#Coromandel

[vintagehomecollection]

100 Designers' Favorite Rooms, 1994

[keepingitneutral]

Panorama, Coromandel, New Zealand,

Edwards White Architect,

Photography by Sam Hartnett

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English Holly Coromandel (#03200b to #088fc8)

[mote-historie]

George Barbier. Coromandel. Manteau et robe du soir, 1913. La Gazette du Bon Ton, Fevrier 1914.

[lynniceberg]

New Zealand travel sketches 2 of 2

Here's the second batch of my travel sketches from my trip to New Zealand with my buddy, Brian. We were there for only about a week so we stuck to the North Island. If I have a chance to go again I will definitely try to stay longer. It's a beautiful country with impressive natural environments and our stay was too short to see even a small part of it.

We started our tour in Auckland so, of course, I've a few sketches of the space needle there. It's a coastal city of a very maritime country so lots of boats and water, too. Appropriately, they have a very interesting Maritime Museum on Hobson Wharf with lots of cool old boats and illuminating history. I was very taken with the very old and twisty trees all over Auckland, as well.

We rented a car and drove around the Coromandel Peninsula which has a beautiful coastline. From Coromandel we went on to Rotorua which has a lot of geothermal activity around it. We walked the Waimangu Volcanic Valley which has a lot of hot, spewing geysers. I took photos thinking I might attempt sketches of it later, which clearly I didn't.

We saw a lot of farmland, grazing sheep, and bee hives! Lots of bee hives which I found heartening. The hills formed from volcanic activity are large, mound-like, and very different from what we have in the United States. New Zealand as a country seems concerned about conservation and protecting their environment from invasive species. We saw a lot of signs (literal and figurative) reminding people to value and protect the natural beauty.

We also made our way to the idiosyncratic toothbrush fence mentioned in "Flight of the Conchords." I didn't attempt to draw this famous fence, either. It's best seen with one's own eyes.

I did feel the need to capture Hobbiton, where the Hobbiton scenes of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies were filmed. Yes, it's probably the most touristy spot in New Zealand but a must-see for fantasy and movie fans like us. The place is full of fun little details that make it feel like you're really visiting a Hobbit village - including bee hives! It's a very well-run and fun tourist destination and a great example of how the landscape of Aotearoa lends itself to fantastical imagination.

While New Zealand is known for their wine, which I liked, I preferred the beer. Panhead was my favorite. I took the time to chronicle the Kiwi beers we drank so others who come after us know what to seek out. You're welcome.

[twisted-shaken-savage]

Crisp winter days best spent watching these guys exist ❄️

[newzealandrail]

Driving Creek Locos, Driving Creek, Coromandel, April 2024

[annascape-creations]

A stunning sunset casts a warm orange glow over the Coromandel ranges, with the sun sitting low in the sky. The landscape is bathed in golden light, highlighting the natural beauty of the scene.

Location: The Pinnacles - Coromandel Peninsula Elevation: 759m Track Difficulty: Intermediate to hard

[cameronmeadphoto]

A few holiday snaps from our last trip #

[beachedmaiden-blog]

Sunrise dip, Hot Water Beach, Coromandel, New Zealand

[littlefukar]

Cooks Beach, New Zealand

[eandodonz]

Day 2 in Pauanui - Hot Water Beach and Shakespeare Reserve

[ginasneesby]

Kiwi Gee SqueeGee Part 3

The next morning, we had an exciting boat trip planned around Auckland harbour with the whale and dolphin safari, the Hauraki Gulf is well known for being a marine reserve and in fact (so Wikipedia tells me) is home or holiday destination to a third of the world's marine mammals. With that in mind, I could have done without a stinking hangover, but ya know we were young and stupid. The boat trip took us out of the harbour and towards the gulf past Rangitoto island, firmly sitting outside on the back of the boat, I had fresh air and a good view so although regretting the booze, I would probably have sat there either way. We saw a whole range of wildlife including dolphins and whales and just generally being on the sea is cool; on the way back in we heard murmurs of a pygmy blue whale sighting and with the crew, who were just as invested as the paying guests getting on the binoculars, someone eventually confirmed there was one behind us. Slightly too far to really see or get any photos but a glimpse of a fin or two is enough to say we’ve seen a blue whale (pygmy) in the wild.  

The rest of the day was spent chilling and planning what to do with Mo’s last 48 hours, one of the only boxes not checked on the trip was experience some Māori culture, so I recommended we head back to Rotorua in the morning and book ourselves a hangi for dinner. There are many options which all involve amazing food and some sort of show, but with the chance to also involve some geothermal activity (which was also on the list) we booked into Te Puia for just the Te Po dinner, haka and geyser by night. With no plans till the evening, we were able to have a lazy morning before easing our way down to Rotorua. The evening experience started with a traditional welcome and song before stuffing our faces on freshly cooked meats, vegs and many many puddings. Everyone was then loaded into little electric buses and taken down to the geyser and hot seats, its only about a 3 minute walk and we really should have given how much we'd just eaten, but when the bus is right there... We had a chunk of time to ourselves and now the sun had gone down there was a chill in the air, so it was very pleasant to sit on the amphitheatre type stone seats looking out over the jets of steam and occasional geyser; especially with natural under butt heating! To top off the evening, in spite of being very full, we were given some mugs of hot chocolate before hopping in the buses back up to the centre (again we really should have walked) and heading to our hostel for the evening. 

Mo was flying home the next day but not till the evening so we had the whole day to play with, I imagine I would have been really sensible given the airport is south of the city and advised him to bring everything with! He had spotted a nature park called Paradise Valley Springs the day before, so we spent the morning there, we wanted to go because as well as getting up close and personal with a bunch of NZ and Australian animals you don't always get to see on our side of the world, there was a pride of lions. There was a walk-through bird area with Kea probably trying to break out, a grassy area to feed the goats and miniature horses, pigs, turkeys, possums and wallabies (some with joeys in their pouches) and then the lions. They were in an enclosure about the size of half a football pitch and at feeding time, hunks of meat were chucked over the fence. A strange experience especially in a country so hot on conservation and their website tells me they've been breeding in captivity for 30 years. Anyway, we got our fill of lots of creatures and drove back to Auckland via the airport to see Mo off; this meant I had another 6 days of LJ to myself!! 

We discovered a theme park in south Auckland called Rainbow’s End and so despite a bit of rain, headed down again (I drove that road so many times!) to see what it would be like. There were a couple of big rides - coaster, spinney or droppey mostly, there was a log flume and run away mine train and a bunch of trashy food places to keep us going throughout the day. It was a Tuesday in term time so we had the place mostly to ourselves and took full advantage, after most of the day we’d had our fill and trekked home again. After so much activity a down day was on the cards and the NZ weather gods were shining on us with sunshine and warmth so we spent a lazy day reading out the front of my flat, walking to nearby beaches and into town to grab some lunch. Having been out of town the previous few weeks, I was excited to get back to the regular Wednesday pub quiz and to have an additional brain to add into the mix was an added bonus; of course we won!  

The next few days took us up to the Coromandel peninsula, a part of the North Island I hadn't yet been to, where we had a boat tour booked and a number of other recommended excursions to enjoy. Driving was only a couple of hours so again thankfully we didn't have to get up too early or stress about the travel and headed straight to our quirky little hostel in Whitianga to check in; The Cats Pyjamas. We had booked a room for 2 instead of the 20-bed dorm as we are far too old to be sharing with that many (probably) brits on their gap year but no option for our own bathroom so that would be communal. When we arrived though we discovered our room was through the dorm room, a small space built off the side that fit a bunk bed, with same again width to the wall and not much else. The window was above the height of my head along the length of the wall so it felt a little prison-y, but at least we had natural light and a door to close to everyone else. The rest of the hostel was pretty standard with a useable kitchen and a lounge area with games and DVDs, although the mural of the Victorian era white and Māori people was a choice. We were also warned about the fire alarm as it was really close to the hostel, there was no formal service, just volunteers so the alarm would ring till the people were able to drop their day jobs and get to the station. We decided to take a little wander around the town, it was raining a bit but the city centre is about 3 x 3 blocks so didn't take us long to suss out where we would grab dinner etc over the next few days. We also found a local cinema and with nothing else planned that day, for the cost of 5 bucks, thought we might as well drop in to see whatever was on. Turns out we’d just missed the start of Mamma Mia 2 but figuring we wouldn't miss anything too integral bought our tickets, the cinema told us they’d turned the film off coz no one tuned up to watch it, they didn't mind turning it back to the beginning of the film but we wouldn't have time for all the credits... so they restarted the movie and we chose centre seats in a completely empty screen. 

The next day we had tickets for a glass bottom boat trip out around the Whanganui A Hei marine reserve that runs along the coast past Cathedral Cove and down to Hahei with beautiful sights, interesting marine life and the chance to go snorkelling. Annoyingly we got to the dock just in time to see our boat disappearing around the corner, checking the flyer we had it confirmed this was the correct time for the boat to leave... in the holidays, term time has a different timetable. Upset and disappointed we headed to a pub nearby for a pint and a place to call the company and see if there was anything they could do, as the timing change was not super well-advertised and we really wanted to go etc etc. They recommended we try our luck on the last tour of the day which was leaving in about an hour, although it was at the discretion of the captain, so we finished our drinks and walked back to the dock to wait. There were some lads collecting some sort of shellfish that was living on the docks, they offered us some fresh out the sea, but we politely declined. In standard NZ fashion, the captain didn't care who was on his boat so once he confirmed that it wasn't full, he let us jump on and join. The tour was great, glass bottom boats only work so well given the physics of bubbles and moving over water, but you can see a bunch of fish when still and that's kinda cool. I'm not really into swimming in the ocean, especially when it's cold but LJ is a water baby so was very excited about jumping in. The family on the tour with us we also going in but they all had wet suits and buoyancy aids whereas Laura was happily straight in in her normal swimmers; I was cold just watching. I stayed on the boat and sunbathed whilst those crazy lot snorkelled away for about 10 minutes in lovely clear water before jumping back aboard and heading back to shore. We spent the evening in, I imagine having collected a fish supper nearby and found a DVD to watch before the crowds of residents arrived after work, we let them have the space and got an early night before an early start the next day.  

We were recommended to get to Hot water beach early in the morning to optimise not only the tides but also your space on the beach, the hot water travels down from the top of the beach towards the sea and only runs in certain spaces, which fill up fast with tourists wanting to experience it. The idea is, you dig down into the black sand close enough to the sea that you occasionally get a splash of cold water to take the edge off the scalding naturally heated water trickling down the other way and then you sit and enjoy. We dug in multiple places and couldn't find the hot water, so eventually when someone else who had a nice big hole and obviously found the warm left, we pinched their hole instead. We didn't fully have time to go back and follow the route taken by our boat trip the day before but we drove up above Hahei beach and walked the path down to the water, that alone was a beautiful semi bush walk and ended with a nice dip in the sea; I'm sure I paddled. We drove back to Auckland that night with 1 more day to fill as LJs flight was in the evening but as it was Saturday night decided to head into Devonport to see what the night life was like, I'd only really been to The Patriot pub or out in the city. There were a couple of bars with a bit of energy, a couple of large what seemed like work groups, but nothing too exciting so we didn't stay out too late. We had pretty much ticked off everything on the list, but as previously mentioned water baby and with the UK heading into winter, LJ wanted some more snorkelling. Like the good mother I am, I drove up to the Goat Island marine reserve, north of Auckland and snoozed in the car while she got some more, by all account very successful, snorkelling done. 

And then all too quickly, it was time to head to the airport. It was very warming that my lovely friends would give the time and money to come and see me all the way in NZ and I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did. I booked a very strange shift that night as overnight nurse support in a lad's home who was paraplegic, he lives separate from his parents but attached to the house, he had Manx cats and watched YouTube all night; the holiday was over. 

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Citrine White Coromandel (#fcf8e7 to #0691b1)

[helpyourselfwithcherrywine]

Just one day. Please a house like this. I want to come down the stairs like. Joan Cusack in the Addams family

100 Designers' Favorite Rooms, 1994

[verolina]

Rocks paintings in Coromandel! 🌱💕

Finally I finished the kiwifruit picking season in Te Puke. During my road trip around Coromandel peninsula I found some time to paint several rocks and hide them along the Cookson Kauri Walk in Kauraenga Valley, Coromandel! 🌱🌤🌸