Hello,

OK, another quick update this evening - we're still travelling around and still fighting the meter on expensive hostel computers, so as before I've uploaded a handful of photos from the second half of our Coromandel tour and Hobbiton, and will write a little now then expand on it later when we have better access. (Updated 21 & 22 June)

Coromandel Part II:

Our voyage around Coromandel has finally drawn to a conclusion and I think it's fair to say that we both absolutely loved the place; it has such a wonderful easygoing atmosphere, very creative, spiritual and full of beauty - the sort of place we could both live, if it wasn't so far from family and friends! And we cannot believe how lucky we were in the timing of our road trip - it's the NZ winter so very, very quiet, but for most of our journey, we've had fantastic weather - the clouds only appeared for the last couple of days and it's been so warm.

Upon leaving Whitianga we headed for Coromandel Town, a very relaxed and artistic place - so relaxed the first hostel we tried didn't even have keys to the rooms! We moved on and settled at Anchor Lodge where Su got to sleep in the ceiling (actually in a loft bed over the corridor - it was fab watching her trying to get down!) In the morning we set off for Long Bay to have a walk around the Kauri Trail and were rewarded with a lovely 'hug' from a huge old kauri tree which according to 2 locals who passed by was several hundred, if not a thousand or so years old! It's a spectacular old tree, full of a wonderful energy and it's so sad to think that Coromandel was full of these wonderful old trees until there were logged, almost to oblivion.

In the afternoon we moved onto Driving Creek Railway, and we both fell in love. The place was established by Barry Brickell, a potter who wanted to set up the first NZ pottery. He purchased this wonderful piece of land outside Coromandel Town, and built a railway, originally to get good clay from the hills. The railway became well known and people started asking for a look and he saw the potential of the place and built the railway up to its present state. Now you can pay for a ride on a delightful rickety old train, with driver commentary, which potters along (get it!) a little line going up, in stages, to the Eyefull Tower from where you can see across Coromandel Town and beyond. The route is decorated with pottery and there is a fully established pottery at its base where potters can come and work. All proceeds from the railway are being used to re-establish the native bush that was sadly lost with the logging of the kauri trees - the loss of the trees left the bush vulnerable to being washed down the hills. His current project is the building of a predator-free fence around the native bush to help protect some of NZ's endangered wildlife. It's a wonderful project and Barry is an inspirational and modest chap. I would thoroughly recommend a visit if you're in the area. We came away feeling inspired, both by his creativity and his conservation ideas. We also came away with a useful culinary tip! We had already paid a visit to the Coromandel Smoking Company to buy its famous smoked mussels for dinner, but our driver also recommended a trip to the butchers for his mussel sausages - bizarre thought I know, but they tasted delicious.

We then moved on to Thames, the gateway to Coromandel, where we decided to take a trip into the interior of the peninsula, the Coromandel Forest Park. We did a short walk from the DOC centre to see a model kauri dam, which was quite sad - there is lots of information there about how the trees were logged, how they lay fallen for so long that some were useless by the time they were collected. Then we went to Edward's Lookout (see the photo with Su), and looked over the spectacular mountainous interior of Coromandel. The view was spectacular, though is much changed from its pre-logging days. Steps are being made to change this and hundreds of new kauri trees are being planted across the peninsula, but of course it will take a thousand years or more for the proper forest and native bush to re-establish.

Later that evening we had a stroll down to the Karaka bird hide at Thames, catching it at high tide with lots of shorebirds gathering, mainly oystercatchers, herons, shags, godwits and pied stilts. Before we moved on the following morning we went back to the beach and did some fossicking, searching for semi-precious stones that are said to wash up on this beach. And we were lucky, both finding jasper and quartz - it was so much fun we could have done it for hours, but we had to move on as we wanted to call into Miranda, which has a shorebird centre. Here we were lucky with sightings, seeing royal spoonbills, the rare NZ dotterel and wrybills - the only birds with beaks that aren't straight, which excited Su no end! I was slightly less enthusiastic as it was now cloudy and cold (I really am a fair weather birder!) but was very happy to move back to our home for the night, the Miranda Holiday Park, with its own hot pool! I soon cheered up once thawed off and sitting with my head under a waterfall in a hot spa watching the moon and stars!

Hobbiton

The following day it was time for Matamata, a.k.a. Hobbiton!!! (Well you can't come all this way and not go searching for hobbits!) Now thoroughly spoilt we moved on to another holiday park with its own hot springs, Opal Hot Spings (cheaper and nicer if you're passing!) before heading to Hobbiton. And once again we were spoilt rotten, this time by having our own private tour for 2 as there are fewer people about at this time of year. This was especially fabulous because Eric, our guide could give us his full attention and he knew ALL the cool spots to take photos of us. So we danced on the party field under the tree next to the lake (the reason this site was chosen); we visited Sam's House, actually both of them - the one he grew up in and the one he lived in with Rosie and their children; we got to go into Bag End, see Bilbo's view over the shire and sit in the window Gandalf pulled Sam through when he was eavesdropping; and we got to hear lots of gossip both from the filming of Lord of the Rings and hints about the filming of The Hobbit and the possible rebuilding of the site, no less! And we loved every second!

After the tour we had a quick sheep-shearing demonstration as Hobbiton is on a working sheep farm and we also had a chance to feed the lambs, then we headed home, spent a substantial part of the rest of the day sitting in the hot pool, before eating a delicious dinner (more smoked fish from the Coromandel Smoking Company) accompanied by Sobering Thought beer - the beer drunk by the actors and crew during the filming of Lord of the Rings - how cool!

Love Jo & Su, xx

(P.S. we're so keeping the bottles!)