Monday, Feb. 8, 2016

We had decided to stay at the same campsite for a second night, so that we wouldn’t have to pack up and leave in the morning and it gave us a relaxing start to the day. Cheryl spent the morning organizing her luggage for her return flight on Tuesday and I did some laundry. Then we ran a few errands and had an early lunch at the UMU Cafe in Coromandel. They were all very mundane things, but they needed to be done.

However, we had signed up for the Northern Escape Sunset Tour with Coromandel Adventures for the afternoon and according to their website:

” The Northern Escape Sunset Tour is a coastal road trip of prolonged beauty. Travel through majestic groves of ancient pohutukawa and on to Cape Colville at the very tip of the peninsula with spectacular remote coastlines and views to Great Barrier Island. This is a trip you can do after lunch on the morning you arrive in Coromandel.

It’s a trip that shouldn’t be missed, and is best driven by locals so you can appreciate the stunning landscape and coastline without the risk!

Get the benefit of our local knowledge to uncover the local history and secret places of this special area. ”

We found all of this to be true. Cheryl and I, thoroughly enjoyed the drive to the tip of the peninsula and taking time to take different photographs. I also enjoyed not having to drive, especially along the narrow gravel roads that made up most of the northern half of the route. It was nice to be able to watch the beautiful scenery and take pictures instead of concentrating on the driving.

We had many opportunities to take beautiful pictures of the scenery,

as well as pictures of the majestic pohutukawa trees,

and pictures of the sunset.

We were very fortunate to have the owner, Willie Lochore, drive the four-wheel van for us, since he has a wealth of knowledge about the area, the people and the land, plus, he shares our love of photography.

He even shared with us the ” Trump Tree “, as he calls it, because it looks like the expression of a person responding to Trump’s opinion of women. If you don’t see it, you’ll have to ask him about it.

This tour is a wonderful opportunity to see beautiful scenery, while trying different techniques for practicing different photo techniques, however, the company has other tours as well.

We were returned to the campsite at 9 pm, where we ate a simple dinner of leftovers.