of the ground at temperatures of around 100 degrees C. There is a geyser that they set off at 10.15 am each day by adding soap powder which alters the surface tension of the cool water below the surface and allow steam and hot water to erupt from the chamber below. It was really spectacular to watch, it shot up to 20m high.
After getting our hydrogen sulphide fix we moved down the road to a campsite with a thermal swimming pool attached.
What a wonderful place we had access to these 3 pools of varying temps until 9pm and then from 5am if we wished. The pools varied in temp from very hot, can only sit in it for a while, to a swimming pool temp in which you didn’t get cold if you just sat around chatting!!
From there we moved on down to rainy Taupo to settle ourselves for Alistair’s impending birthday!
posted by greg and lucy | 8:55 PM
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