We headed back to pick Peggy up, but she didn't seem to want to start very easily. In fact, we just drove around the corner to have some sandwiches, and when we tried to start her again, she wouldn't start at all! We queried the Dings dudes about whether they had played around with the battery etc, which they denied, and they then proceeded to give us a push start down the hill. This did ultimately kick the engine into action and we were on our way!!
Our experience in Auckland has made us very wary and suspicious of mechanics (much moreso than we were already!), but we feel we are in a bit of a no-win situation. We are obviously foreigners/travellers, and we imagine that we are probably being taken for a ride most of the time. But seeing as we don't know too much about cars, we are not really in much of a position to argue when they say that some repair work needs to be done, or when they say how much it is going to be!
So as soon as the engine was running, we just wanted to get out of Auckland as fast as possible, as we'd already spent nearly 2 weeks there, and were starting to feel a bit hemmed in by the city.
So we headed southwards on SH1, and then eastwards towards Thames, which is at the bottom of the Coromandel peninsula. The drive was good, and we started to see a bit of the countryside that we had been so desperate to see. We'd decided to stay at one of the DOC (Department of Conservation) campsites, which were about 14 km from Thames. The DOC has a large number of campsites all around the country, which are all quite basic in terms of facilities, but are in the most picturesque places, and well away from towns and crowds. The one we stayed in was called Hotoritori (in the Kaueranga Valley)and just had 2 non-flushing loos for the campers. The road there was FULL of potholes which Peggy coped with admirably. When we arrived we felt so relieved to have finally got away from Auckland and be on our way, and properly camping under the stars. The night was so incredibly clear and brightly-lit from the moon, it certainly felt very different to the pitch-black you often get in the UK. That evening we cooked ourselves a very tasty curry.
We have found that our days are starting very much to revolve around the sourcing of, preparation of, cooking of, and cleaning up involved with cooking. The dinner-time process takes us about 3 hours, as we have limited space in Peggy, so only one or 2 things can be done at a time. With our back-to-basics lifestyle, we feel we are starting to resemble The Good Life, so Meg is turning into Felicity Kendal (good news for me), and I am starting to turn into Richard Briers (bad news for Meg).
On Thursday morning, we woke to a cold but clear day. We had decided to head slightly out of Thames to do a walk into a Kauri Grove near a village called Wiaomu. Kauri trees are ancient indiginous trees that apparently covered the whole of New Zealand centuries ago, but when the Pakeha (white man) came to the country, nearly all of the were chopped down and exported for building materials etc. In fact, we've been told that a lot of houses in london have been built on a backbone of Kauri wood, because it is so strong.
So these Kauri groves that exist are now protected, but are still available for people to go and visit. The trees themselves are easily the biggest that I have ever seen. They are found deep in the bush and would easily take 4 or 5 people stretched out to surround their bases, and they grown straight up to about a 1000 metres high. Well, it seems like it.
The walk itself was excellent. It was only about 2 hours long, but took us deep into the forest/bush and we had numerous river crossings to negotiate, which we traversed all successfully except one that Meg managed to put both her feet straight into the water (only ankle deep). Saying that, it was a good way of testing the waterproofing on Meg's new boots. Needless to say, they passed with flying colours.
HOWEVER, earlier on in the day, as we had been setting off to the beginning of the walk, guess what? Peggy started to play up again. It took about 5 efforts to get her to start, sounding like the battery was flat. We headed straight to the mechanics who had taken an early lunch break and told us to come back later in the day. So after the walk, we headed back and the mechanic asked to see the battery, which we eventually found underneath the driver's seat (Campervans – all of them, not just ours – seem to have very different engines to most cars. The engine itself is under the passenger seat). He tested it, and diagnosed that the problem was not the battery, but the alternator! Apparently these can just give up without warning, which must be what has happened as Peggy had not shown any symptons in the previous few days. But we still cursed our bad luck.
SO....., back to the garage for us and Peggy on Friday. Fortunately the garage could access a reconditioned alternator and do it all in one day, so we checked her in in the morning and left them to it. We were going to take ourselves off for another walk, but the weather and the forecast was not good (rain and thunderstorms), so we instead went to the local (tiny) cinema at 11am in the morning! There wasn't a massive selection to watch, but we settled on Star Trek. I have never watched much Star Trek before, but Meg surprised me by telling me that she ALWAYS watches the movies....
I have married a trekkie.
After the cinema, we whiled away the next few hours mooching around and not spending any money, and Peggy was finally fixed for us to go at about 4.30pm.
We decided to get out of Thames, as it is not the most inspiring of towns (functional more than anything), and headed north to Coromandel Town, about 40km away. The drive was amazing, all the way along the coastal road, which I think Meg found quite scary – we couldn't physically get much closer to the sea at times! But we eventually headed slightly inland up into the hills, which afforded an amazing view over the coastline, and hopefully will be a sign of things to come.
We arrived at Tui Lodge (a backpacker hostel) at about 5.30pm. After staying at Hotoritori for 2 nights we hadn't showered(!), so being able to get a hot shower and cook in the kitchen at the lodge seemed like a luxury!
Our night's sleep there was a bit interrupted as we found some of the local guests turned up at 2.30am and proceeded to have a domestic argument right outside our campervan. This lasted an hour and then began again at 7am, so we weren't best rested when we properly got up at about 9am.
On Saturday morning, we went into Coromandel Town and did our laundry and then made our way along the 309 road to go for a walk up Castle Rock (526m). On the way we passed a field full of baby pigs, which we stopped at to take pictures of. A man came out of a caravan and approached us and started chatting to us. It turns out that he is a hermit who has lived there for 54 years (just in a field with his caravan), and keeps pigs and boars as pets. He has about 45 of them, and is very fond of them. He was a very nice man and didn't wear any shoes. His name was Stuart and his decendents are from Burnley- would that explain a few things?
The walk up to Castle Rock was a bit disapointing. There was a road that made its way up the hills towards the summit, but we reached some signs that said public access was closed. We tried to find other ways up to the summit, but there was no way through. We still managed to get great views but it would have been great to actually get to the top.
We have now headed further north to Colville, and are staying on Colville Farm. It is very nice but we have found ourselves camped next to the 'Prowler', a mobile mansion, which looks as ugly as it gets. Peggy feels very small next to the Prowler.
The weather is supposed to be a bit rubbish for the next few days, so we are going to take each day as it comes. We will either head to the very tip of the Peninsula, where there are some more remote DOC campsites, or head eastwards to Whitianga. The east coast of the peninsula apparently has some of the most beautiful beaches and bays tucked away, so it'll be nice if the sun comes out. But if it doesn't, we'll still enjoy ourselves somehow.
Live long and Prosper.
Oh no...Can't believe you met Stuart from Burnley!
ReplyDelete