Author: john

Today was 24 degrees, mostly sunny.

Another nice day so decided to take a drive around the coastline to Coromandel Town, about 45km away.  Very nice scenic drive, stopped for coffee in the town, very like an old frontier town from the Old West! Then off to the Driving Creek Railway which is a narrow gauge railway originally built to bring clay down from the mountainside for potter Barry Brickell.  About an hour long, the train journey included lots of reversing to change lines to get up the mountainside to a lookout point on the top.  Lovely views from here but a bit hazy today, would be fantastic on a crystal clear day.

After that we headed back to Whitianga via an unsealed road, basically a road of loose gravel with lots of very tight bends and sheer drops which made for a very ‘exciting’ ride, particularly for Clare who wasn’t driving!  Stopped at Waiau Falls (like to use a lot of vowels in their place names).  There was a pool at the base of the falls to swim in, but far to cold for the likes of us.

Then on to a Kauri Tree grove.  Kauri trees are tall trees native to New Zealand but suffering from die-back so we had to pass through a shoe scrub and disinfect unit both in and out of the walk.  The area was full of prehistoric looking woodland and the trees were quite impressive.

Arrived back at the apartment and trying out the buttons on the car, discovered that the Sat Nav that we decided NOT to pay extra for with Avis is in fact a standard feature of the car! Result!

A sunny 27 degrees today so headed off to Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach.

At Hahei we were going to do the 75 minute walk to Cathedral Cove, over quite steep terrain but, as luck would have it, we spotted a boat tour from Hahei beach which took in the coast as well as Cathedral Cove, so opted for that.  When we gave our surname to the man he said that it was quite a common name around here but spelt Harsant and then we stumbled across the following:

John thinks he has come home and has decided he likes New Zealand so much he wants to live here!

Took the boat from the gorgeous beach up the coast to various caves and then back down to Cathedral Cove which was stunning, but unfortunately we didn’t land to get off and have a good look.

After that we went off to Hot Water Beach which is an area of hot water springs which are accessible 2 hours either side of low tide.  The idea is that you dig a hole in the sand and have a wallow in hot water so we went prepared with a couple of shovels from the apartment.  The spring area was packed with people digging holes.  Some of the water was extremely hot, scalding in fact. We managed to find a hole that had been vacated and dug down a little to get more water, most strange that boiling hot water was coming up right next to cold water and had to be careful where we sat!

 John in hole with hot bum.

After 1/2 hour sitting in a mud hole Clare got bored as John had all the hot water so we went for a little walk along the beach and then “both” braved  (yes, even John!) the 18 degrees sea to wash off the sand.

Landed at about 11.15 am, now 13 hours ahead of UK.  Collected car but no map book to be purchased in the airport and we had declined the offer of sat nav hire at $4 per day!  Thankfully our phones work here on our UK plans so Google maps came to the rescue and we found our way to Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsular – about  2 1/2 hour drive, arriving at about 3 pm.  The drive across country was lovely – reminiscent of the UK, but completely different too!  Our apartment at Admiralty Lodge is a bit downmarket compared to the Anantara Riverside Hotel in Bangkok!  First apartment we were shown to didn’t have a door on the bathroom!  So that was rejected and the one we are now in has a few maintenance issues, but have got used to them now!

Fortunately the supermarket was open to 9pm (this is a Sunday) so we did a quick shop for salad for tea and then collapsed into bed after another 30 hour day.

View from our apartment

 

Heavy rain today, so lazy morning packing ready for flight to Auckland.

Flight on Boeing 787, not as good as flight out.  Noisy engines and we were sitting 2 rows away from 5 toilets with very loud suction flushes and a plane full of octogenarians with prostate problems it would seem – so no sleep to be had at all!  Must remember to get seats further back on the way home!

Alarm call at 5.30 am to get ready for 7.00 am pick up to go to floating market.  Just us and a couple of ex-pat Kenyans now living in Enfield in the minibus with a driver and guide who was very entertaining (deliberately and not so deliberately!) Stopped at a coconut processing centre where they use every part of the coconut from the flower for sugar, to oils, creams and decorative objects from the flesh and nut.  Watched them making coconut sugar – very sweet, taste and consistency of fudge.  Then on to floating market.  Travelled through canals of various degrees of attractiveness in a long tail boat to the market which is basically a car or lorry engine mounted on a gimbal with the propeller fixed on the end of 10 feet of drive shaft. A bit like a huge egg whisk!

Then got onto a paddled sampan for the trip round the market which was full of tourist tat, not the least bit tempted! As the other couple with us didn’t buy anything either we were round in record time with an hour and a half to kill before collection.  Wandered around and found another section of canal selling boat food mostly to locals, much more interesting.

Back to hotel for much needed rest round the pool.

Very hot day today.  Caught the shuttle boat to main pier and then hop-on, hop-off ticket to go up river to see main sights.  Got off to see Wat Pho and Grand Palace and was strolling along avenue towards Wat Pho when we were advised by a local that the Temple was closed until 1.30 pm due to prayers for . . .. . . . . the Kings Birthday.  He suggested we went to see the 4 Buddhas and the Tall Buddha as they would be open and on the way we can go to a jewellery manufacturers who were open to the public today, tax free because it’s the day after the Kings Birthday!  So before we knew it we were back in a tuk-tuk, which he hailed for us, and speeding crazily along to the 4 Buddhas temple.

We got chatting to a Chinese American in the temple who said his wife was at the jewellery place and went there every time they came over and as it wasn’t generally known to tourists we ought to go and have a look.  Even so, we told our driver that we didn’t want to go there but he said he received fuel tokens for taking people there so we folded and said OK but just to look, no buying!  £100 later Clare has a silver ring set with a sapphire stone.  Suckered again, must be written on our foreheads!

Next we saw the Tall Buddha who lived up to his name

We then went back to Wat Pho, only to be told by a local that it was closed for prayers for the Kings birthday and that we should go to , , , , , ,

We said NO! and went in the temple anyway which was all open.  Beginning to suspect they were all lying bas***ds!

 

Saw lots of Stupa (ceramic tiled towers) plus the reclining Buddha, then got lost trying to find our way back to the pier.  John was very red in the face and drenched with sweat, Clare was as cool as a radish in what must have been more then 45 degrees.

Back to hotel for quick shower then back up river to collect the dress from the tailors.  Tuk-tuk driver didn’t know where to go and we ended up caught up in rush hour traffic (horrendous traffic during non-rush hour), breathing fumes from all the cars around, very tired, hot and headachy.  Finally made it to the tailors but the tuk-tuk would not wait so paid him off and 15 minutes later we’re back on  god knows what street trying to get a tuk-tuk to take us back to the pier.  First one refused and then a nice young man sitting outside the tailors offered to take us on his tuk-tuk, thank goodness.

End of an intense day.  All tuk-tuked and templed out!  Got a nice dress  and ring though!

John was so tired when he entered the last post that he forgot the following detaii:

In the afternoon we decided to go into Bangkok centre using the hotel’s shuttle boat service which took us to the main pier in town with the intention of getting public boats to go further up river to see the lay of the land and work out where we wanted to go.  But when we went to get our tickets a local ‘guide’ called Pong told us that as it was the Kings Birthday today the boats were stopping at 3 pm so wasn’t worth going.  However he talked for ages and told us all about some local shops that were having a tax free day because it was the Kings Birthday and we should get a tuk-tuk to get there.  Wrote it all out on our map; couldn’t get away from him.  Eventually we left him and wandered off in the direction he mentioned with absolutely no intention of going into shops or using a tuk-tuk but were going to look at a nearby temple.  But 5 minutes later he passed us and told us we were going the wrong way and that the temple was closed for, you guessed it, the Kings Birthday.  Before we knew where we were we were seated in a tuk-tuk speeding crazily on our way to the first shop.  Which turned out to be a tailors shop.   Clare was “talked into” buying a tailor-made sundress but John managed to resist the pressure to buy shirts and trousers. No room in our cases, we said.  Back to the tuk-tuk but we refused to go to the next shop much to the drivers disgust and went back to the pier to get the boat to the safety of the hotel. Being awake for 33 hours must have impaired our judgement, honest!

We left Heathrow on Tuesday in an Airbus A380. A truly enormous aircraft. We were seated on the top deck and it was an excellent flight. After nearly 12 hours in the air we landed in Bangkok at about 06:00 local time and found the transfer to the hotel. As the room wasn’t going to be available until the afternoon we had time to kill around the pool. It was really warm and we had been up for about 18 hours by then but it was impossible to sleep so we just made the most of things.  A swim, some refreshments and we were almost the first on the sun beds.

The hotel is great and the staff are excellent.

 

 

 

 

We did meet some of the local wildlife in the form of some rather large lizards that seem to wander about the place. Given their size no one bothers them. This one was the best part of three feet long.

We had a run into the city on the river and then returned to the hotel for a rest before dinner. Then turned in for a well earned early night. As I write this I have been awake to the best part of 32 hours.