Day 28 Thames, Kauaeranga Valley and Shelly Beach

We had plans to do a little hiking today but I wasn't sure the weather was going to cooperate. It was very overcast and we had the occasional light sprinkle.  We decided to go anyway so we headed to the Kauaeranga Valley which was inland from Thames.  Today was more about exercise than it was scenery as we would be walking in the forest.  The first little hike we went on was to Billygoat Falls, actually we hiked to a landing where we could view the falls.  We were still quite a ways away so I am sure a lot of its natural beauty was lost. 

Billygoat Falls

Billygoat Falls

The trip on was only about 15 minutes but we did encounter a neat little bridge on the way.

We did use the bridge but I wasn't sure how strong it was and the capacity of the bridge did not give me a lot of optimism.

Once we had our fill of the falls we headed back to the van where we had lunch.  Next was the hike to Edwards Lookout.  This hike got our heart rate up as the way in was all uphill.  We climbed for about 20 minutes on a fairly steep grade. The good news was that we were able to keep a fairly brisk pace up the hill.  Just maybe these old bodies are starting to get in shape. 

Up we go.



Down we come.

When we reached the top we could get a clear look at the valley below. The view was nice but compared to other viewpoints we have looked down from, this one was a little lacking. However, today was more about exercise and any "wows" would be a bonus.

Our Van is parked down at the road



Kauaeranga Valley

Upon reaching the van we decided to leave the valley.  It was fairly slow going as the road was not paved and at times it got pretty narrow.

Once we were out of the Valley we turned north as we had picked out a campsite at Shelly Beach that we wanted to get to.  It is a good starting point for what we have planned tomorrow.  It was only about 58 Kilometers and I figured that it would take us about an hour based on the roads we had encountered so far in our trip.  Wrong.  It took us close to two hours.  Now I admit some of that time was stopping and taking pictures but mostly it was the character of the road.  In spite of the time, the drive was exhilarating, beautiful and somewhat scary.

The road had us following the coast of The Firth of Thames and I mean following the coast.  At times it was no more than 5 feet from us, straight down.  The road was as twisting as any we had seen to date and very narrow.  In a couple of places it was down to one lane.

 

We continued to follow the coast until just before reaching Coromandel Town where we headed inland for a short while.  This involved climbing and a whole new world opened up.  The road didn't change, it just went up but the view from some of the turnouts was just breath taking.

We dropped down to sea level as we entered Coromandel Town but we didn't stop.  It was starting to rain so we wanted to get to our campsite which was about 5 km out of town at a place called Shelly Beach.  Once we arrived there I went down I took pictures of the beach, the tide is out.

Shelly Beach with Tide Out

Shelly Beach

As the sun was setting, Kathy went out and took a few shots of the setting sun.  She went because I am afraid of the dark.  The pictures turned out quite nice and the beautiful sky was a nice ending to another fine day in New Zealand.