Tag Archives: Whitianga

New Zealand, Travel Planning

46. Whitianga – Papakura

Saturday, March 28: Rain in the Eastern Coromandel which disappeared over the mountain range towards Thames; one or two showers with some sunny periods

Michelle’s (airbnb, $45)

There was time for a shower this morning and breakfast was over before the girls got up. Everything was packed away neatly and I was ready to go by 9:30.

For the first part it was very rainy, so perhaps the car was a bit cleaner, but the rain dematerialised very quickly on the downward approach to Thames. In Thames itself I parked the car opposite the i-site and went for a walk up and down the main street. There was some sort of charity event on and eventually found a place with a steak pie for $3.2. The library had closed at 12:00 which was pretty exactly the time I arrived there. Down the SH2 I kept a lookout for a place to stop to have lunch but only found the Café Bugger, and one picnic place where it was very difficult to drive onto it, so I continued on and was pretty quickly on the motorway. Then there was a fruit-and-veg place with an opportunity to park and I had the (by now lukewarm) pie there.Read more…

New Zealand, Photography

45. Whitianga – Coromandel Town – Waiau Falls

Friday, March 27: Overnight rain, sometimes quite heavy, lighter rain in the morning, cloud in the hills, a bit of sun in Coromandel

On the Beach

I was up fairly bright and early but the day didn’t look like it was going to be up to much so I waited around a bit, had a look at the surf and could tell that the kayaking would be off again. The alternative was to drive to Coromandel and see if I could do one or two short walks. sandwiches were prepared and off I took at around 11:00 after seeing that my bookings for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were in the bag. Read more…

GPS Tracks, New Zealand, Photography, Tramping

44. Whitianga: Cathedral Cove

Thursday, March 26: Some fine spells in the course of the day but mainly cloudy, and rain in the evening

Tramping: Cathedral Cove, 3.3 km

On the Beach

Cathedral Cove Archway
Archway at Cathedral Cove at high tide. Median pixel of ca. 540 shots

The two Chinese girls were very well organised and after their instant noodles for breakfast and some chocolate they had packed up what little they had and were downstairs on the dot of 10:00 to wait for their bus, which as far as I could see was some time in coming. In the meantime I had gone for a walk in the direction of the outer settlements and had not seen very much, except for one heron who allowed me to get very close.

Tourist trap extraordinaire
Tourist trap extraordinaire. [download id="1966"]
I decided on driving out to Hahei to see what the story with kayaking was, although the waves today looked no smaller that yesterday’s – because the brochure said, “Daily.” Had a quick lunch of some toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches and then took off down the road (~30 km) with most of the equipment I thought was needed. Found the place in Hahei, but no one at home; only a handwritten sign that the morning had been called off but that the afternoon was running. Found some phones at the tiny shopping centre and called but the afternoon tour had also been called off; was advised to call back tomorrow morning. Read more…

GPS Tracks, New Zealand, Tramping

43. Whitianga

Wednesday, March 25: Sunny and warm, one big dark cloud in the afternoon, but no rain

Tramping: Shakespeare Cliff Walkway/Ferry Landing, 5.7 km

On the Beach

Comfortable stroll
Comfortable stroll. [download id="1960"]

Everything was very laid back and late this morning. I extended for another two days and asked about the kayaking, but the waves were too high today, so I grabbed a body board instead. The waves were indeed high and crashing very close to the beach, although there didn’t seem to be an outgoing current. One or two places much further down the beach seemed to have better breaking properties, and I was only trying out the waters for a bit. Came back, showered the sand off, went for a stroll around town, withdrew some cash and bought a couple of tomatoes for the cheese sandwiches I was having for lunch. Managed to get them toasted (or rather, fried) and that was fine. Read more…

Kayaking, New Zealand, Photography, Travel Planning

42. Tauranga – Whitianga

Tuesday, March 24: Changeable, with some dark clouds and rain around the middle of the day; starting and finishing sunny

On the Beach Backpackers, 46 Buffalo Beach Rd, Whitianga 3542, tel.: +64 7 866 5380, double/twin as single in a unit shared with just one other party; kitchen, living room, TV, fridge, large balcony with BBQ equipment shared (BBH, $38 + $3)

Liz gave me the whole rundown of her neighbourhood dispute this morning before I left; in any case I was in no particular hurry to get going. The plastic shop did in fact carry a salt-and-pepper shaker set but didn’t have any in stock; the cutlery set looked just as useful as the stuff I already had; but for $4 I got two cosmetic containers which were just larger than my filters and a snap top bottle obviously designed for some sort of liquid that could also be used for salt (the pepper part was not so important). Filled the tank & then I was on my way. Read more…

GPS Tracks, New Zealand, Photography, Tramping

41. Tauranga: Mt Maunganui

Monday, March 23: Cloudy with rain all the morning, becoming very much finer & warmer by the late afternoon

Tramping: Mt Maunganui, 6.3 km

Liz & Phil’s

The dogs (Airedale terriers) hadn’t woken me @ 5:00, but from about 7:45 onwards I was awake. Breakfast (and Liz insisted that there would have to be one, otherwise her business wouldn’t be a B&B) was cornflakes, coffee from a very expensive looking machine and at least tasted like something, toast, cantaloupe and some spreads which I didn’t have.

Perfect day for a technical day, and I started off by trying to synchronise the internal and external hard drives in terms of pictures. For D: to have the absolute essentials that would be the main folder with the processed images (all DNG & IMG – debarrelled and dechromaticised) and one subfolder with thumbnails. It has occurred to me during the day that PPP could work primarily with G: as the source and copy some files to the internal hard drive at the end of the day. If that were the case, then it would also be worth considering extending the postprocessing procedure beyond just ATM (advanced tone mapping). Read more…