Following Joyce & Paul's Travels in Retirement

We awoke to sunshine but with a forecast of a cloudy day. We expected a slow drive along the coast but were hopeful of some beautiful scenery.

The west side of the peninsula is beautiful. We were driving right along the coast, most of the way to Coromandel.

Numerous places where we drove through a canopy of trees.

We also saw some amazing trees along the west coast. We saw some large, ancient pōhutukawa trees, which are a native New Zealand coastal tree, also known as the New Zealand Christmas tree. This is because they bear vibrant red, bristly flowers around December. The trees are also culturally significant to the Māori who consider them to be “chiefly” trees. The Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, descended from East Polynesian settlers who arrived in large ocean canoes centuries ago.

Despite driving the coast, at times the road veered inland and we started to climb, providing some beautiful views.

We also saw some more interesting landscapes – terracing on slopes. General perception is they are caused by animal grazing.

We stopped for lunch along the beach. Despite it being the weekend, there weren’t a lot of people at the beach. It was very windy!

What was supposed to be a cloudy day turned into a very nice day in Whitianga!

Hadn’t really thought of the risk until we saw this sign along the way. It just isn’t something we worry about in Ontario!

We’ve seen these tall white and blue flowers for days but I finally had a chance to get a close up of them. They’re beautiful!

These are Agapanthus plants, commonly known as the African lily or Lily of the Nile.

Driving the west side, we were inland much more of the trip. It was a full day but we really enjoyed the drive. We spent the night at Tauranga in another small motel, so we would have a short drive on Sunday to our next destination!

Friday morning we woke to more sunshine. After a breakfast of bagel sandwiches which we made in our room, we repacked the car and headed south towards Auckland. We probably enjoyed the view more than on our way up. Paul’s getting more used to driving and the roads up north. He hasn’t turned on the wipers by mistake in the last day and only once has he gone to get in the wrong side to get into the driver’s seat 😉.

We had a small area with some pretty rocky terrain. There was netting attached to the surface for holding back loose rocks.

We stayed on the toll road this time since there was about a 20 minute time difference. It was much more like our highways at home! It was 8 km in length and cost $2.60 payable on line.

We stayed on the main highway through Auckland so saw some of the downtown views from the bridge. We had a view of the Sky Tower which is just under 1100’ tall. It is the second highest structure in the southern hemisphere but no comparison to the CN Tower in Toronto which is 1800’ high!

The population of Auckland is estimated at just over 1.8 million compared to Toronto where it is 3.3 million I. The core and 7.1 million in the GTA.

We arrived at our motel for the night in Thames – Rolleston Motel. This one wasn’t as nice – still similar cooking facilities and it looks like it was updated more recently. The bed wasn’t very comfortable – thin mattress and hard – quite a contrast to the 10-12” plush mattresses we’ve become accustomed to! However, no screens on windows and no AC. Thankfully there was a pedestal fan in the room!

Tomorrow we travel the Coromandel Peninsula.