After being woken up earlier than I had hoped and a quick chat with Berni, we decided that we should move on from Coromandel Town. It's a very nice place but we were staying in a two bed dorm (more expensive) and there were some locals having some sort of guys weekend, but still waking up early in the morning and talking loud outside. So we dropped off our bags in the office, checked out, and decided to go around town and see what it was all about before heading out to Whitianga on the east coast of Coromandel later in the day.
The lonely planet mentioned something about a train ride through a forest and up a mountain so we decided that was a nice way to spend the day. The train was called Driving Creek Railway, it was on Driving Creek Rd, and it was tiny (in a cute small town kind of way). I would say it was more like a street car for the forest. Anyway, the ride was pretty cool, the railway was designed by a potter so there was some interesting pottery along the trail and some glass bottle walls which were nice. The views from on top of the mountain were spectacular, you could see a few different islands and volcanoes (see pics for wowness).
On our way back we stopped at the Driving Creek Cafe, this was definitely my favorite part about Coromandel Town. It was a really nice cafe, all organic and locally grown food (they actually grow some things right behind the cafe), mostly vegan and gluten free food as well. The smoothies were great, I didn't get one but I had a taste of Berni's and peeked at some of the other ones being served. It also has a second hand book store inside with some really cool photography books (among others) and a small art gallery where you can buy photos of New Zealand printed on canvas. The front garden has a sandbox and kids playing area, as well as some nice pottery and tables/chairs in various spots. The music they were playing while we were there was on point as well (Nile - Patrice, scroll to the bottom of the list for some sample tracks), which made an all around awesome atmosphere. Seriously, if you are in Coromandel Town GO TO THIS PLACE, just walk right out of town on the main road and veer to the right onto Driving Creek Road and you'll see it. They also hire WOFers (Working on Organic Farms) and provide accommodations and food, so you can meet other travelers there.
After spending an hour or two at the cafe we walked back through town and visited some historical sites on the way (mostly just former mayors homes and things like that). We also stopped at the mining museum which had some pretty nice things in there. It had some really cool rocks and a whole wall of rocks with lables and where you could find them (I'm sure Christopher would have appreciated this place more than I). Then we stopped on the way back at The Coromandel Smoking Company for some smoked mussels and shrimp for a late lunch(we also picked up a baggette....yup...fancy time).
We finished our lunch at around 5pm, Berni drew up our sign (complete with palm trees and PLEASE! written along the bottom) and we set off to try and hitchhike across to the east coast (about 1 hr drive). What we failed to realize (we were quickly prompted by the receptionist in the office) the main road to Whitianga was closed due to a rally race going on in the hills (yup thats how crazy the roads are). So the only way to get there was a detour road which would take much longer and there was probably not going to be a lot of traffic going around that way. It was also quite late in the day to try and hitchhike out of a town, but we are new at this so there was bound to be some poor decisions. Luckily for us the road opened up again at 5:30pm so we only had to wait on the other road for half an hour. By this time though Berni was getting skeptical about our luck and feeling the pressures of improper planning. I on the other hand remained calm, knowing how rare it is for a bird to shit on you (this was only the second time in my life it has happened) I felt the luck wasn't over yet.
One camper van stopped, I assume they were hippies as the man had quite a long beard and hair and they were growing sprouts in the front window, but we had to let them go by because they were going up north. Then 2 other cars stopped for us once we got onto the main road to Whitianga but they weren't going the whole way. Berni even asked the guy across the street playing with his kids if he would take us but he declined, he did mention that we were in a pretty good spot.
After about an hour we decided to just go with the next person that stopped, a nice old man towing his personal golf cart (just incase the club doesn't provide them) stopped for us so we jumped in and were on our way in the right direction at least. He said he could only drive us about 30 mins or so up the road to Whangapoua road. I didn't get his name because he was a bit hard of hearing and I'm sure my accent was throwing him off. When he dropped us off it was about 6:45ish and we were on the MOST random road in the middle of no where, it was now imperative that we get a ride within the hour or it would be dark.
Luckily after a few cars passed an Audi went zooming by but then turned around and came back to get us. Danny and Gary were just coming back from Coromandel Town where they picked up some oysters and beer for the night ahead (match between Auckland and some other team in Rugby). We made a brief stop in Matarangi Beach at a beach house owned by a friend of theirs (very nice place, beach houses there go from $400,000 - $2.5 mil), they offered us a beer and we headed to the beach for a quick chat and drink then we were off again. They were heading into Whitianga to watch the game at a pub and then returning later to the house. Danny was some sort of all around business/advertisement/etc type guy (good talker) and Gary was a softwear engineer who had worked in Aus for a while but was now back in NZ. They were both really funny guys, mad jokes throughout the drive. They actually dropped us off right infront of Cat's Pyjamas (hostel where we were staying) which was very nice and extended an invitation to the pub they were going to, but I was a bit tired from the day so I didn't end up going.
Once we arrived at the hostel we checked in to our rooms, found some food, and settled in for the night. Berni went to bed early, but I stayed up a while and had a very nice chat with two girls Tessa and Stephie. Tessa was really cool, she worked in broadcasting (some RANDOM like cottage country channel), and she was well versed in the Ocult/Illuminati/Bilderberg group type information. She also had done some webdesign and was the "nerd" of her group of friends. We listened to her iPod for a while (dope) then it got cold so it was bed time.
Peace & Love
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