Friday, August 29th – Sunday, August 31st

You knew the weekend was going to be good with such an auspicious start - Cory got off at 4:30 on Friday! I picked him up and we headed home for a steak dinner. After dinner, we walked down to the Mount Hot Pools. These are a collection of large and small pools at the base of the mountain that are filled with heated, salt water. It was cool outside, but the warm water was enough to take the chill off.

We got up early on Saturday and decided to drive to the Coromandel Peninsula. We had to run some errands first but got off at a good hour. The peninsula is just north of Tauranga and seems less populated than the Bay of Plenty area. State Highway 25 runs the perimeter of the peninsula, with very few roads cutting across the width. The drive was beautiful, with the Firth of Thames along the west and the Coromandel Forest along the east. We stopped in Thames, at the base of the peninsula at a small, tucked-away butterfly house. I’m a sucker for butterfly houses, especially those that seem like there can’t be enough tourists in the area to keep them alive.

After the Butterfly House, things got exciting. A few notes about the roads in New Zealand… There are not, as we know them, interstates. Maybe there is just too much great scenery to plow under, pave, and then blow by. Their state highways are not what you might think of as a state highway in the US either. They are paved roads; I think that is the only real requirement. Some are well-paved, wide-laned roads, with even a passing lane thrown in every now and then. These were not what we spent most of the weekend driving on. SH25 winds up the western coast of the peninsula, and then cuts across to begin down the eastern coast. This road was a constantly undulating path, winding through the forest, creeping on the ridge of hills, and crawling along the coast. There were more hairpin turns, one-lane bridges, and warnings for slips (aka mudslides) than you might imagine possible, certainly more than you would imagine safe for travel. But it was worth the trip.

We’d planned on staying overnight in Whitianga, a small beachfront town on the western coast. As we came to the edge of town, we saw people walking to an outlying hotel, which indicated it had no vacancies. Driving further in, we saw more walkers, appearing very jovial; they seemed to be heading to yet another hotel that also indicated “no vacancies.” This is not tourist season by any means in the wet winter of the Coromandel Peninsula; we were beginning to get a little concerned that we’d unknowingly stumbled onto something big. Stumbled turned out to be a fitting term, as the next group of apparent revelers were laughing and pointing at their mate who’d biffed it. As we got further and further into town, we spotted more and more clearly intoxicated folks wandering the streets. We didn’t know it at the time, but Whitianga was at full tilt, celebrating their annual Scallop Festival.

Realizing we were a few (cases of) beer behind most of the locals and other tourists, we decided to head to the next town, Hahei, which is where we hoped to join a sea kayak tour in the morning anyway. As we pulled into Hahei, I suggested we stop at the first place we saw with a vacancy sign. Luckily for us, it was the charming and simple Church. The Church itself is a restaurant, but behind it are several cottages and guest rooms; we gratefully took the last available and made reservations for dinner.

The Church Restaurant served up a great meal, in a beautiful setting. Shortly after our appetizer arrived, so did Steve and Jane. Steve and Jane had been at the Scallop Fest over in Whitianga, so you’ll get a pretty quick vibe for their state. Let’s just say that Steve had driven over from Whitianga, and for good reason. But that sounds censorious; simply understand that they were in good spirits and full of kind-heartedness. Jane struck up the conversation, asking what I’d ordered. From there on, we spent the evening chatting between our tables. They rattled off several recommended places to visit and, within 15 minutes of meeting us had written down their names, address, and phone for us. Granted, Jane had written it, and in her current state it was mostly illegible, but the thought was there and that was certainly enough. Cory even let me order dessert, making it a perfect night all around!

That next morning, we took advantage of the breakfast offered by the staff at the Church. There was a nice selection - orange or apple juice, coffee or tea, cereals, muesli, fruit, yogurt, toast, marmalade, jam, Vegemite…and Marmite. If you recall, in my last blog posting, I promised to do a taste test should I ever be confronted with both of these products. Well, Cory remembered, and there was no getting out of it. I bravely buttered a half-piece of toast and reviewed the offerings. Both Vegemite and Marmite are a deep, rich, brown color. Marmite is slightly more glossy with a somewhat less tacky consistency. Neither came off the spoon easily. I spread the Marmite first; as I did so, Cory chuckled knowingly. “You need to scrape about half that off,” he coached. But I couldn’t get any more off the toast; it had adhered firmly. I was even more conservative with the Vegemite than, barely touching the knife to the toast as I spread the goop. To be fair, the test was not scientific; I really should’ve measured out a set amount of each product to spread on the toast. The Marmite may have been sweeter, as rumored, but I couldn’t tell – it was so darn salty. If a food item could taste “brackish”, this would be it. The Vegemite was somewhat better, mostly due to its application, I think, but “somewhat better” is a far cry from “good.” I’m sorry Angela, my Australian-raised friend, I’m not sure I can learn to love it.

Luckily the day improved. Our sea kayaking plans had to be cancelled due to wet and windy weather, but as you’ve seen from our other pictures, rain and wind haven’t stopped us yet. We decided instead to hike to Cathedral Cove.

I don’t like doing things that I think I’m not going to be good at, so I won’t attempt to describe our hike and the views from the beach at Cathedral Cove. Cory’s pictures will have to do what they can. (I do realize they are 2-3 centimeters, but bear with us.) Suffice it to say that it was amazing and beautiful and awesome.