And just to finally wind up our Christmas-New Year holiday (!), here is the 'last post' on it... Our trip to Coromandel Town was on New Year's Eve and we drove back via the sealed State Highway, occasionally nearly running off the road trying to catch glimpses of the fantastic scenery. I really can't stress enough how lovely it is up there. We went out to dinner in Whitianga to see in the new year - a great Indian restaurant whose name escapes me for the moment. And I'll let the evening lie there.. New Year's day was yet again spent on the beach - amazing how that never gets tiring. This time we stopped at Kuaotonu, further north from Whitianga. The surf was pretty high and, although we enjoyed the swim, it was also a bit hazardous. I got smacked in the nose misjudging a wave coming towards me!The next day we drove back to Hamilton via another gravel road: this time linked up to the State Highway near Thames, another stunning part of the coastline. We stooped briefly en route at Rapaura Falls Park to have a coffee. This looked like a great landscaped waterfall eco-park but we were feeling the financial pinch a bit by then and decided to pass for now. I particularly liked the welcome sign though... (see photo)
Foolishly, we didn't stop in Thames for lunch, but carried on to Paeroa, my former home for one brief shining year. At first glance, things seemed to have livened up a bit in the town: it looked like there were some nice cafes and such (closed of course for the Jan 2 public holiday) and we pottered around in various antique (ie. junk) shops for a bit. As we headed out of town towards Te Aroha though, the grimness re-asserted itself in the form of abandoned and run-down buildings, making me glad all over again that we moved onto H-town (and a timely reminder of why Hamilton sometimes is 'where it's happening'). We stopped for lunch instead in Te Aroha, which is a bit bigger than Paeroa and houses a lovely Edwardian hot pool and park complex. Sadly, however public holiday-itis had hit the eating establishments here too and we had to make do with some very average bakery food.
And then the holiday drew to a close. One more day in Hamilton and then it was back to Wellington and the daily grind. : (
2 comments:
Hey I was in Paeroa the other day and I thought it was cool. Wouldn't want to live there but what a collection of antique shops. Did you go into the one that was the former mint of the national bank? I thought the domain was nice too.
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