Rotorua to Coromandel – the tourist’s road towards Auckland

In the meantime Ines and Tobias did spend their day in Rotorua first in a park and later in the local bath to have a swim. As I picked them up late from the bath I saw how strange and by far not appealing this location was... Once again a very touristic village of low appeal that will not be on the list of future visits.

We left Rotorua this afternoon to drive north west towards Coromandel Peninsula. Around three hours on dark rainy roads. NI got better from day to day… 

Some days ago we managed to book one of the last affordable bachs on the south west side of the peninsula. We found a charming small bach in Tairua, not far from the main touristic-reasons to visit Coromandel: Cathedral Cove, seascapes and the 309 road. 

We had to book the bach via bachcare.co.nz as most of the cottages on the peninsula are managed via this company. The whole process via bachcare is embarrassing: you have to pay a fee of 30NZ$ independent of the nights booked, there is a high cleaning bond of something around 200NZ$ and you get pretty much bombed with e-mails and calls from the central booking and the local management. The cleaning bond by itself is ok but it puts pressure on you and the offer from bachcare to have the cottage cleaned for you without mentioning the price is just kind of rip off and not legitimate.

The bach was reasonable cheap, modern, had a freaky stove that turned on by itself, a smoke detector that woke us loudly 3am, we had hundreds of ants indoors and a useful heating was missing. Judging from the German sockets and IKEA-stile tools it was owned by a German.

Besides that, during our booking and stay the local management was kicked out due to some unknown reasons. This caused extra confusion.

Traveler’s advice: book directly, do not book via bachcare! In the future I would go even so far not to travel to a place if I could not avoid this company. Bachcare seems to be more focused to NI – hopefully it will remain like this during the current century.

Besides all these downsides the bach had a nice view over the sound and Tairua, was quietly located up on the hill and had just the right size for us three. Tobias practiced crawling the steep stairs up and down and up again. We had a close look at him or helped him as the stairs were a little bit exposed…

In the morning we drove north towards Hahei to walk the short walk down to the famous Cathedral Cove. A sandy beach with a natural arch / cave (therefore cathedral?) and a distinctive shaped rock. We enjoyed the relatively few tourists on the beach beyond the arch, the sun and the sandy beach. Tobias and I had short dips in the not too chilly water. Some pictures with high contrast from the inside of the cave and the sunny beach.

It was already afternoon as we left the beach and headed back to the car. Next stop was the famous 309 road, a road – unpaved (adventure! ; ) ) – which leads from the east to the west of the peninsula. Back before the first visit to NZ four years ago I marked this rode physically in the map and mentally in my brain as one of the "landmarks" to visit in NZ. The road is supposed to be famous for: 309 manuka honey, a waterfall, some water works and its unpaved nature in the middle of the woods. Highly fascinating! At least that was what I thought to expect back then before the first visits to NZ. First stop was the honey shop where we bought 7 glasses (actually the glasses were plastic jars, perfect for international transport) of honey and had a nice talk with the real queen of the bees (the female human owning the business). There are some special types of the manuka honey that are proven to have antibiotic power. These types are much more expensive and taste not better than the cheaper conventional manuka honey.

We continued to follow the road turn by turn - rather uninspiring, to finally reach falls of the Waiau River. Nice falls close to the road. Perfect later afternoon light. Several pictures. Definitely a place for a detour. Funny was that the road literally bored us, we had enough of unpaved roads and we had roads that were much more tempting, inspiring and remote. So after that visit and a few more meters Ines formulated my thoughts in words: what about to turn around and be back at the cottage early. 

Dawn was not far away and the village of Coromandl on the west side of the peninsula at night could be neglected for now. So we turned round and drove back to our home in Tairua. This night we had the famous lamp chops for the last time on the island! As the electric indoor stove was far too weak to handle a frying pan and in addition had some erratic performance, I set up the approved camp stove and we fried the beloved lamb chops outside on the porch. Again they tasted fine. Sorry for not remembering the accompanying wine...

Next morning was pain in the ass as we had to clean the cottage and absolutely wanted to have the bond back. Later the local management lady came and received the key and she had to listen to my long list of complaints. Weeks later we received the bond back.

We left Coromandl heading west and then up the coast north towards Auckland. The first kilometers through the plains of the Waihou River were just boring. In a small village at the East Coast road we had a decent fish burger lunch giving us power for the remaining kilometers towards Auckland. The last kilometers on rural roads… Farewell wild landscapes and nature... Gona miss you!

 

Coromandl made a strong impression on me in terms of beeing the weekend destination of Auckland. Lots of bachs at rather high prices, lots of urbanization and tourists. Again comparing the limited impression we got from the peninsula as on the the highlights of the North Island to the South Island I would have no headache to skip it for other options.

Let's see what Auckland can offer.

Nelson at the Top of NZ NI – where is here good fishing?

As the Rainbow Road did not provide much in terms of fishing I had to get to the water as soon as possible. I remembered one semi hammered river just an hour away from Nelson, so I gave its middle/upper section a try (where a gravel road follows the river). Strange river with limited visibility on that day due to the partially covered sky and the dark river bottom. It did not look too bad at first but the fish number I spotted or spooked was rather low for my expectation. Nevertheless the river did run low and thus nice and clear. The fish I did not spook were rather spooky. I ended up blank. The leaves were about to turn yellow and brown - autumn was there. On the way back to the car a friendly farmer offered me a lift on his quad for part of the distance. For dinner Ines figured out to go to Milton Street Takeaway where we had decent fish-burgers. A good place for a quick and simple meal. And on that 1^st of April we fixed the accommodation from the next day onwards. As mentioned it was not easy to find something in Nelson that suited our needs at a reasonable price, nice setting and close to the center.

Tuesday we packed everything for the relocation and went on a winery and Nelson area tour. Visiting Höglund Glas (as usual), Kahurangi (surprisingly good wines), Neudorf (as usual, for lunch cheese or bring your own picnic in the garden, I still do not like their wines so much) and Woollaston (they would have offered a nice platter as lunch in a very nice setting with good wines – recommendation!). We unfortunately did not know about the lunch option and Wollerstone and had some greasy sandwich in the oldest pub of NZ and some so so cheese at Neudorf. 

 

 

This afternoon we relocated to our home of the following days: Avocado Apartment at Cleveland Terrace. An apartment that offered not just a very nice view over Nelson and the sea, quiet location, fully equipped nice kitchen, an orchard with fruits and vegetables to be consumed and a quality of building that we did not see often. The very friendly owners gave us a glass of absolutely delicious honey and a bunch of fruits to. At that point we did not yet know for how many days we would call that apartment home. Unfortunatly the avocados were far from ripe or ready to be harvested. 

One of the better restaurants in Nelson is the Hopgood’s, thus my idea was to go there, have a nice dinner and share this evening with Mike and his wife Nans. Mike the fishing guide pretty much introduced us to the NZ style of fishing three years ago. We were happy that his wife could finally join us and we had a nice evening with lots of fish talk. It was good to see him again and that there was no need to take care of the dishes afterwards.

Rain in the night and rain in the morning called for a very relaxed 3^rd of April of writing, editing pictures and shopping in the afternoon. Nothing more, nothing less. Most of the rivers might have been still good fishing till around early afternoon, but I did not feel the urge to go out in that downpour.

Thursday Ines and Tobias went to the center of New Zealand which was just some kilometers away, they continued via the Founders park, the Japanese gardens and back through the shopping parcours. I set up my fishing parcours as I had the idea to fish the river at the Rainbow Road (after getting the key from the station) that was still a little high and colored. Just saw and spooked very few trout in the silty water, fished two or three spots and finally decided to drive up all the way to of its major tributaries. There in the junction pool I hooked one fish on a fly not to be mentioned (neither dry nor nymph) and saw a dolphin taking a fly from the surface (looked like it was rolling) that left me with open mouth. This dolphin was either a huge trout of something ++10lbs or a very brown salmon. The sun was already close to the mountain’s ridge so I rushed up the river but did not spot any reachable fish. Too bad, should have gone there right from the beginning. No fish this sunny day but still a nice trip up that valley we drove down a few days ago in rain. I did not expect to be back so soon. The two upper sections look promising and even the fished stretch of the morning should be good on an according day. Driving back over the dirt road, opening and closing various gates, crossing streams and finally arriving at the paved road towards Nelson took quiet some while. 

For dinner we met a friend that I talked into New Zealand last summer. At first she just wanted to travel New Zealand for some month after graduation but she ended up to be a guide and finally the junior manager of a horse tracking business up on the very north tip of the SI. She extended here stay in NZ several times - might be my talking was good to start this.

Friday was supposed to be a real family day. We went to the beach, had a short swim and a dip up to the chest for Tobias. The sea was somewhat cool but ok for a swim and the beach deserted due to after-season. Tobias loved it till he shivered. I was feeding a metal-detector-guy with coins by throwing a couple in his search path. Before that I tried to get some input from Mike where to fish the next days. The input was slightly less specific than I hoped for, but it made me to drop my plan to do some chopper thing in the Kahurangi and instead confirmed my alternative plan to drive back to Reefton for another four days for focus on fishing and curing the fever that came back after the last fish less days. Further ‘our’ cottage in the village of light would be available for a stopover in between and for the last night. As the weather forecast was again altered I planned to start early the next day. 

The outlined planed was to fish two rivers, one for a campout and the other with rough 4WD track access and a night at a hut. It was time for some serious fishing again, I was hungry for some bush bashing and river walking! I was looking very forward for that and a couple of nights of solid sleep.

Leaving Ines and Tobias alone was acceptable for them as Nelson is a real gem and lovely village. Everything on hand, a nice apartment and relatively good weather announced. Nelson would definitely be one of the places to consider if relocation to New Zealand would be a serious option.

Karamea to Hanmer Springs - Easter on the Rainbow Road

After that cracker of four days in the bush in a convenient hut, with challenging but rewarding fishing and lots of walking, my feet were two sizes bigger and there was no need to move too much. 

I asked Ines to show me the Oparara Basin with the Moria Gate that Karamea is famous for. It was pretty much the excursion she ‘rehearsed’ on the day before with Tobias. So she went there again and I for the first time. The loop walk combines the arch / kind of cave and the tarn. It was a little longer than her estimation of ‘around 10 minutes’ – more to an hour. The Moria Gate provided some nice motives for pictures, especially a rock structure inside with its wave shaped erosion patterns glowed like gold in the low light of this semi-cave. 

(Might be anybody did recognize the frequently usage of the term 'semi' - it is more or less about making fun on a NZ butter brand that describes its product as "semi spreadable" but in fact it is the worst butter to spread I ever encountered. Other terms to make fun about would be 'retreat' or 'boutique'.) (... oh and the text in the brackets before was only inserted due to typograhpic reasons making the text more appropriate to the pictures) 

 

 

This night we had a reservation at the Riverstone Restaurant in Karamea. The best location for a dinner in the north west corner of SI. The food was very delicious and for the first time we had some whitebait (very small fish). It was served in an omelet as appetizer and tasted surprisingly good. This place can be recommended absolutely! Riverstone even offers two chalets as an accommodation option for the time after the beloved Karamea Lodge.

The next day meant to leave Karamea. We drove over the winding road – luckily Tobias was sleeping – towards Westport, up the Buller Valley. There I saw a group of three, one girl and two boys coming out of the bush with rods in their hands, right as we passed on a place where it was clear that they fished a river that we were fishing two years ago. I slammed the brakes, jumped out of the car and had the trout-bum interview: where, what, how far, how many, what size….? They did not do well (no fish) as they did not walk up far enough. We back then made pretty much the same mistake, nevertheless we had some fish contact. Our fishing there some years ago was kind of adventure. We walked in partly on the riverbed with very little local knowledge, camped around two hours in on a  good camping spot there. As we did not walk in far enough we had hard times fishing and only hooked/landed some fish on the first day. That night the rain started hard and it rained and rained and in the morning the only option was to break camp and rush out as the river was close to not fishable and the water rising fast. Around late morning we arrived at a little side creek that was on the way in just a creek of might be 0,5cums. Now it was a small river of boisterous 15-25cums with a very unclear main current. We had to set camp and pitch the tent again, found a good spot just 100 meters bush bashing up that creek. The plan was to wait for the creek to drop again. The rain eased but still it was raining. I defined the deadline with 7pm and a drop of the creek of 30 centimeters - in that case we would rush and head out the same evening. We spent a boring wet day in a tent, not much to read (Ines had something), not much food left for an additional night. Luckily it worked out, the rain stooped, the creek drooped exactly by the defined amount, we managed to cross the creek without losing control, headed out found the kind of track most of the time, luckily we had one good headlamp and finally arrived at the car at 21:45 close to pitch black - we were happy! The late meal in Greymouth we got in a bar tasted delicious! And we found dry accommodation! I pretty much realized my miss-planning: food, weather and did not go far enough : ) Still it was a good adventure to be told in future years. For this trip this kind of adventure was no option.

The other drivers on the road were not so happy about my parking in the middle of the road, so I ended the brief interview and we headed off. Reefton (hello cottage!), Springs Junction, Lewis Pass, and finally Hanmer Springs. Tobias was screaming around one and a half hour – so I could not fall as leap while driving. On the way towards Hanmer we booked the very last accommodation. A funny 60es style motel/cabin. Good for one night and reasonably cheap. We arrived close to dark.

It was Easter weekend. The worst place is to be on Easter is Hanmer. It was no intention it just happened and could not be avoided. Ines wanted to go to the Hot Pools. Not for me. As she saw the 100m queue she revised here intention. We did the groceries to drive the Rainbow Road north of Hanmer (take care to be informed about the access restrictions and rules on this 4WD metaled road, do not try it with a motor-home or a 2WD!) for a couple of days and to fish some rivers and lakes there. Due to the expected traffic and possible fishing pressure we drove right to basic Coldwater Creek camp and omitted some 4WD-river access. We passed the highest pass in New Zealand - pretty much without stopping as the landscape was of rather low attraction. At the camp there were two other groups at the campsite. A couple from NI that was just about to discover SI after traveling the whole world and a family celebrating their anniversary with both we had some friendly conversation.

This night rain started and the next morning looked everything else but friendly. The lakes where no option due to lack of visibility, wind and some gusts so we drove to a stream / tributary of the main river to check it out. But with an overcast sky spotting is very hard. It still rained and I was far less than motivated. We decided to head out immediately as the weather was not clear for the next days and I did not want to lose a day sitting in a wet tent. We continued further north towards the middle part of the Wairau valley, passed the Rainbow valley road and arrived in St. Arnaud without any plan where to drive afterwards and no accommodation for the night. Thus the next step was to find a cup of cappuccino as at least its handle would provide some hold. We found that and I had an awful time to figure out what to do and where to go. This really gave me and headache as the options where Blenheim, Nelson or St. Arnaud. After a while of checking out availability of accommodation and prices we ended up to book a night at our usual place in Nelson. The Rutherford Hotel in the big ugly building. But it offered again reasonable prices and high standard (btw the owner of the Hotel is famous for his nature destroying river dam projects – please do not support this and book somewhere else in case you are more sensitive than we were). That night the dinner was special: room cooked tortellini with a decent fresh ready-made sauce. The sprinkler did not start.