All posts by Paul Smith

Coromandel, New Zealand

Bring a Spade

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 Hot Water Beach

The sale and hire of spades is big business at Hot Water Beach.  It’s just a few kilometres from where we are staying on The Coromandel.

We took a walk along the beach and Val paddled in the sea. When we got to the excavations – the place where you dig a hole in the sand and let the hot water filter up from the under ground fissures – I used Val as a temperature gauge.

‘Just stand in that pool,’ I said

‘No, it’s quite cold,’ said Val

‘Try that one.’

They all seemed quite tepid and unexciting, until Val tried one particular hole and jumped out yelping. Apparently the temperature , when you find the right spot, can get up to 64 degrees centigrade.

Val isn’t volunteering to check the temperature of any more natural spas any time soon.

 

 

Coromandel, Flora and Fauna, New Zealand

A 600 Year Old Kauri Tree

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The Coromandel Peninsular once was a huge forest of Kauri Trees. It must have been an amazing sight. Awesome!

We visited a rare grove of Kauri that has survived the deforestation of the Coromandel; just off the 309 Highway on our trip to Coromandel Town.

The Kauri Tree grows to a great height and they are amongst the most ancient trees in the world; living for thousands of years. The oldest is in the Northland of New Zealand and is called ‘Te Matua Ngahere’ (Father of the Forest). It is 2000 years old!

The British apparently prized the Kauri for ship building, especially for use as masts – because the Kauri grows straight with very few branches for much of its height.

The specimen we are pictured with above is only a mere 600 years old. That’s from around the time of Joan of Arc.

Food and Drink, New Zealand

New Zealand Word of the Week : Lollies

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Lollies

The New Zealand Word Lolly translates as Sweet, as in sweeties – those hard sugary confections that children eat. If someone in New Zealand offers you a lolly, it is not an ice lolly, it’s a sweet.

In consequence of this the term ice lolly cannot be used. It will cause confusion. If you want an ice lolly you must ask for a popsicle…

There is even a classic Kiwi recipe for Lolly Cake. , for which one of the main ingredient is ‘Eskimos,’ – a popular NZ lolly, sorry, sweet.

A few years back a Canadian tourist was in the news for saying they were racist, she was so incensed she sent a packet to the Canadian Prime Minister.

Eskimos have the constancy of the marshmallow-like pink ‘prawns’ they sell in UK sweet shops.