Tiki touring Colville

We really know we've made the right choice with our ute & fifth-wheeler combination now that we've been on the road a little while. It's so great to have a base but still be able to unhitch & explore the area.

Waikawau Bay

We took a drive over to the Waikawau Bay yesterday to again, make sure we could get the fifth wheeler there safely after we leave Port Jackson. It's another all gravel narrow road that crosses over the range that runs down the spine of the Coromandel Peninsula. The road was reasonable but very winding in places & needs grading as there were quite a few corrugations. But another stunning beach awaited us at the end and the DOC camp was well placed right on the beach & well looked after.

We again did a little exploring around Colville on the way home, the settlement sits at the head of a very large tidal bay; Cabbage Bay & Wharf Road took us just about to the end. The wharf that serviced the gold mining, gumdigging, logging & granite industries of early last century is long gone. But there is still evidence of the fish trap early Maori set up on the tidal flats to catch flounder & other small fish. A narrow wall of rocks formed a large square that captured the fish when the tide went out. What an ingenious method of fishing.

Cabbage Bay, Colville

With my interest in old churches we next followed the sign to the Colville cemetery which was located high on a hill inside a gated paddock quite a way inland. It was quite a large area with only a few gravestones but an information board told of many unmarked graves that had been surveyed. It was a great surprise to see that most of the front row of headstones were Evans including two small white picket fence plots; sadly both children under 1 year old. Of course, I then remembered that our hosts at White Star Station are Evans too and when I looked at the view the headstones were facing I saw that most of the farmland & hills in the distance were in fact White Star Station. What a perfect place to be buried.

In another uncanny coincidence, the second row of headstones were all for Wards, the maiden name of our daughter-in-law, Sophie.

On the way back to the farm I stopped to take a few photos, this quaint farm cottage was apparently some type of store/shop in a previous life.

 

Rustic farm accommodation available, listen to the sounds of nature, rest awhile on the deck overlooking the bay, free firewood, fully air conditioned.....

And just a few hundred yards from the farm gate is the Mahamudra Centre, a Tibetan Buddhist Mediation Centre. Which looks so totally out of place on this rugged peninsula & yet fits perfectly with the Coromandel's well known alternative lifestylers.

More photos here from Colville