L0p3z and Neno's Upside-Down Adventure: Coromandel Part 1

For the final part of Carol & Boyd's trip we had booked a few nights in a holiday home in Tairua in the Coromandel Peninsula just east of Auckland. Our first stop along the way were the small town of Paeroa, world famous (in New Zealand) for the soft drink Lemon & Paeroa. Next we reached the start of the peninsula itself and the town of Thames. We walked round a bit but to be honest there isn't much to see beyond a few old buildings. We stopped for a picnic further along the road. Boyd got chatting to a local guy who mentioned that there was a Rock n Roll car and music festival called the Beach Hop on in Whangamata over the weekend. Luckily it was just down the road from where we were staying so we went down the following day to check out the festival.

Giant lemon & Paeroa bottle in Paeroa

Surprisingly there were thousands of people at this festival, many had brought their classic cars along even if they weren't part of the official event. We all agreed it was the biggest collection of classic cars we'd seen. The atmosphere was great with the music, the engines constantly revving and some of the car owners dressing up in 50's gear to complete the Rock n Roll look. Needless to say Boyd was in his element with so much to photograph. Until his camera battery ran out and he had to borrow Janine's purple point and shoot camera.

The next morning we had a long drive up to Coromandel Town deciding to do the scenic 309 Road. This is a windy gravel road named after how long it used to take to navigate it. Although the weather was not perfect we managed to get to a lookout and avoid the rain in the forest to see some more kauri trees. By the end the car was really dirty but we were not sure how as every other car coming down the road was clean. We blamed Janine's slow driving. Coromandel Town is nice little village with cafes and arty shops, we found a cool spot for lunch as Janine had forgotten the picnic and all ate too much as usual. After this we drove to New Chums Beach. Well we drove as far as we could but as it's a secluded beach not accessible by road so needed a scramble over rocks to get to it. The tide times were against us so we left the more senior members of the group to relax on beach by the car park. Janine and I headed off as fast as we could, we didn't want to get stuck on the other side of the headland when the tide came in. We were rewarded when we got to New Chums Beach though, it's an amazing bay with clear blue water surrounded by bush and large cliffs. Once we met up with Janine's parents again we went off to Whitianga to find dinner. Finally we got back to the holiday home to relax with a beer and a film.