Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better…

This last week was spent in Opoutere. A small coastal town on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula, remember the Pinnacles, it is home to the magnificent Wharakawa Harbor and estuary. We stayed at a Youth Hostel across the road from the field site. Class time this week was dedicated to producing a map of vegetation along the mean high water spring mark, a.k.a. average high tide. To do this thoroughly a few high vantage points and up-close observations were necessary for scale and resolution. In other words I hiked to the top of two hills overlooking the estuary and spent the rest of the week in a kayak, checking out the mangroves and beach scenes. Needless to say, I was in my element.




Wharakawa Harbor is protected by a sand-spit that continues on to become a beach accessible through sand dunes. An endemic bird, the Dotterel, has a sanctuary on the spit. There are only 1,500 left and I was within three meters of four of the little beauties. I felt like a little boy getting excited for an ice cream after a day at the beach.




That is not the only childish thing I have done in the past week. We were given an hour on the beach to essentially build a sand castle. How much are you jealous? But of course, it wasn’t actually a sand castle. It was an island built to scale from a topographic map, an extension of our map-making tool kit. But I still got to play in the sand.

We also had some time in the evening to go for a stroll in the dark. Not only is it empowering to realize if you give yourself a chance, you can walk quite successfully at night, but you are also able to see the glowworms. The larva of some fly, the glow worm lets down a silken fishing line from its abdomen and lights up to attract it’s meal. Looking into the bush looked no different that looking up at the stars.

That was the class portion of the week. From Fri afternoon through Sun evening I was on my own to do what I pleased on the stunning Coromandel Peninsula. A van-full of us were dropped off at Whangamata (accent on the final syllable), a small surf town at the southern reaches, mainland side, of the peninsula. We spent a few hours at jollification for the beginning of our weekend, then walked the main strip, the only truly public place in town. Then, of course, a few hours were spent on the beach, just watching and swimming in the surf.



Although each day was spent with just a few of us at a time, the thumbers, each night was spent with all 26 of the EcoQuesters (yes, it’s a janky name). The night at Whangmata was spent at a motor camp where a few of us met Patricia and Ivan, a pair of middle-aged mothers who were out-of-town for the weekend. Talking life with these two Auklanders began the culture dive that I would take this weekend and I hope to take every time I travel to a new place.

Saturday morning around 10a the six of us thumbers separated once again from the main group, who had rented vans. I was teamed up with James. Destination: Hahei Store. We did make it there eventually. Our first driver, just outside of town was a nice couple in a truck just going down the road a piece to a neighboring town. We rode in the truck bed with the cutest little dog ever. Next was a man in a sedan on a joy ride up the peninsula to Tairua, about a third of the way up State-Highway 25, the main road to our destination. He was a Catholic Priest, who had just finished marrying a couple in Whagamata. This is where the world becomes a small place. He was in Michigan for a brief trip and remembered it quite well. Outside of Tairua we were picked up in another truck by Amy and Max, fellow students who had hitched a ride from a forester named Phil.

Phil was not going to Hahei, but was going home to another town on the other side of the bay from Hahei, Whitianga. As we were planning on seeing Whitianga sometime over the weekend, this was not a bad opportunity to follow Phil home. We spent and hour and a half at his place at the top of a hill overlooking the bay, one of the best views I have ever seen from a residential area. He was extremely passionate about the dropping of 1080 pellets onto ridgelines to control the invasive Australian possum population. Essentially Agent Orange, 1080 not only kills possum, but whatever happens to get a bite of the shiny blue pellet. After a bit more of “green” semantics, Phil suggested the ferry to get across the bay, which he dropped us off at.

The ferry only took about 5 minutes to cross and put us in a place called Ferry Landing, simply a residential area. The roads were under construction, so paths were created off the road to walk. This was not suitable for hitchhiking at all. James and I stopped a bit passed the ferry parking lot just before the walking path split from the road. There we were picked up by a nice young lady by the name of Kara. As we had done so each time we met someone new, we exchanged a few questions. “Where are you from? What are you doing? Where have you been?” Well, when she heard we were just in Whitianga she was obliged to ask us, “With whom?” Phil was not only a friend of hers, but he has been her ex-boyfriend for three months. James, Kara, and myself were in hysterics for quite a while finding out “how short” the world is. Kara dropped us off at Hahei store.

After meeting up with the rest of the thumbers at Hahei Beach, we hiked over the hills to Cathedral Cove. From there we tamped under the natural arch and headed over a rocky embankment, which traveled more like a boulder field. At the other end was the secret beach, our destination for the night. Firewood was gathered and a ring set up to contain the flames. Surprisingly the main group made it to us around dusk, just as surprised to see us. I will not chance to describe the scene, but simply include the pictures from the walk and destination. No short of fun was had that evening in complete solitude and serenity.





Sunday was not as easy a trip to travel back to Kaiaua, but we still met some awesome people on the way. I am sure I will be telling stories of this weekend for many years to come, you will just have to wait to see me to get the storytellers flare in person. I am sure I will have a hefty repertoire of stories by that time.

Until that time, my best.