New Zealand, Part 6
6 Dec 2004
Today we drove from Cooks Beach to Orere Point, on NZ25. This road runs the perimeter of the Coromandel Peninsula, which is across the Firth of the Thames River and about 100 km east of Auckland. It's a beautiful drive, mostly along the beaches, although NZ25 does pass over the Coromandel Range on the north end of the peninsula.
At one time in the past there was a lot of gold mining in the region. I believe there is still some, but I don't know how much. It was interesting to see the contrast between gold mining country here in New Zealand when most of the mining I am familiar with is in the arid west of the US. You'll never see an abandoned mine in the US surrounded by vegetation like this:
 |
And this - a trail off to a few of the abandoned mines. I wish we had had the time to do this walk, but we needed to get to Auckland and turn in the campers. Although I am not sure what we would have seen of the old mines. This peninsula is so wet that the mines are probably overwhelmed by the environment very quickly, unlike in the western US, where old structures look much the same way they did 50-100 years ago.
 |
Another shot in gold mining country on the Coromandel. This is looking mostly northwest. Auckland is 60 - 70 km in the distance, probably over the horizon. The islands are in the Hauraki Gulf.
 |
I am not sure if this shot was taken north or south of the small town of Coromandel, on the west coast of the Coromandel Peninsula. It's a small tourist town with several art galleries. A very nice place to stop, and it was one of those places that felt like someplace in northern California. Cool air, hot sun, and you can tell it rained a lot when it did rain.
 |
We also stopped in the city of Thames, and I didn't take any snaps there. Much bigger than Coromandel (which is very small), with a nice bookstore. We did not spend much time there before heading back north, on the west side of the Firth of the Thames. This was the last section of beautiful NZ beach we drove along before getting into Auckland. This next shot is looking west, back at the Coromandel Peninsula.
 |
Some of the beaches are nothing but shells. They go on and on..
 |
 |
 |
We stayed in Orere Point, a surf spot, the last night before we turned in the campers in Auckland.
7 Dec 2004
So, here we are, the next day, in Auckland. It was a relatively short 90 minute drive in from Orere Point. We returned the campers and got to our hotel by 2 or so. Very nice hotel, right on the water. This entire wharf side development is designed to look like moored ships. Quite elegant looking. We did not do much besides walk the immediate neighborhood, have a nice dinner, and relax. The next day we flew to Sydney.
 |
One of the very cool things we did see in our 18 hours in Auckland was the yacht "Arctic P". (Number 14 in that link.) This was moored right next to the hotel. It belongs to Kerry Packer, an Australian that has what I would call an arbitrarily large amount of money. This yacht had been an ocean going ice breaking tug, and Mr. Packer bought it and refitted it to be what it is now, a very cool, very large, private yacht. I don't know much about Kerry Packer, but I like his taste in boats. He could give this one to me if he wants, although we estimated that it probably costs him about $3M (US) a year just to operate it. It has a crew of between 20 and 25 as I remember.
 |
 |
Whitcoulls is the big bookstore in Auckland. I spent some time in there looking at photo books. It was about 75 degrees, very sunny, and quite balmy. Nice Christmas weather.
 |
Our next three nights are in Sydney. More next time.