Coromandel Peninsula

This last weekend we took a short trip. After our meetings on Sunday we drove to Thames.  It was an hour and a half.  We had little room there.  Nothing like the rooms we had when we were at the other places and I was feeling a bit sad that I had maybe not been as wise as I thought I had been.  It was alomost like a B and B but not.  They were regular hotel rooms but a couple ran it, check in time was when  you got there and they asked if you wanted full fat milk or trim for your tea and coffee and then poured some into a little pitcher that they took with you and put in your fridge when they walked you to your room. If you wanted to order breakfast they would fix it and bring it to you.  Only 12 rooms.

We had taken our dinner with us so we sat at the table and had a nice chicken dinner.  We had the door to our private patio open and in walked a big cat.  I had to laugh.  I immediately thought of the TV ad where the lady goes to the patio door and calls her kitty in for the night and in walks a racoon.  We just opened the main door and he walked out.  Funny.

The next morning we got up and after working for a coupe of hours we set off.  We had a suggested route that we were going to take.

Thames was a gold mining town that eventually turned into a logging town.  It was named by Captain Cook who thought it looked like the Thames in England.  There is a museum there where you can see the scales they used to weigh the gold and stuff.  There is also a mine you can go into but we passed.

We then conitnued north.  The road was a little two lane, usually, that wove its way along the coast.  At times there were electrical wires along the shoreline carrying power to the north and south.  The road was very narrow at times and sometimes it was only one lane.  They have these narrow bridges that are only one lane.  Usually the left side going north has the right of way so those coming south wait their turn.  On a long stretch of bridge there will be a swing out for one car to wait in the middle of the bridge.  There were lots of those.  The drive to the little town Coromandel goes around the beach and then across just a bit of a stretch of land.  Coromandel itself is a tourist town and a jumping off to other places.  That is where you would get the private boat or maybe a fishing cruise for the day.  Not much there.  We were glad that we did not take the ferry from Auckland over with Nate as we would have just been stuck there.