day one: auckland to coromandal town
Key
- Destinations
- Apex Locations
Leaving Auckland we drive south through Clevedon to the Seabird Coast. The road
travels alongside the still waters and startling-white shell banks of the Firth
of Thames from Kaiaua to Miranda with its world-renowned, 8500-hectare, intertidal
sanctuary for migratory birds. We stop at the Miranda Shorebird Centre, where detailed
display boards explain how the region is a temporary abode for thousands of migrating
shorebirds navigating their way from Eastern Siberia and the Alaskan tundra to spend
the summer in New Zealand.
The bar-tailed godwit and lesser knot are the most commonly sighted tourists. “It’s
a long way to come for a little R&R,” jokes Bob, as we stand on the shoreline
scouting for birds. There are hundreds including pied oyster-catchers who return
to the Firth after breeding in the South Island.
We drive past the popular Miranda Hot Springs, where the waters of these once swamp-like
natural springs were transformed in 1959 into what was then the largest thermal
pool in the Southern Hemisphere, and on to Waitakaruru where two one-way bridges
pass over the same river.
Stretching our legs in the Waitakaruru antique store, we hear from an old-timer
that the army built the second bridge for the Queen's visit to New Zealand in 1953.
“Up in a day,” he grumbles, “Don’t see that now!”
A long, single-lane bridge leads to Kopu and ten minutes later we’re in Thames,
a town that had a larger population than Auckland back in the height of the 1880s
gold boom. There are a number of old buildings and relics from that era, particularly
at its northern end around Grahamstown.
We pop into Eco People, with its dazzling array of hand-crafted soaps. One novel
product is ‘Washy Squashy’ moulding soap; it’s similar to kids’ play dough, but
easier on the clothes and home. Some of the soap, like the blackberry, sweet kiwifruit,
feijoa and mandarin bars, smell almost edible and I keep an eye on Bob -when it
comes to him and food, nothing would surprise me!..
please click the link to download the full
Auckland to Whakatane scenic drive, courtesy of apex car rentals new
zealand... the kiwi way
to read more extracts from our driving holiday's guidebook please click on any of
the following links:
north island scenic drives
south island scenic drives