Coromandel and the Road South

 Greetings from New Zealand again! Sorry this took so long to get out .... We are distracted!

We left off in Hahei after some amazing paddles, and decided to go to the west coast of the Coromandel Peninsula and try to get to the top, Port Jackson. Well, we got talked out of it.. The road is terrible and under construction. The wind was really strong that day, so we most likely would not get to paddle. So we relaxed and explored the area.

We drove to the end of the paved road, Colville. Not much there, but one Cafe and a lot of scenery. 

                                                   Colville, at the end of pavement.

One last Coromandel scenery photo, near Manaia 10 km south of Coromandel city.

It is hard to describe driving here, so we thought a video would help!

If the embedded video doesn't work here is the URL:

https://youtube.com/shorts/8tzAZXHbtaA?si=-_JWjItfQcTEYmiM

There are few freeways here, so it takes longer to go anywhere. It is also road construction season, and the detours are an adventure in there own way.

Back to working our way from Coromandel to the south island.

 It took us two days of driving to Wellington, where we would ride a large ferry to Picton on the south island. 

We stayed in Wellington one night, walked around the waterfront the next morning,  and headed to Picton on the south island. 

                                           Esther and a friend leaning into the wind.

The Massive Ferry 

Approaching Picton

 The weather was great for the crossing of Cook Strait, and the ride was sceanic and smooth. 

At last! We are back on the south island. We were last here in Picton in 2004. We remembered some, but things have changed. We stayed in Picton one night, one night in Havelock, then off to Cable Bay.

Cable Bay is a tiny village at the end of a road where the first Trans Tasman sea telegraph cable landed in New Zealand. Currently it is a Cafe, holiday park, and a beach with a boat launch. 

Cable Bay

Pepin Island is here, which is yet another great kayaking location. More caves, rocks, and stunning vista's. I would recommend timing the paddle with the tides better than we did.....

Paula in the waterfall cave on Pepin Island

Well, we've played around as much as possible, and it is time to head to Nelson and KASK. We will cover that in the next post

Soon!

E & M