The great thing about living in Auckland is how much is on your door step, so to speak. It had been a while since we had done any exploring so we decided to pop over to the Coromandel for a night.

Earlier this year we visited the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula when we kayaked around the blue waters of the Te Whanganui-A-Hei Marine Reserve on the way to Cathedral Cove.

The west coast and Coromandel Town itself was our destination last weekend; just a short two and a half hour drive from Auckland - and what a drive it was!

Jetty with a view of the Hauraki Gulf

Another view of the Hauraki Gulf

Hilltop View

As the coast road leaves the shore edge it climbs up here. Great views as we stretched our legs.

The first hour was motorway, but even that offered fine views across the Hauraki Plains. However, after a quick lunch/coffee stop at Thames we set off on the north bound on the coastal road.

This road hugs the shoreline, never venturing more than about 10m from it and often so close you can look down into the Firth of Thames lapping a few feet from the car. The other side of the road alternating between long drawn out villages (eveybody wanting a sea view) or sheer cliff edges.

The road itself was typical of many NZ roads once you get of out of the city and off the motorways; narrow, very windy with lots of climbs and descents. In other words great fun and full of amazing views - a real joy to drive! We love this part of NZ, so beautiful and we have barely even started exploring it. Unfortunately words, and even photos just don't do it justice, so you will just have to come and see for yourself :0)

A pleasant little town, even if the style of the buildings on the main street bring to mind images of old frontier towns in the 'Wild West' of old.

Cormandel Town Main Street

Cormandel Town Buthcers

Home for the night was a cool little motel complete with spa and free bike hire. Both made us happy bunnies and we were soon off on a quick bike ride to nearby picturesque Long Bay. Took in the views, before setting off on a quick bush walk to spy some huge Kauri trees. Still winter and had no lights so headed back before the sun went down. Had a starlit hot tub session after dinner...

Amanda amazed by the Kauri

The canopy of a very large Kauri

Tyre Swing at Long Bay

Next day, rain was forecast but it just about held off long enough for us to do some sightseeing. Bit touristy, but we checked out a nearby narrow gauge 'mountain' railway. It was built by an artist cum potter over the course of the last 30 years. Originally built to haul clay from the quarry to his potting shed it's now over 3km long with the terminus 165m above sea level.

Driving Creek Railway

Amazing to think all the track was laid by one man; and great view of the Haruki gulf from the terminus at the top.

Next stop was a 'theme park' called Waterworks. Lots of contraptions made out of scrap metal etc and powered by water. Some of them were ingenious and pretty cool, with several of them capable of being used by visitors for water fights-which of course we did. :0)

The Waterworks

Water powered sculpture

The Waterworks

The faster you peddle the further the water goes. There were targets to aim for.

The Waterworks

Flying Bikes inspire ET themed photoshoot.

The highlight however was probably the 'childrens' playground - the apparatus being far from the usual. Great amusement was had trying to run in the 'mouse wheel' - much harder than it looks. While the flying bikes were also pretty cool and let me make believe I was a BMX star; while also enabling some ET-esque photos...

The Waterworks A human mousetrap, actually very hard to stay upright!	The Waterworks A human mousetrap, actually very hard to stay upright!	The Waterworks A human mousetrap, actually very hard to stay upright!
The Waterworks Another ET Inspired photo on the Flying Bikes	The Waterworks Again, harder than it looks, made it though.	Your Author and his missus View of the Hauraki gulf behind.