Thames

We arrived here via Miranda where we had lunch by the side of the road because we thought we had got lost. The view across to Thames from the car was wicked vast blues waters with a backdrop of hills/mountains. All was good and we found a nice friendly hostel; Sunkist International Backpackers. It was quite a large buliding and 140 years old though had been modernised quite alot. We were also invited to have a welcoming complementery cup of perculated coffee...mmmm heaven ....in the hope to wake us up a bit as the constant tiredness doesn't appear to have improved. Sam took a short walk to the estuary, in the hope there might be a beach there; though it was very much like the brown creamy river at Dargaville. We met a friendly Canadian girl staying in our dorm and chatted with her for a bit about hers and our travels.

The next day we were on the move again Northwards. On the way out of Thames we stopped off at the war memorial where there was a good view of the town and the stretch of water between Miranda and the Coromandel called the Firth of Thames. We also visited the Butterfly and Orchid centre. This was definetly worth investigating. It is like a large tropical greenhouse; very warm and humid. It has the most butterflies i've ever seen in one place ranging from the most spectacular colours and shapes to the largest butterflies i've ever seen. You could also see them emerging from their crysalises. One large Owl Butterfly landed on Sam's arm but we couldn't get a picture quick enough.

Coromandel Town

After a very windy car journey and me(emma) feeling a little car sick as the passenger; we arrived to find the hostel we were thinking of staying was fully booked and another was being sold. We were told of another though; The Lion's Den. It has a very outdoorsey feel with lots of hippy and African styly art and lots of hammocks. The lady who runs it was called Linda. She was the Lion and this was HER den, as we were about to find out...

She welcomed us into her home. It was stunning tho. so chilled out. lots of plants, throws, arty and individual. We dropped our stuff in the dorm where we were sleeping with 4 other guys. Fan - bloody-tastic. Had a mooch around the palce where you kept discover lots of new quirks, and chatted to some girls in the kitchen we recognised from the prevoius night in Thames. Its really surprising the people you meet who end up seeing you again on the travels along the way. After chatting we realised we both had cars and were goign up to THE TOP tomorrow, so decided to travel togeater. All good.

Headed into town to see the sea. Turnso out the sea was quite a walk and we didnt get fas as we both needed the loo. Just mooched arond the town and did necessary shopping and headed back. Wanted to go to trainplace but that was closed so decided to go for a walk up to Castle Rock. We herd some people talking about it so thought ok. Linda said it would be ok to drive the car up. We didnt take into consideration that the Kiwis are crazy people and she has a 4x4.

So we set off in search of Castle rock with the new car which practically scrapes the floor when we drive. And all was good for a while untill the road turned into a track (we should have expected it really) that went on for miles and miles. and got worse and worse. Until i was thinking what the hell are we doing. We were on a dirt track in the new car, on the edge of  VERY steep drops, with stone and mud and much stress. I can tell you i have never seen anythingso bad. And we were inthe middle of nowhere, and this WOMAN said it would be ok. We caried on as we had go this far and eventually decided to park up on this muddy plateau. shaken and stirred we got out of the car and wanted to crack on with this walk. I said to Em

'this is insane. these people are insane. Do you really think this is a good idea'

and her reply was something like

'well we got this far. it will be fine.'

in true sam and emma fashion. We just egg each other on and cant back out. So we started the climb with nothing but a water bottle and camers for company. I thought if i die at least you can see what we went through. The forest was quite thick at the bottom and i kept thinking how are we going to find our way back, but we spotted metal markers on the trees marking the path. The walk got steeper and steeper, and thicker and thicker. We must have been walking for about an hour in death conditions untill the trees cleared and we were near the top. As we emergted i (sam) started panicking and decided it was THE stupidist thing i have ever done. Emma wasnt so worried tho, and said but look at the view. I said look at the edge, look at the drop! still we made it in one piece. There was a smller and morestupid path that led along the knife edge of rock higher up. We left it thankgod and made our way back down. I was so relived to see the car. The next step was driving back. The small consolation that made everthing ok for me was the toadstool on the drive down. Then i knew what it was all about.

CONTINUED...

Anyway got back to the backpackers had mussels cooked buy Linda (better then ours - no sand or crabs) for free with posh english girl who is too snooty for her own good (drank coke out of wine glass and talks politics) and american and candian guys. Then decided we would take a look around the hostel as Linda said to 'check out the hippie house' and pointed us in the direction of the garden. Down the back of the garden we found a massive hammock hanging over this river. Here we spotted a rat  then took shelter in the hippy hut as its was getting colder and dark. The hut was lovely. It had stanied glass, seats and pictures everwhere, cushions and up some small steps to a cabin bed. What a coold place to chill out. So i got a beer and we started doing a bit of our sketchbooks. Next thing we know Linda is in the doorway shouting 'what are you doing in here?'. Me and Em froze and at first thought she was joking. But no she said it again as was sounding so angry.She asked what made us think we could come in here, and this was somebodys bed room. If you ask me the woman is insane!!! Me and Em just couldnt believe it. If you had seen the rest of the hostel (scattered with cushions etc, a big maze and you can go eveywhere) you too would think it was a chill out area. Especially as she told us to go and see it in the first place!!! stupid woman. So we avoided her for the rest of the evening, and hoped she would be absent come morning.

Day 2 - To the top

Come morning we left Linda Lion and her den ( if you ever go there beware, seems lovely but dont cross her at all) and set off for Port jackson and the Coromaldel walk with the a German girl called Carmen, and an Austrian called Eva. Carmen drove so there was less chance of me and Em bring our 'bad car luck' on the long and deserted road trip.

We drove for about 2 hours on a stone track procariousely close to yet another massive drop into the sea. We passed a herd of cows and chatted about or countries, lives and also learnt German. I HAVE FORGOTTEN now. We ended up drivignright past Port jackson as its only a campsite, and ended up on the top Coromandel Coast walk. We all had lunch on the side of the hill then set off on a hour walk to Poley Bay. We went round and over the hills and it was a bit like the Gribben walk. It was lovely and the sun came out and i was skortching. In order to get down to the beach we had to go ion a zig-zag walk down through a  steep bit of forest. It was going to be a hellish climb back up!! 

The beach itself was very small and pebbly and too rocky to swim. We chilled for a bitt then stared the climb. We got overtaken buy a bunch of 40year old german walkers. We decided we would get fit, and get walking poles. The climb was not a bad as we imagined and the walk back was nice and easy from then on.

When we arrived back att he car we saw the snotty english girl, canadian and american. We decided we would keep them behind us on the way back. It was single track road, we were low on petrol, they could be our AA. They didnt know this. On our journy we passed lots of 'gobboling' turkeys and dead possoms. wierd pace. the turkeys made so much noise, and we just in the middle of nowhere, and the kiwis kill the possoms as they are a pest.   We drove on with them behind us untill the posh bird called Victoria started beeping as we were going slow cause we didnt want to die. We decided she was only beeping so she could show off to the two guys she was driving round (we later found out they were taking advantage of the fact she had a car). We had to pull over in a bay to let a gypsy house thing past so she took advantage of this, leaving us behind in a trail of dust and stones. Its ok she will be paying for that when she return a heavily chipped rental car! We trundeled on for a while, all the time keeping an eye on the petrol. The sun was getting lower in the sky and the view over the sea was just pukka. So we slagged off the Victoria girl a bit more and Karma came a bit us in the ass... i herd a scraping noise. I got out the car as it sounded as if we were draging a big stick behind. No it was ok. Went to get back in the car and low-and-behold we ahd a flat tyre. This was a joke. It had to be a joke. Me and Em wernt even driving. So we pull over and get out the spare and jack. And guess what... no rench. Just our sodding luck. In this case we decied it would be a good idea to get a photo, why i dont know. Comedy value i suppose. So here we were in the middle of go know where, low on petrol, flat tyre, no rench, getting dark. Now there are now town up the top. the only people who do go up here are holiday makers for walks. and as it was gettin late it would be unlikley that anyone would be around. GREAT. So me and Eva set of whilst Em and Carmen car-sitted. We couldnt believe it when a camper van came wizzing round the bend. I jumped in the road, arms waveing. It turned out they were German, and they had a rench that fitted our tyre! how glad was i. Being the hard girls we are we changed the tyre and set off again, hoping that nothing elce could go wrong. After a long drive we arrived back at our car and decided to meet the girls again in a couple of days in the Bay of Islands, Tauranga, and search for work. It was now twilight we set off tired and hungry on a drive to our next destiation; Whitiagia. No sooner then we were on the road than we stopped again. there was a stunning view of sunset over the Coromadel town bay. Would we ever get to where we were going??