coromandel - day 1

this weekend my destination was the coromandel peninsula, a large area of national forest about 2 hours northeast of hamilton. there is one road that skirts nearly the entire circumference and a few others that cross over the mountains of the interior. this was far and away my longest time driving on the wrong side of the road, but it all went well. it was also my first time taking the dog on an overnight trip and i'm proud to say that she did great and i didn't forget any of her accouterments.

there are a few mid sized towns between here and the base of the peninsula, each with its own claim (te aroha: natural hot spring spas. paeroa: 'world famous in new zealand' for bottling...some drink). the first town on the peninsula itself is thames, situated on the firth of thames. no, no british influence here. why do you ask? leading north from thames is a road that is RIGHT ON THE WATER. like, with no guard rails or anything. the views are spectacular. i should also, in point of fairness, disclose that the weather yesterday was fantastic. sunshine all day despite the impending storm coming from the west.

anyway, you continue north until you reach coromandel town, which is pretty much the last outpost of civilization before entering the hinterlands. a bit before there, however, i turned off onto a dirt road and climbed into the mountains of the interior of the peninsula. there are a few sights along the way, including a supposedly square kauri tree (it was square enough that the loggers of 100 years ago left it alone as an anomaly). kauri are trees of enormous girth that were logged for years as ship masts. there are not many left. after reaching the eastern coast, i took a paved road back around to coromandel town and then continued north to colville.

i stayed in the backpackers in colville at the suggestion of the people for whom i am house sitting because they take dogs. the entirety of colville seems to consist of the backpackers (which is on a working farm), an honest to god general store and a tibetan buddhist retreat. i, like dave barry, am not making this up. pippa and i pulled in to the backpackers to discover that we were the only guests for the evening. having full run of the place, i cooked dinner and watched the kiwi "super saturday". there were 5 new zealand crews rowing in medal rounds of the olympics, plus the women's shotput (a new zealand woman was the odds on favorite), plus some guy in the individual pursuit at the velodrome, plus the all blacks were playing south africa. in all, the kiwis did very well, winning two gold and two bronze medals on the night. oh, and the all blacks destroyed the springboks 19-0.

the views on this first day were stunning. there is some beautiful countryside here, especially where the mountains come right down to the ocean. there were long stretches of road that looked like places in florida (except a lot less tacky) where there were low-slung beach houses just across the street from the water. there are complaints locally that the east coast of the peninsula is getting too built up, but from what i saw of it, they have a very conservative view of 'too built up'. the entire peninsula is fantastic and will take a few more visits to appreciate fully.