Two Americans emigrate to New Zealand from Colorado,
USA.
We talk about
our life in Nelson, New Zealand.
January 2009 | Blog home | March 2009
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Back to our travels in the Coromandel - sorry for the blog delay as we've had long holiday weekends the past two weekends and have been in and out and about. Click here if you want to refer back to the Coromandel Peninsula map from an earlier blog.
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This is the town of Whitianga on the Coromandel, the largest town on the east coast. It's the same look of most New Zealand towns, one road with shops and cafes. It was pretty flat and they are creating housing communities around strips of water, manufactured canals much like we saw in parts of the Gold Coast in Australia. But they also had a great big New World, so good grocery shopping. This is your base for some activities you might plan for the east coast. |
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This is Kuaotuna on the top end of the Coro 'circle,' and you can tell we didn't have the greatest weather here. The morning on this day was pretty bleak, but breaks of blue sky occurred here and there. Here in Kuaotuna it was quite grey, so these shots could be so much prettier, but Don did his very best. |
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The beach of Kuaotuna. |
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We went off-roading up a very steep drive to head over to Otama and Opito beaches, so worth the drive, they are remarkable as you'll see below. Plus the sky was clear, only a few kilometres to the east. |
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Otama beach, the bluest sky and water and the whitest sand. And no one is around, right now. Beautiful. Someone told us later that this beach and the one at Opito get swarmed after Christmas and through New Year's, so we were glad to see this in a pristine environment. |
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From Otama we drive over the hills toward Opito where local workers are refilling the gravel/dirt road and we got muddy and slipped and slided around a bit. Oh but the views! |
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A Christmas tree blossoms as we come over the hill. |
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Don takes a great picture of Opito Beach. |
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Near Coroglen we stopped at this potter location to check out the local wares and a very eager shopkeeper/pottist (?) was obviously glad to see us as she talked our ear off and tried to take us around to other artists, but we made a quick escape. The pottery was worth a look. |
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Don loved this one, at an organic veggie hut we bought fruit at, there was this sign to the toilet ... ie, piss in the grass. (Not really tho) |
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Hot Water Beach, a famous place where you can come, dig your own pool in the sand, and thermal pools underneath the beach come up and you've got your own spa pool - only during one hour in- or outside of low tide. The weather looks hideous in this picture, but it really wasn't! Just not a great shot perhaps. We never got back here as we found places more to our liking.
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Hahei Beach, a neat little town that is clearly all centered on the beach lifestyle. |
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On Hahei Beach. |
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Driving up toward Cathedral Cove walkway (which we did on another day) looking down onto Hahei. |
I just don't have anything to say about these kids, honestly, I lose all humanity when it comes to them. This next article doubles as my current rant:
Boy racers hunted after attack on lone policeman
from New Zealand Herald, reported by the New Zealand Press Association
Sunday Feb 01, 2009
A gang of Christchurch boy racers is still being hunted after an "orchestrated ambush" on a lone police officer on Friday night.
Sergeant Nigel Armstrong was responding to boy racer calls in suburban Wigram when he was surrounded by about 300 boy racers armed with bottles and a slug gun. Mr Armstrong said the drivers had been listening to police scanners and were waiting, blocking his retreat.
"Initially bottles started getting thrown, and then I was fired upon by a slug rifle, or air rifle - three pellets struck my driver's side window, and about five seconds later the first bottle went through the window."
He escaped, but another police car had a bottle thrown through the rear windscreen. "When the window was broken, they were communicating to other offenders down the road that they had broken the window and to start aiming at me."
Christchurch Area Commander Malcolm Johnston said he was angry about the crowd's behaviour. "These aren't boy racers, these are thugs," he told Radio New Zealand. "They are criminals, and they were screaming out `kill the pig, box him in', they were targeting the sergeant who was on his own. Quite clearly, whether they had police scanners, they knew that there was only one car coming at that stage. The whole thing was an orchestrated ambush."
Mr Johnston said the group had armed themselves with weapons before the officer arrived and something had to be done about the escalating problem in the city.
Boy racers in Canterbury received almost half of all tickets handed out nationally by police for noisy vehicles last year, and Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker has called on the Government to tell Christchurch residents what it would do to solve the problem.
In retaliation for his stance, boy racers have been gathering outside Mr Parker's home with police having to move them on. Transport Minister Steven Joyce has promised to visit the city in the next six weeks to see scale of the problem. He said he would also talk to Police Minister Judith Collins on whether current laws gave police enough power to act against boy racers.
Two days later, we are promised something will be done.
Boy-racer law ready in six months [shortened for brevity]
from New Zealand Herald, reported by the New Zealand Press Association
Tuesday Feb 03, 2009
The Government is looking at law changes to create a new boy racer-related offence and will give police powers to take cars off repeat offenders.
Prime Minister John Key said changes could be implemented within six months and would concentrate on powers to cancel driver's licences and take offenders' cars.
Police Commissioner Howard Broad [the Police in NZ are nationalised] said his officers would be taking "emphatic action" against boy racers. Ms Collins visited Christchurch yesterday and said the idea of car-crushing was discussed at a meeting with senior police. "That's certainly something we would be looking at for repeat offenders who just do not get the message, and for those people they need to understand we are not going to put up with that kind of behaviour."
Mr Joyce said the Government had a number of possible law changes to consider. "Car crushing is one but there are a number of other ones that we can look into." Police want a cease and desist order, similar to the law in Scotland. It would require a new offence of vehicle disorder - using a vehicle in a way that distressed the public. A notice would be issued, and if offenders breached it within two years they could be jailed for three months or fined $2000, disqualified from driving for six months and have their vehicle impounded for up to 28 days. Any subsequent offences would see an increased disqualification period or even a court-ordered confiscation of their vehicle.
Other changes police wanted included licence suspension for failure to pay fines, increased demerit point penalties for speeding, and serious penalties for failing to stop for police.
The boy-racer problem was worst in South Auckland and Christchurch. Mr Broad said Counties Manukau and Canterbury police were not failing to enforce present law. "What seems to be the case though is this is being treated as a game by those involved." Police can impound cars and in some serious cases sell them. However, a loophole allows the offender to sell the car first and pocket the proceeds.
Mr Key said it would take four to six weeks to draft legislation, which could pass within six months.
At least they found that one little fu**er.
Boy racer charged with assault in court [shortened for brevity]
from New Zealand Herald, reported by the New Zealand Press Association
Saturday Feb 07, 2009
A 17-year-old Christchurch youth charged in connection with an attack on a lone police officer by hundreds of boyracers was remanded in custody after he appeared in court. The 17-year-old was arrested for allegedly throwing the bottle that struck the officer during an attack involving boyracers on Friday January 31.
He appeared in Christchurch District Court yesterday to face charges of unlawful assembly and assault with a weapon, Sergeant Dean Lawrence said.
The incident sparked public outrage and Police Minister Judith Collins said the Government was considering a number of urgent measures to tackle the problem. "The police are under no illusions -- he was basically ambushed and what really worries me is that if he had not been able to get himself out of that situation he could now be dead," Ms Collins told NZPA.
I realise this has been a really long blog post, but this is one of the most obnoxious things about living in this country (one can find obnoxious things about every country, of course), and it's really prevalent in specific parts of New Zealand, not everywhere. It may not bother everyone, but it bothers the crap out of us, we despise the boy racer culture! Inconsiderate doesn't even begin to describe it. What these losers did to that cop, that is really escalating it a notch.
Enough said, judge for yourself, I get myself too steamed just talking about it!!!!
Last Christmas day we decided to take a drive to the last beach on the Coromandel we hadn't seen, one that required a 40 minute walk in from Hahei - Cathedral Cove. It was Christmas, we figured families would be together on other beaches near their houses, no problem, easy going.
NOT! This was one of the most crowded days I've been in New Zealand, including as a tourist in summer - and it was mostly all tourists. We hardly heard anyone who spoke English, let alone kiwi English, and it was a mob on the path to the cove, just packed.
But completely worth the trip, this was one of the prettiest spots on the Coromandel, and an incredible place to spend the day at the beach if you want to cart your beach-ware in and out.
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The views from the walk to the cove were just as pretty as the cove itself, the lush green foliage and the white cliffs combined with blue sky looking down on green coloured water make for an idyllic scene. |
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When you come down the final stair to the cove (and straight down as we've gotten used to), you see this side of the cove, which is split in two joined by this tunnel. At some point high tide might make this difficult to pass through, we heard one fellow say, but we didn't see that as the tide was only beginning to rise as we departed. |
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Here I am, far enough away for photo comfort, walking out to the beach on the left side. That rock out there serves as a diving or jumping platform for eager swimmers. |
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On the right side of the beach still, it's pretty compact, but this was the most people we had seen on a beach in some time. |
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A rock formation up close, eroded on the bottom by the sea. |
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Passing through the cove tunnel, we come to the left beach, seemingly more wild water and featuring a much larger rock formation that is reminiscent of the large one on Piha Beach west of Auckland that is the cone of a volcano - it has the same shape and form. |
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On the left beach looking back toward the connecting cove. From the pictures it doesn't look so busy, but it was! People were coming and going all day. |
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Don decided to head in for a swim, the walk out was hot and sweaty. I suppose 'swim' is a strong word, he just basically dunked himself up to the neck to cool off. |
Found this article in an issue of the Nelson Mail this week, but it is from the New Zealand Press Association.
Angela and I took several walks on our Coromandel holiday. The Peninsula is great for the east coast beaches and all the hiking tracks throughout. The first set of photos are from the day I went off on my own to the Broken Hills Recreation Area (for more detailed info check out the brochure - pdf download).
Broken Hill was a gold mining area in the early 1900's.
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Start of my first hike up to some of the abandoned mines and ruins from the buildings - nothing overly interesting but the walks through the forests were great. I saw only 2 other sets of people the whole time but the bird life was abundant. |
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I'll just say there were a lot of ferns along the way (I have many pictures to prove it). |
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This is on the water race track - it used to be a 3300m tunnel to get water from one side of the mountain to the other but now it is just part of the hike. |
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DOC even encourages exploring these tunnels by supplying a nice set of stairs. There is one 500m tunnel in the area where miners searched for quartz. Unfortunately I didn't have a torch (flashlight) with me so had to pass on that section. |
Below are the photos from the walk Angela and I did through a young Kauri grove - I'm sure it is going to be quite the tourist draw in another 100 years or so. At least a bit more than the 5 or so people we saw on our hour and a half long hike. Another great forest walk with plenty of birdlife.
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The first 20 minutes of the walk was downhill then we reached these steps and point where the trail work seemed to end - quite the drop off. |
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Interesting fungi. |
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Kauri trees. I've yet to figure out how to get a good photo of these trees. |
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A nice trail throughout - plenty of greenery. |
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We also had a couple stream crossings. Call us hard core, super extreme Kiwis. |
I've heard from a few folks lately on the boy racer issue and I should really put my comments in context. As I present them - and this is pretty much the way a blog operates, since it is like a diary - they seem like exaggerations because this particular topic irritates the hell out of me. I don't speak for any other person living in New Zealand (except Don, who agrees with me), however, so if you find yourself concerned about this issue I suggest you ask around for a better sampling of opinion!!
What you read here is my perception of events as I see and read about them, mostly in Christchurch and south Auckland where the situation is more extreme than in other parts of the country because there is a higher population of boy racers in these two places. We constantly hear about these two communities on news and radio, and they seem to bear the brunt of crimes or incidents that come out of boy racing.
I did not follow up on my rant about those stupid boy racers in Christchurch, though, beyond the article about the one who was arrested. It would be useful for those of you who are moving over here to do some research if you find this issue troubling. Here is a followup to recent events I've talked about:
Boyracer sting nets 67 vehicles, 17 arrests
NZ Press Association in NZ Herald, Sunday Feb 22, 2009
Nearly 70 boyracers are without their prized vehicles after they were impounded during a weekend police blitz in Christchurch.
Acting Senior Sergeant Greg Murton said the blitz was held to coincide with a car event in the city and involved 70 police staff, as well as court and New Zealand Transport Agency staff.
Sixty-seven vehicles were impounded for unpaid fines or being illegally modified, 17 people were arrested for minor offences and more than 300 infringement notices were issued.
"While many hundreds of `boyracers' cruised the four avenues circuit all night Friday and Saturday nights, overall their behaviour was of an acceptable standard," Mr Murton said. "There were no major driving incidents and no large gatherings of boy racers conducting illegal activity."
Christchurch is making a serious effort to crack down. More importantly, see the last paragraph - overall the majority of the hundreds of boy racers display acceptable behaviour. As with everything, it seems to be the few (like that little shithead I wrote about last time and his small pack of friends) who ruin it for the rest.
You may not find boy racers are at all irritating to you, you may find the culture interesting and even inviting, but you are reading my blog, my voice, so I am presenting you a slanted version - one version. I don't want boy racers to dissuade ANYONE from attempting to move here because the experience of living in New Zealand is FAR MORE broad than just these little bozos. Just place boy racers in context, and read all the other posts I've put here for all the other experiences you could be having! And then ignore those stupid boy racers cuz they don't matter in the grand scheme of things.
