Coromandel 2 - On the West Coast of Coromandel

A fairly early start saw us driving to the West Coast of the Coromandel.  Thames was a new place for us – the rest of the drive to Thames was through well known places along the Bay of Plenty.   The Coromandel is a small peninsula bounded by the Bay of Plenty and the Hauraki Gulf – Auckland on one side and Whakatane far in the distance on the other.

Thames is a fairly ordinary town but as we drove out and on to the coast on our way up to Coromandel Town, we saw the most beautiful coastline – to me, even more beautiful than the coast of Northland.  The road follows the coast closely for the first 20km or so, with the water lapping against the stone edges of the road.  Pohutakawa trees overhang the road and the water – it must be amazing in December before the trees finish flowering.  Then the road goes inland through farmland – green, with drifts of flowers growing on the verges – some are daisies – yellow and white- some crocosmia and some yarrow.  Views from the top of the hills are breathtaking – luckily there are lots of view points and lookouts, so Pete could stop and look and take photos.  The roads are narrow and winding and require 100% attention.

The sea at this point is called The Firth of Thames – but on a sunny morning with the incredibly blue water, the clear water that meant we could look down at the sea bed, and the beauty of leisure boats out in the bay, it certainly looked much more cheerful than its big brother in Scotland.

One of the villages on the Thames Coast

As we went higher up the coast, it opens out into the Hauraki Gulf, and we were looking across the water at places we had been at the week before when we were in Northland.  The Islands outside Auckland and then higher up the coast were visible in the distance. 

Mussel farming is big in this area – green lipped mussels are a bit bigger than the black mussels we get at home.  We stopped at a small restaurant outside Coromandel Town for a mussel lunch.  The mussels are harvested by the staff, the veggies for the salad are grown in the garden behind the shop and the food is cooked right there.  We shared battered mussels and mussel fritters – to die for!  We found a recipe and I really need to try them out.

1 cup self-raising flour
Salt and pepper
3 spring onions, finely chopped
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
500g mussel meat, roughly chopped – best if you mince half and chop the rest                                       3 eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup cream
Olive oil, to cook
Lemon wedges, to serve

1. Place flour in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Make a well in the centre. Add spring onions, parsley, mussels and eggs into the well. Add milk to combine into a thick batter.

2. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and spoon in batter to form fritters. Cook batches of fritters on medium heat for two to three minutes until crisp and golden brown then turn over and brown on the other side until thoroughly cooked through.

3. Repeat making fritters with remaining batter. Serve fritters with lemon wedges on the side to squeeze over.

Coromandel Town is quite small – the only supermarket we saw was a 4 Square – but some charming buildings in the town and some absolutely amazing houses high above the bays.  The tourist books said it had a bit of a hippy vibe, left over from the 70s, but we didn’t see much of it.  We drove to Colville which was described as the hippy centre – well, there is a school, a general dealer, a pub, a rugby field and a “Himalayan Shop.”  Maybe that was the hippy place……  We stayed in a small resort a bit higher up the Coast at a place called Papa Aroha, and walked on the stony beach as the sun was setting, picking up masses of scallop shells along the way – sadly I had to put them back before we left the beach.

Sunset from our bedroom window

In the morning, we rode on a small train which has been built by a local potter.  It is a very narrow gauge built straight up a hill to an amazing lookout.  He started it to bring the clay for his pottery down to the pottery, and ended up finishing it over a period of about 20 years.  It will be left to the nation, and he doesn’t take any money from the running of the train, making his living as a potter.  Some of the proceeds pay the staff, some to assist new potters and the rest to re-establish native forest.  We saw a lot of newly planted (in the last 25years) kauri, rimu and other indigenous trees.