New Zealand on a Very Tight Budget Day 32
This story happened on: 21/03/2017
Gallery
‘Quirky’ was the word I was going to use today but as time wore on it became obvious that the word was rather too small and too flippant to encompass everything that happened.
I woke up with that ‘Falling Towards England’ feeling of slight melancholy – much as I was looking forward to going home – it seemed sad that our adventure was drawing to a close especially as I doubt we will make it to New Zealand again.
We started with a walk around the very pretty town (village) of Coromandel before heading up route 309 to check out The Waterworks which promised us it was the best fun to be had on the Coromandel……..mmm…….at $25 each I don’t think so! I took the picture in the car park and left.
We continued up the dirt track past the car graveyard, then Stuart’s Pig Farm which straddled the road – as did Stuart’s pigs!
We stopped at an excellent stand of kauri trees saved from the chop during WWII by local people in what was probably NZ’s first environmental act and then a very nice little waterfall before we reached our objective, Castle Rock!
The guidebook said it was a 45 minute walk with a bit of a scramble at the top. We did it in 30 minutes but it was all a bit of a scramble and the top was full on rock climbing – but boy was it worth it. 360 degree view of The Coromandel and unbelievably – there in the distance – was Auckland 70 kilometres away as the crow flies. I felt quite emotional!
We drove down the spectacular inner shore of the peninsular towards Thames and pulled up at the excellent Dixons camp site ( complete with orchid and butterfly house and swimming pool) thinking it couldn’t possibly get any better. We were wrong.
An almighty roar announced the arrival in the car park of a Ferrari California – well a replica to be precise but not just any old replica - one of three produced for that wonderfully ‘quirky’ film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, recently purchased and restored by one very proud NZ owner. Not for the first time this holiday it felt like we had strayed on to a film set!
