The Coromandel

Cabin fever (and a nasty head cold for Jo) got us thinking that it would be a really good idea to get out of Hamilton for the afternoon so we headed North East for the spectacular Coromandel Peninsula. Back in SA before we left, we had taken a little squizzy on Google Earth and seen that this part of NZ is really beautiful. It was also the last 'holiday' day before Jo reports for work on the morning of the 9th - as I sit here doing this entry, it is Monday morning and the week has begun here for us - sometimes we tend to forget that you guys in SA are 11 hours behind us, so right at this moment you are heading for bed on Sunday evening and so most of you will be asleep while I am sitting here at the laptop!

Once again we were struck by the fantastic condition of the roads - it seems that no matter where we go, the roads are dramatically better than any we are used to - no potholes, good surfaces and everything is very well signposted, so it's not too difficult to get to where you want to be! The other drivers on the roads also make for a pleasant journey for the most part - there are very few 'idiots' out there and most folks seem to stick to the rules and the speed limit. We also realised that the speed limit thing is not as dramatic as we thought at first - maximum speed of 100kph, sounds mega slow, but the roads are often so incredibly windy and often quite narrow, that you can't really drive much faster than that anyway.

It seems that the houses all over New Zealand are much of a muchness - mostly they are wooden constructions with 'other things' stuck on top so that they look like brick homes. Some, of course are clearly wooden slats, most of which are then painted. Outside our room here at the motel, the corners of the building have 'brick' edges - stuck on bits, if you know what I mean - a big one then a little then a big one and so on up the corner of the building - anyway - what's interesting about that (I hear you asking!) is that the 'brick' bits are polystyrene - I kid you not - about an inch thick polystyrene stuck onto the building edges and painted a pretty contrasting shade to the main building! Here and there, the corner has broken off leaving raw, white polystyrene showing through!

Back to the Sunday drive - spectacular views - incredible winding roads over passes - through basically thick green bush, up and over and suddenly amazing views of an azure blue, flat sea which goes on forever and pretty bays with holiday homes right up to the shore and lots of yachts at anchor. Clearly no work here for Mother Theresa - not a 'poorest of the poor' in sight. Some of the homes are obviously shack type dwellings for people who work the sea - but these are in the minority - plenty of palaces from every possible vantage point with spectacular views. The whole afternoon we were out, there was not a breath of wind anywhere - not in the mountains, not on the shores of the bays, not on the open road between mountains - nowhere! We don't know if we just hit a good day, or whether it is really always so incredibly calm. In our experience, when you get out of your car at a 'spectacular view lookout vantage point' at the top of a mountain overlooking the sea, the wind howls around you no matter what the weather elsewhere is like - not here yesterday - calm as could be everywhere. The number of utes passing us going the other way - after a weekend away we assume - towing boats, was quite amazing - the road along the coast is really very narrow and winding and right up to the very edge of the land! I obviously took loads of photos - some of which I will try to post onto the blog for you to see - I included one with Jo in it, just to prove that we really were there in person. The scenery is almost unbelievably beautiful and you could be excused for thinking that we are pulling a fast one on you guys!

On the practical front, we are hoping that we will be able to finalise our living quarters in the course of today - the present tenants indicated that the house would be available from the 14th, which means if all the paperwork goes according to plan, we could be in our own little place from next weekend. The motel has been great - but enough now! We attended the ACK church in Hamilton both last Sunday and this, so have made contact with ex-South Africans who have been falling over themselves to be welcoming and to offer any kind of help we could possibly need. Yesterday, Cor Bezuidenhout who is the liaison for 'new immigrants' (a high school teacher who coaches the rugby team) said he's got a whole bunch of stuff lined up for us in our new place and until our container arrives -beds,linen,diningtable,tumbledryer,microwave, crockery,cutlery and so on and so on! He just needs to know when we are moving in so that he can arrange the trailer and bring all the things over to the address we give him! It's good to know that we have an open invitation to call in at Cor and Mariaan anytime - they have been here for about four years, have three daughters, the last of which was born here, and still speak Afrikaans at home. It's incredible to hear the littlest one chatting away in Afrikaans and then switching to kiwi-english when English speaking kids are around! I have also noticed that the South Africans we have met so far, who are actually English speaking, haven't picked up too much of an accent - the Afrikaans speaking ones, (not all, but certainly some) have quite a kiwi accent when speaking English! Of course it also depends on how long they have been here!

I have some 'housework' to do - there is a 'ktching, ktching' money guzzling washing machine and dryer here at the motel which needs feeding, so will sign off, hopefully with a photo or two for you to see!