As you may recall, so many posts ago, Cyclone Gabrielle forced us to alter our itinerary on the North Island. Rather than heading up the east coast from Wellington to Napier and Hawkes Bay - which were inundated with flooding and, for a time, inaccessible by road or cell phone - we headed north up the west coast. And our planned exploration of the Coromandel Peninsula, to the east of Auckland, looked doomed for the same reasons: roads made impassable by mudslides and tree-falls.
So, after Taupo, we headed north to the Bay of Plenty, where another friend of our Wanganui hosts offered an apartment they owned in Mount Maunganui. We enjoyed the area, had some good walks and good food, and did a little boogie boarding on the area's beautiful beaches. And meanwhile we learned that the west side of the Coromandel had become accessible, so we made some quick plans to go there next (though not to the east side, which had been our original destination, where the roads remained closed).
The Coromandel Peninsula is a gem, with endless sparkling turquoise bays, cute hamlets, and some of the biggest trees we've ever seen. We hiked to a Kauri forest reserve and gazed in awe at a 1200 year old "grandfather." These native
trees, used by both Maori and English colonists for boat building, have
been devastated by a virus-like pathogen that infects the Kauris through
their root and shuts down their nutrient delivery systems. So, on entry and exit to these Kauri reserves, one must brush off any debris and spritz the bottom of one's shoes with a disinfectant spray. We also visited a 50 year old pottery studio and nature conservancy, still in use by local potters, where we ziplined through a beautiful, dense forest canopy.
All in all, it was a good detour - we didn't get to experience all that we'd originally planned, but still fun.
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The most prominent feature of Mount Maunganui is, well, Mount Maunganui, a 760 foot lava dome that rises above its namesake town. Climbing it provides a stunning view of the town, coastline, and nearby islands.
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A very cool water tank mural we saw on our hike up Mount Maunganui.
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We had various choices of routes up Mount Maunganui ... but as you see here, all options were steep!
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We got to see part of an international competition for a new sport, competitive "wind foils." Basically, a surf board with an attached foil that gives the board lift, so the boarder "flies" through the water. Wild!
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The neighbor town of Tauranga had a small art museum with some very colorful art murals.
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... where we watched a lovely sunset.
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We had a lovely dinner underneath a railroad trestle on Tauranga's harbor ... |
On the way from Mount Maunganui to Coromandel, we drove through a kiwi fruit growing area; yes, these are "trained" kiwis, though they looked a lot like hops growing in eastern Washington.
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On the road to Coromandel.
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Ziplining!
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Yee Haw!
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The lower trunk of a 1200 year old "grandfather" kauri tree.
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| Here you can see the full height of "grandfather." |
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On the hike to the kauri forest reserve; they had to rebuild the trail after Cyclone Gabrielle brought down huge slides of mud and big trees like this one.
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