Tuesday 15th January Coromandel

The day started sunny and very warm but clearly the weather is very changeable at present and the forecast predicted some cloud and rain to come. We headed off to look at Te Kouma Bay where we stayed on our last visit with a view to a swim and stopped on the way in Coromandel town to restock for the BBQ with meat from an excellent butchers. When we arrived at Te Kouma the tide was very high and consequently no real beach to swim from. Also the weather had turned gloomy so we postponed the swimming and headed north of Coromandel to look at the coastline there.    The coastline is very interesting and would, I am sure,  in glorious sunshine be spectacular, but it was not our day from a weather perspective.

After a snack lunch at Umu in town, we had booked a trip on the Driving Creek Railway (DCR) which was recommended by the manager at our camp site. We didn't really know what to expect other than being informed that it was a narrow gauge railway ascending the mountain. It was really quirky but absolutely delightful. Built by a real eccentric Barry Brickell who started off as a teacher in Coromandel town but decided after 2 terms that teaching was not for him. He set up a pottery "studio" in the hills inviting fellow potters from around the world to spend time there. At some stage, and nobody seems to understand quite why, he started building a narrow gauge railway up the mountain. After a few years his bank manager reminded him that a loan was still outstanding so he started charging tourists for a ride on his railway. This was clearly a success and encouraged him to extend the railway further up the mountain to a point where he built a viewing platform which in true Kiwi fashion he named "Eyefull Tower".

The journey up was beautiful with the train running between immense tree ferns in a subtropical forest.

On occasions it became quite precipitous and I'm not sure what UK Elf and Safety would make of it but it was quite clear that everybody on the trip absolutely loved it.  Barry Bricknell has left the site and the railway to the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust and so it will be available for generations to come - a true eccentric but also someone who has made a remarkable contribution to this part of NZ.

We also learned that Coromandel is named after HMS Coromandel which anchored here in 1820 to harvest trunks of the Kauri tree which were considered ideal for ship's masts. HMS Coromandel is in turn named after the south east coast of India. Clearly the Brits have long been an adventurous folk.

We had another attempt at swimming just north of the town but by now the tide had receded so much that it was much like Southend and we had to walk 1/2 mile before the sea even came up to our knees. After a pleasant "deep paddle" we retreated to our camp site and once again unleashed the BBQ amidst the winds and the rain!