A Busy Life

Life on the farm at White Star Station is a busy one & we’ve enjoyed watching the comings & goings around  the main farm house & through the farm gate near where we’re parked in the very large “house paddock”.

Along with the farm activities there have been quite a variety of guests that pull into the paddock late in the afternoon looking for accommodation, there are only a couple of accommodation options in this remote area. Here the guests have ranged from a number of young foreign couples on their OE, a single biker travelling the peninsula, and older English couple at the end of their three week dream NZ holiday. And last night a large group of young men who had travelled from Auckland for the night, they’re going horse trekking today.

It was a shock to our system to get back from Stony Bay to find there was a party going on in the back yard of the cottage they had rented which is just behind our van. They had a huge fire burning in the outdoor fire pit (luckily I had brought my washing in, in case of rain, before we left for Stony Bay otherwise it would have been totally covered in smoke) & the windows all open & a stereo inside the house cranked up as loud as it could go. Actually, it wasn’t quite as loud as it would go because after an hour or so the volume suddenly increased to the point where we couldn’t hear the TV inside our closed up van. I’ve never heard Indian music played so loud before, not only was the music loud but they were singing to it too! I was waiting for some action to come from the farm house but realised they were out for the evening so in the end I went across to have a word. They were very nice about it & turned it down to a reasonable volume. Going by the beautiful curry smell coming from the kitchen I was hoping they might have offered us dinner. No such luck.

I'm not too sure who will have the more fun today, the horses or the guys. There are going to be a few sore heads going by the bottle pile & the muted noise coming from the cottage this morning.

This morning the peace & quiet was shattered again by the sudden bellowing, barking & shouting happening outside our van. A herd of cattle were being moved into the house paddock but once they thundered in through the gate the guys forgot to call off the dogs. The farm bikes shot off over the bridge to the woolshed while the dogs kept on rounding up the cattle. The cattle went thundering past, around in a big loop and then headed straight back towards us. The dogs were having a ball & ignoring the farmers who were shouting & whistling from way over the other side of the bridge. Life on this farm would never be boring.

It was time for us to hit the road again, we are headed back to Coromandel township then across the range to Whangapoua on the eastern side of the peninsula. We came across this guy & his mate just down the road, no helmets either!

A Man's Best Friend

We stopped in Coromandel to fill up the fridge & empty our tanks. After two weeks of isolation without many vehicles or people, Coromandel town felt like the “big smoke”. Being a Sunday there were many people out enjoying the sun, there were also two or three groups of bikers from Auckland out on their Sunday ride. They provided a bit of entertainment with their various antics firstly, in trying to walk after getting off their bikes, & then attempting to remove some of their gear so they could sit at a table & eat. At least the sun wasn't too warm, it must be bloody hot sitting in full leathers. They obviously love riding the winding roads, we met another lot coming over the range.

We had lunch (& a flat white that I’d been dreaming about for days) at Umu, a nice little café right on the junction of the high street & the main road heading south, great for people watching & watching the passing traffic in all its forms.  

 

I had steamed mussels in cream & curry & David had the Mussel Chowder. Great value with good sized servings. The mussels still weren’t as nice as mine though.

This made me smile, it was just across the road outside the liquor store where we topped up on the necessary too.

 

Then it was onto the Coromandel Smoke House to check out what they had on offer. We purchased a few small portions of fish & mussels to sample & then headed back to the van to stow everything & then back onto the road again & off over the hill to Whangapoua.