Our 18 day New Zealand Trip

Woke early at Tapu (6:15) beautiful morning pottered around the site until about 9:15 then headed for Coramandel town.

New Zealand

In Coramandel we visited the information centre and sent a couple of emails then to the supermarket for some supplies including eggs which were free range and very large. Then the fruit and veg shop which had a reasonable range but was shockingly expensive.

We had booked a train trip at the information centre so we drove a few k's along the road to the Driving Creek railway & potteries this was originally set up as a pottery to "provide a location for national and international crafts people to work and live". The owner built a small narrow gauge railway to transport fire wood for his kilns and clay for the pots but as soon as the railway started running people from the town & tourists started asking for trips and he realized that as well as the pots there was a place for a railway up the hill to provide views. 27 years later it was completed (in stages) and my word the views from the top are incredible the train journey is an engineering marvel with a bush mechanics slant, it is well worth a visit. The top of the journey (1 hour long) is called the "Eyeful tower" and as I said the views are stunning.

Fern Trees-New Zealand

Then drove through Tererenga and past the Whangapoua harbour then to Whitinga and stopped to watch the sailing boats launch and have a cuppa.

We then drove along Hwy 25 to Tairua, bought some fuel and Jackie made a toilet stop, we nearly camped there but carried on to Whangamata where we looked for the Top 10 camp site which as it turned out no longer existed. But it wasn't really a problem, the joy of having a camper is that you only really need a power point to plug in to, all your creature comforts are on board the van. It's nice to have a decent toilet block though and the site we ended up at (Whangamata motor camp) had just that.

Driving creek railway

The site was also very close to the ocean and we walked through the town down to the beach along and back through the camp to the Van. Sausages for tea (very nice) and read & watched a DVD.

18 Day trip around New Zealand 11th February 2007 Day Three
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Woke early at Tapu (6:15) beautiful morning pottered around the site until about 9:15 then headed for Coramandel town. In Coramandel we visited the information centre and sent a couple of emails then to the supermarket for some supplies including eggs which were free range and very large. Then the fruit and veg shop which had a reasonable range but was shockingly expensive. We had booked a train trip at the information centre so we drove a few k's along the road to the Driving Creek railway & potteries this was originally set up as a pottery to "provide a location for national and international crafts people to work and live". The owner built a small narrow gauge railway to transport fire wood for his kilns and clay for the pots but as soon as the railway started running people from the town & tourists started asking for trips and he realized that as well as the pots there was a place for a railway up the hill to provide views. 27 years later it was completed (in stages) and my word the views from the top are incredible the train journey is an engineering marvel with a bush mechanics slant, it is well worth a visit. The top of the journey (1 hour long) is called the "Eyeful tower" and as I said the views are stunning. Then drove through Tererenga and past the Whangapoua harbour then to Whitinga and stopped to watch the sailing boats launch and have a cuppa. We then drove along Hwy 25 to Tairua, bought some fuel and Jackie made a toilet stop, we nearly camped there but carried on to Whangamata where we looked for the Top 10 camp site which as it turned out no longer existed. But it wasn't really a problem, the joy of having a camper is that you only really need a power point to plug in to, all your creature comforts are on board the van. It's nice to have a decent toilet block though and the site we ended up at (Whangamata motor camp) had just that. The site was also very close to the ocean and we walked through the town down to the beach along and back through the camp to the Van. Sausages for tea (very nice) and read & watched a DVD.
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