If It Was Today...

Driving Creek Railway

Posted on March 3, 2025 by If It Was Today

Coromandel town seems to be known more for rugged scenery than for beaches, so … amazingly … we did NOT go to a beach today. Instead, we visited Driving Creek Railway.

We learned that the railway started as a working railway in 1973 to bring clay for pottery and wood for kilns down the mountain to the newly opened pottery studio. One thing led to another, and over time the railway expanded to allow tourists to ride the railway or the zip line. (Next time I’m taking the zip line!) The pottery studio grew into an arts collective that still attracts artists from around the world. Because of this, you will see lots of pottery related themes, beginning with the sculpture garden in a nature preserve. Here are just some of the sculptures you can see.

The railway has a number of retaining walls, and they have started to line these with clay tiles and art. Eventually, all the tunnels and retaining walls will be lined with pottery.

As the railway climbed up through the forest of native trees, the view became more and more impressive.

The terrain is so steep that several times the train had to pull into a reversing point to change direction. It’s hard to explain, but this picture should give you a sense of what I mean. This was taken on our way down, so we are on the track that goes up, and after we pull into the reversing point, we take the track on the right that goes down.

As we were sitting in one of the reversing points, we looked out the window and Jan spotted a Walking Stick insect. We looked in vain for one when we were in Zealandia, and here we spot one sitting outside our train window. Serendipity.

The land was originally privately owned for the pottery studio, but it has since been turned into a nature trust. This means that you cannot chop down any native trees. It also means that you must help the forest return to a natural state, which means letting tree stumps rot in place.

When we got to the bottom, it was back to the B&B for our final night before heading to Auckland airport. This bubbly is from Marlborough so technically that makes this an ad hoc TOCC meeting.

Usually near the end of a trip, we start looking forward to being home. But on this trip, we’ve already started planning next year’s visit to New Zealand.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Coromandel, Driving Creek Railway, New Zealand, Photography, Travel | 2 Comments

Another Day, Another Beach

Posted on March 2, 2025 by If It Was Today

We moved from the east coast to the west coast of the Coromandel today. It’s a short drive – only 47 km, but the roads are very narrow and winding, so Google maps says that the trip could take up to an hour. We found that to be pretty accurate. You can do the math and figure out how fast (slow) we were driving. But even with a very slow drive, we still had time to kill before we could check into your next hotel. So we decided to check out … wait for it … more beaches. I saw at least three beaches along our route, but one looked particularly interesting. It was a bit off our path, and had an access road that was even narrower and steeper than the rest of the drive, but it turned out to be well worth it.

Most of the beach was pure sand, but one end had rocks that jutted out of the water, and other rock that rose out of the beach.

The surf was impressive to watch, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be in the water anywhere near the rocks.

As we were walking along the beach, a couple asked us to take their picture, and we started to talk. They were from Germany on an extended trip to Australia and New Zealand. Like us, they had fallen in love with New Zealand and planned to return, even though for them the flight is even longer than it is for us. As we were leaving, they asked if we wanted them to take our picture as well.

One of the things this beach is known for is the “stick in the sand”. I’ve no idea how it started, but it has become a permanent fixture.

The last beach we stayed at had a ton of sea shells that had just been opened by the seabirds. On this beach, the shells had been worn down to the point where almost nothing remained.

A picnic table under a tree by the beach gives you a sense of how relaxing this beach was.

Behind the beach there were equally stunning hills.

Eventually we had to leave the beach and brave the rest of the drive to our hotel in Coromandel town. We arrived safely, and after checking in and unpacking, we went for a walk in a nearby nature reserve with native trees and birds.

The star attraction of the reserve is a 1200 year old kauri tree. Let that sink in for a moment as you think about what was happening in the world when that tree sprouted. Here is a picture of the tree. It’s hard to capture the true scale of the tree, but it is over two meters in diameter.

The upper branches held an entire ecosystem of their own.

Later on the walk we spotted this mushroom near a pine cone and thought it made an interesting picture.

And then, outside the reserve, some blackberries. All I could think of was the snow at home.

And a single African Daisy. More thoughts of snow.

Then it was back to the B&B for drinks on the deck as we looked through pictures to find the theme for the day. The temperature dropped as the sun set, and we enjoyed a lovely Pinot Noir we bought at the winery in Blenheim as we ate on the deck. We enjoyed a steak salad with blue cheese. New Zealand makes fantastic blue cheese, by the way. Every one we have tried here has been amazing. But not as amazing as the view of the setting sun illuminated the hills.

Tomorrow … will be another day. Another lovely day, no doubt.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Coromandel, New Zealand, Otama Beach, Photography, Stick in the sand, The Beach, Travel | 3 Comments

Beachcombers

Posted on March 1, 2025 by If It Was Today

We were enjoying our morning latte and listening to the sound of the surf outside our patio window when an email arrived in my inbox. It was from our snowplow company notifying us that they would be sending the tractors out later today because we were expecting another 10 – 15 cm of snow. Then I realized we only had another four days before we would be leaving this, for that.

After a leisurely morning, we walked along the waterfront to enjoy the sun and to check out places for dinner tonight. As we walked, Jan spotted a fairy house in a tree by the sidewalk.

Later, when we were feeling a bit peckish, we ducked into a waterfront cafe for couveture, beef carpaccio salad (the beef carpaccio in New Zealand is unlike any I’ve ever had before, and it is amazing) and a glass of NZ Rose. We started joking about the snowplow email we had received, and before we knew it, we were checking NZ accommodations for next year.

After lunch we changed into our bathing suits and headed for the beach (yet again).

New Zealand beaches are kinda the same, and yet they are all different. This beach had more shells than all the previous beaches combined. And the seabirds loved it – they had a buffet laid out for them and they were taking advantage of it.

You could see them probing for lunch.

And when they found something, all their friends wanted a piece of the action.

On most beaches, all that you see is one half of the shell, but here, it’s clear the shells have been recently opened by the seabirds. This picture shows a bunch of freshly opened shells.

There were so many shells of all types that I may go into more detail on a future post. But for today, I’ll end with this picture that seems to show a bunch of shells cemented together. Interesting.

Tomorrow we are on the move again, heading across the Coromandel to the west side. We’ll see what we find there.

Posted in Travel | Tagged New Zealand, Photography, Sea shells, Seabirds, The Beach, Travel, Whitianga | Leave a comment

Hot Water Beach

Posted on February 28, 2025 by If It Was Today

The name might not be all that imaginative, but it is accurate. Hot Water Beach sits on top of a thermal spring that pushes hot water up through the sand. If you dig a hole in just the right spot, you can create your own little hot tub.

The guide books recommend that you visit within two hours of low tide for the best experience. That meant that today, the best time was between noon and 4:00 pm. Our travel schedule aligned perfectly with this, so we picked up sandwiches as we were leaving Waihi and headed north. The road had stunning views at every turn. This is a polite way to say that the road was narrow, winding, and clinging to the side of mountains all the way. I’m exaggerating, of course, but not by much. It was impressive, but not relaxing. So when we arrived, we took a moment to sit in the shade (in our beach chairs) and enjoy the views over the beach.

After lunch, we changed into our swim suits, applied lots of sunscreen, rented a spade, and went in search of the hot water.

It is a large beach, and there aren’t any signs telling you where to dig. But if you follow the crowd, it is soon obvious.

We found a promising spot and went to work.

It isn’t as easy as it looks. As you dig deeper, the water coming up through the sand, pushes more sand into the hole. But eventually we had it deep enough to enjoy. One reason we stopped digging was that as we dug deeper, the sand and the water got hotter.

Sitting in our little hot tub was a little like sitting on a hot water bottle. A very hot, hot water bottle. When a particularly large wave washed into our pool, it brought it back to the perfect temperature. But soon it was hot again, so I started to experiment, because … I’m me. I discovered that the hot spots were very localized. If you moved less than a meter away, the water in the hole might be cold. So I expanded the hot tub trying to get the temperature just right by spanning zones. For a while, my feet were too hot, and my shoulders were too cool. I’ll let you figure out where it was just right.

By the time we left, it was getting very crowded.

Hot Water Beach is definitely worth a visit, but I’m not sure we’ll be back. It’s an interesting novelty, but not as nice as our day at the beach yesterday.

When we got back to the car we changed and then headed to our hotel in Whitianga. We booked a room looking out over the beach.

The water and the wind, along with the drive, was more tiring than we expected, so we decided to eat in tonight. We have a small kitchen, pate, a bottle of lovely Riesling from our winery tour in Blenheim, and the sound of the waves from our open patio door. It’s a good way to end the day.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Coromandel, Hot Water Beach, New Zealand, Photography, Travel | Leave a comment

The Days Are Just Packed

Posted on February 27, 2025 by If It Was Today

Yesterday, Jan confessed she was getting a little tired of the sunshine and warm weather, and starting to look forward to being home. Today, as we were walking barefoot through the surf, Jan turned to me and said “forget what I said yesterday”.

Part of the problem yesterday was that it was a travel day. We’ve been generally spending two nights at each stop and then moving on. It was a conscious decision on our part because we wanted to check out a lot of towns to discover places that were worth visiting again. And it has worked, even if it does get tiring. Every time we think we’ve found the best-ever beach, we find an even better one. That happened again today.

As we were walking on the sand, the waves occasionally washed over our feet, so we would move higher up the beach. The Variable Oystercatchers were also walking along the sand, and when the water came in, the oystercatchers would also run up the beach toward dry sand … just like we were doing.

This beach was very flat with a shallow grade, which makes it a very wide beach, perfect for walking or swimming. I think it was even better than the beach at Mount Maunganui. As the water drained out after a large wave, the surface of the wet sand was like a mirror. Here’s another picture with a reflection, similar to the one from yesterday.

At the very beginning of our trip, when we were in Queenstown, we bought two folding camp chairs so we could sit on the beach. We’ve been here four weeks and the chairs haven’t moved from the back seat of our rental car. We just haven’t found an opportunity to use the chairs. That changed today!

I know we could sit and read all day at home, in front of the fireplace. And yet, somehow, it just isn’t the same as sitting with your bare feet on the cool sand, listening to the waves.

We didn’t have the beach to ourselves, but it was pretty close. There certainly weren’t any people encroaching on our spot against the cliff, under the shade of an overhanging tree.

The original plan had been to head back into town for lunch, but it was just too relaxing. A quick search found a small cafe 350 meters from where we were sitting, so I walked over and picked up sandwiches to eat on the beach. We were worried about seagulls, but in the end there was only one, though he insisted on being allowed to clean up the few crumbs that had fallen in the sand. Then it was back to reading and watching the surf.

Doing nothing all day can be pretty exhausting (in a good way) and about 3:30 we packed up and headed back to our hotel. After a cool shower, it was time for a very local brew – a KPA, where the K stands for Kiwi.

Tomorrow is another travel day. Next time we’ll likely stay here for at least a week. We are planning to stop at Hot Water Beach along the way to our next hotel – everyone says it is a must-see. We’ll let you know how it is.

Posted in Travel | Tagged New Zealand, Photography, The Beach, Travel, Waihi | 1 Comment

Jan’s Happy Place

Posted on February 26, 2025 by If It Was Today

When we were in Mount Maunganui in 2023, the thing that we were the least excited about was the restaurants. They were good, but they weren’t great. We had much better luck this time, with excellent meals two nights in a row. Last night as we were finishing up dinner, an Australian family sitting next to us was trying to take a selfie of the full table. We offered to take the picture for them, so of course, they offered to take our picture as well.

We chatted briefly and mentioned that we were Canadian, which sparked a very interesting discussion. More about that in a later post…

While we were eating dinner, we were looking at his sign on the restaurant wall. How could you say no?

Our next stop is Waihi in the Coromondal. It’s an easy drive, so after we loaded the car and checked out, we headed for the beach. The tide was out, so you can see just how wide and shallow the beach is. When I took this picture, I was standing on the high tide mark, and the beach continues inland another 50 feet of so beyond that point. By the way, if you look very closely, you can see Jan standing beside the rocks, to give you a sense of scale.

In case you are having difficulty spotting Jan in the previous picture, here is an expanded view.

We just walked barefoot along the beach. And walked, and walked. We walked a good two km before we turned around and headed back to the car. We were taking our time, but the wind, the sun, and the sand all combined to give us lots of exercise for the day.

Here are a few more pictures showing Jan walking in the surf and looking for sea shells.

Then it was on the road. We arrived in Waihi in time for lunch before checking into our hotel. We can’t walk to the beach from here, but it’s a short ten minute drive. We plan to head there tomorrow morning, and then check out some of the scenery and hikes in the afternoon. This is forestry and gold mining country, so it has a different look.

I’ll close with a random picture as I was out walking in town this afternoon.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, Photography, The Beach, Travel, Waihi | 1 Comment

Rinse and Repeat

Posted on February 25, 2025 by If It Was Today

Every day that I’ve ever spent in Mount Maunganui I’ve had pretty much the same routine. I suppose it would eventually get boring, but I think it would take a long time. I start with a walk across the street to pick up our morning lattes at The General, then back to the room for breakfast and lattes while working on our morning puzzles. Add in a bit of “nothing much” and a touch of “relaxing” and it’s pretty easy to get to 11:00 AM before we are ready to start a full day enjoying the sun and the sand. This is very different than your experience if you are on a cruise ship. When Jan was shopping yesterday she was asked if she was in town on a cruise ship – she said no, we were here for three days and had been driving all around New Zealand. We enjoy that way much better. Here is where the cruise ships dock.

Cruise ship in harbour … and a lot of sail boats

The first activity on a typical day in Mount Maunganui (after lattes and relaxing) is to walk up the Mount. Jan fully resolved her “summer wardrobe deficit” yesterday, so she joined me on the walk. The good news is that it is warm and sunny here. The bad news is that if you are walking up a mountain in the sun, it gets downright hot.

Jan decided that sheep are far smarter than we give them credit for. They were all relaxing in the shade.

Smart sheep – is that where they get smart wool???

So when we spotted a bench in the shade…

Then it was onward and upward. I kept saying “I think it flattens out around the next corner” but of course it never did. Finally we came to a fork in the road.

Here is a closeup of the options.

Option 1 was to go back the way we came, down 1030 meters of steep path, mostly in the sun. Option 2 was to continue upward for 830 meters on a steep path. Option 3 was to go 430 meters down a steep path, in the shade, and then walk around the base of the Mount – mostly flat and partly shaded. Jan wisely went for option 3. I foolishly continued to the top.

The scenery was lovely, but the sky was clear and there wasn’t much shade. But there was a breeze, and that brought out the paragliders.

Unfortunately there weren’t any tandem paragliders, or I would have been tempted to try it again. I pressed on and eventually I made it to the top, and to prove it I took a picture of the monument.

Then it was down to meet Jan as she was walking around the base. I almost missed her when she went off the path to explore.

It was getting late and we were hungry, so we headed back to the hotel for lunch and a little nap.

Then I went for a long walk (2.5 km each way) along the beach, barefoot through the surf. It is quite windy today and the breakers were impressive. I would have loved to take pictures, but yesterday when I went a bit too close to the water, my iPhone got wet. It’s waterproof so I didn’t worry about it, but when I plugged it in to recharge it gave me a warning that water had been detected, and I should let it dry first – a process that might take several hours. It did dry out eventually, but I decided my phone would stay home today, so no pictures of the surf. But you know what it looks like, right?

Tomorrow we head up into the Coromandel.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, Photography, Travel | Leave a comment

The Mount

Posted on February 24, 2025 by If It Was Today

When the snow is falling outside, and you are freezing your butt off every time you step out of the door, it’s really hard to pack for a trip to New Zealand summer. Every fiber of your body wants to make sure you won’t be cold, and as a result, you pack too many warm clothes, and not enough cool clothes. If my clothes are too warm, I can live with it – I might even like it. Jan, not so much. And that is how Jan decided to check out the end of summer clothing sales, while I went on one of my favourite walks in Mount Maunganui. But once again, I’m getting ahead of myself. Here is a picture of the setting sun last night from our hotel room. I quite enjoy the view.

After our breakfast and lattes, our first stop was the Mount Hot Pools where we booked massages. All this hard work has us both in need of some relaxing. On a more serious note, all the walking has us both feeling a little stiff, so a massage sounded like just the ticket. With that out of the way, I was off on my walk while Jan set out to address her wardrobe misalignment problem.

My goal was to walk to the top of Mount Maunganui, but there are two ways you can do that. The right way, from my perspective, is to walk up along the path, which is longer, but doesn’t have steps, and then walk down using the steps. The wrong way is to do it the other way around, like I did the first time I was here. Along the way you are treated to views of the “not-so-wild-life” and the pleasant scenery.

As always in New Zealand, there are interesting sculptures along the way.

And interesting plants – in this case another one of those noxious invasive species, but it’s pretty, in spite of that.

And when you get to the top, stunning views over the town and the beach that goes on forever.

Then it is time to head down, and after taking all the steps down (being thankful that you aren’t walking up), there is a lovely walk around the base of the Mount. It’s fairly flat with a cool breeze, the path is mostly shaded, and you can hear the sound of the surf breaking on the rocks all the way. If it gets any better than this, I haven’t found it yet.

After lunch and our massages, I went for another barefoot walk along beach. This never gets old.

And then it was time for Monday Beer Club, another candidate for as good as it gets.

Okay, one other candidate. Here is a picture of Jan at dinner, wearing her new (beautiful) summer dress.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, Photography, Travel | 2 Comments

Mount Maunganui

Posted on February 23, 2025 by If It Was Today

Mount Maunganui – known locally as “The Mount” – was one of our favourite stops on our first trip to New Zealand, two years ago. The beach is amazing, so I was looking forward to walking it again.

Mount Maunganui on my second birthday of the year?

I celebrated my birthday yesterday, but several people have pointed out that it is still my birthday in Canada, so I can technically celebrate my birthday again today. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Last night we walked into Taupo for dinner. It was a pleasant half hour walk and the exercise also let us enjoy dinner guilt free. Here is the view of the setting sun from the restaurant.

We arranged a late checkout today, so we could enjoy another leisurely start to the day. It’s a short drive from Taupo to The Mount (two hours) so even with our late start, we had time to stop and explore on our drive. We weren’t even out of town when we pulled into a lookout over Lake Taupo.

Our next stop was Huka Falls, just north of Taupo. It is well worth a visit, with a foot bridge over the falls.

The section of the falls visible from the foot bridge was more like rapids, but there are foot paths along the river, with other lookout points, so you can see the actual falls. They aren’t that high, but still very impressive.

The paths near the falls were quite crowded, but once you get away from the falls we had the path to ourselves.

We were hoping to see birds, but didn’t have any luck. Fortunately, we did see a number of interesting plants.

Although we enjoyed seeing this plant, when we investigated, we discovered that it is considered to be a “noxious invasive species” in New Zealand. Here is a closer look at the berries, which may explain why it is so invasive.

One of the most widely known symbols for New Zealand is a fern that is beginning to unfurl. I’ve seen them several times, but whenever I take a picture, it is out of focus. It seems that all the fine hairs on the fern make it difficult for the phone to focus. I guess that’s the disadvantage of taking your pictures with your phone. So I had Jan put her hand behind the fern to help the camera focus. Jan said we should call this picture “Cousin It”.

When I was looking for things to do around Taupo, I spotted Craters of the Moon. It is a geothermal area that features a boardwalk path where you can view steam vents and bubbling mud craters. How could we possibly resist? It was our next stop.

The valley is covered in low scrub brush, interspersed with bare patches and steam vents. The vegetation was interesting – it is a variety of Kanuka, which is usually a tall tree, but because the ground is so hot here, its growth is stunted so that it creates a low ground cover. I’ll show a few more photos that give you a sense of the walk.

Note how the steam is coming from the collapsed walls. This next picture shows how there are multiple steam vents around the valley.

In some places, the steam was more intense, and sometimes the wind would blow it across our path. The temperature effect was a bit like an outdoor sauna. It didn’t exactly “stink” but there was definitely a distinctive odour. Later, as we were driving through Rotorua, we noticed the same smell, but even stronger.

The walk took about an hour, along gravel paths and a boardwalk. Fortunately there was a cool breeze that provided some relief from the “sauna”, but we still felt the heat from the ground and from the steam vents. And if anyone was foolish enough to stray from the marked path…

By the time we finished Craters of the Moon, we had pretty much used up our time, so we got on the road to The Mount. After we arrived, we checked in, unloaded the car, unpacked, and then headed to the beach.

It’s techically the day after my birthday, but several friends have pointed out that it is still my birthday in Canada, so I am embracing that idea. And what better way to celebrate my birthday (even if it is the second one for this year) than to walk barefoot through the surf, in February.

Life is good!

Posted in Travel | Tagged Craters of the Moon, Huka Falls, Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, Photography, Taupo, The Beach, Travel | 2 Comments

Wairakei Thermal Spa

Posted on February 21, 2025 by If It Was Today

For my birthday, Jan booked a room at The Retreat in Taupo, and made dinner reservations at Roquette. And then this morning, she gave me carte blanche to pick the activity for today. Not complete carte blanche mind you – bungee jumping was out – but almost anything else was fair game. I looked at boat rides and scenic hikes, and then I spotted the Wairakei Thermal Spa, and it was settled.

Fair warning to our friends and family who are still digging out from multiple snowstorms, or enduring bitter cold temperatures. You may want to stop reading now.

We had a leisurely morning looking out over Lake Taupo. Once again, my body battery continued to recharge throughout the morning. About noon, we headed for the spa. We checked in, changed, and then walked to the pools, past a Māori carving.

The centerpiece of the spa is a sequence of three pools, heated by thermal springs, with a range of temperatures to suit every taste. The hottest pool can be very hot!

And if you are foolish enough to go outside the pool area, it can be dangerous.

The pool itself is lovely, and as you can see, it wasn’t particularly crowded, which was great.

Jan’s biggest fear was that the water would be too hot, but she managed to find a spot that worked.

Of course, the pool that was far too hot for Jan, was just right for me.

After a bit of experimenting, we managed to find a spot that worked for both of us.

We spent close to two hours relaxing in the hot pools and enjoying the therapeutic waters. Then it was back to The Retreat to relax and get ready for dinner. Tomorrow we head to Mount Maunganui. It’s a short drive so we will be able to take our time and stop to view some of the sights along the Thermal Highway, including Rotorua.