Category: August September 2023

Coromandel Peninsula

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.

Rugged shoreline
Some neat rock formations
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.

Pōhutukawa tree

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!

And another trip finshed!

Our trip back across Canada followed our route to B.C. Fall is here and cooler temperatures are the normal now. We also experienced more rain on the way home than we did during all our time in B.C. The days are getting shorter – no more sunsets after 9 pm.

We spent 2 nights in Winnipeg again. This time, however, we stayed at a farm about 20 min. from my friend’s home. We decided we weren’t going to risk his narrow lane way. We made a trip into Steinbach for some fuel and supplies. I figured it would be our last grocery trip until home.

Once we got into Northern Ontario, we had to stay at a different campground for our first campground since Aaron Provincial Park has closed for the season. Our private park at Wabigoon Lake RV Park was easy to get to and we had a pull through site, but it was right beside the Trans Canada Highway and very noisy with vehicle traffic. Ok for a night but nothing more.

View of Wabigoon Lake from our campground

We spent another night at Cedar Grove Boondockers at Hurkett. This time we didn’t have rain while we were there, but our hosts were travelling so we didn’t have a chance to visit! it was kind of them to allow us to stay anyways.

Once we got south of Wawa and into Lake Superior Provincial Park, we started to see some nice colours in the hills: definitely not at peak yet.

We spent the night at a different campground in Lake Superior Provincial Park, Agawa Bay. We had a nice evening ending with a lovely sunset.

Our last two days were in and out of rain. As much as we enjoyed our B.C. time, we wish it wasn’t such a long trip to get there and back! Pulling a trailer also costs a lot! Fuel costs were about $3100 CND to travel about 12,000 km of which 3,700 were without towing the trailer.

We had a very good trip – overall great weather, especially when it counted. We had some good visits with friends and family along the way. Our travels were relatively incident-free. The two issues we did have (broken window, trailer brake) didn’t cause us any major delays or require re-routing. We’re thankful for safety while travelling but are glad to be back home.