Coromandel

The Coromandel

On our way to Coromandel we stopped a Miranda Shorebird Center.  We saw thousands of migrating birds - godwits, wrybills, and pied stilts were the only ones we could see close enough to identify.

Migrating birds at Miranda Shorebird Center
The small birds in the center are wrybills.

The bach on Wyuna Bay had amazing views of the ocean, islands, and mussel beds.

We drove up 309 Road to Waiau Waterfall (disappointing) and on to the Kauri Grove.  The Kauri Grove was great with a short 10 minute loop path.  You passed Siamese Kauri Trees and other large trees likely to be about 800 to 1000 years old.  

Large kauri tree

Kauri grove

We visited the Driving Creek Railwaywhich has an hour long trip on the property of Barry Brickell.  A narrow guage railway doesn't sound that exciting until you know the whole background story.  

Barry Bricknel, a teacher who came to Coromandel to teach quit his job after 2 years to pursue his career as a potter.  He bought a plot of 60 acres of land that had a outbuildings and places where he could find clay to make his pots.  To get the clay back to his barn he started to lay track and build a railway.  He wasn't an engineer.  He just figured out how to build the track himself, making switch backs to climb the side of the hill.  He made the track from old rails he got from the old railroads no longer in use in New Zealand.  He dug and lay the track himself.  Over the years the track got longer and longer.  The track climbs up to the Eyeful Tower - a tower he built with views down over the town, bay and islands below.  At some point, someone encouraged him to give rides to people and charge them so he could fund his artwork.  It has been running for 
years now, and the train has brought many tourists to the area in fact recently they had their millionth visitor.  He has become a well-known sculptor, and many sculptors have come to learn from him over the years.  There are many large kilns and workshops on the property.  He also built an area on his land that it's fenced and 
predatir free so he could have kiwis on his property and reintroduce other native species back to this spot.  There was so much to see.  Sadly we learned on the news that he died of cancer this week at the age of 80.

Clay ready for working on the bench and kilns in the back.

http://www.drivingcreekrailway.co.nz/Building-DCR.cfm

The small train moving through the bush

One of the switch backs for the train.

They consumed a great deal of wine while making the
track

View from Eyefull tower

All the bricks making the tunnel and walls were made
from the clay on the property and in the kilns
made by other handmade bricks

We hiked down to beautiful Catherdral Cove on the east coast

Upper view of Cathedral Cove

Views near Cathedral Cove

On the beach at Cathedral Cove