We began the day with a 06:30 start and a departure from the hostel at 07:30. By 08:00 we had left the car in Waipoua Forest and walked to see Tane Mohuta, the largest kauri tree in New Zealand. By 11:00 we had walked to the Four Sisters, Te Matua Ngahere, the father of the forest and the Yakas, another great big kauri tree. We had a banana sandwich in the car for brunch and left for Dargaville. The forest was amazing. It was so peaceful walking through the wonderful ecosystem and seeing such tall trees towering over me. It was a real privilege.
We followed the western coast road until we reached Wellsford taking in more spectacular vistas along the way. In Wellsford I enjoyed an excellent cheeseburger in Peppers Cafe. It was the best cheeseburger I have ever tasted and it was served on its own, without a huge portion of chips and was loaded with fresh salad and relish. It was wonderful.
I arranged some accommodation for the night and we were back on the road by 14:00 heading for Helensville, which turned out to be a well equipped town although nothing of any great interest to us. We got slightly held up transitting in Auckland as we arrived during rush hour and I navigated us out south and through Brookby around Whitford Forest and Orere Point, which provided good views of Waiheke Island. Our journey continued around the pacific coast highway around the Firth of Thames. This gave us fantastic views of the Coromandel Range which was a stark contrast to the flat marshlands that we found ourselves driving alongside in our approach to the Coromandel Forest Park. As soon as we crossed the Waihou River we were in thick forest again and the land was at an obvious incline. We wound up through jaw dropping hills and forest land to eventually arrive at Opoutere on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula.
We arrived at 19:00 which gave us a couple of hours of dusk at the breathtaking scenery at Opoutere and leisurely stroll to the beach, which was a surfers paradise of big strong waves, and a stroll to a wildlife reserve at the sandspit of Wharekawa harbour. I remarked to Ian that I thought Opoutere was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. It has such a contrast between a beautiful, powerful pacific ocean beach and a serene, tranquil, calm harbour with stunning forest surrounds. It is truly beautiful and the only sounds to be heard are the tuneful song of birds and waves breaking in the background, partly muffled by the trees.
We covered a distance of 496 kilometres from Opononi to Opoutere.
Copyright 2002 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.