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2/25/09
The decision was made to do the long route from Russell to Coromandel that means driving to the east coast of the North Island by way of KeriKeri. In KeriKeri we went to the Kemp house built in 1822 and is one of NZ oldest buildings. It was restored since then. The Stone store was built by missionaries in 1833 of thick stone for protection from attack. It is still a shop with a museum upstairs. It was so quiet and peaceful there with a inlet and park type setting. Neither place was open yet so it was back in the car to make our way to the forest.
We wanted to see the Waipoua Kauri forest. Ngahere (Father of the forest),is about 2,000 years old. The other one is Tanemahuta ( Lord of the forest ), is about 1,200 years old. They where very impressive but that was all that was there.
The country side is so beautiful. There are hills that have so many shades of green and so many different textures from the different tress and bushes. Many of the pastures have borders made of the tress and bushes. We are seeing many more cattle ranches than sheep which is surprising. And at the sheep show in Rotorura we found out that the dairy industry is the largest in NZ. And today learned that the export of lamb is down but dairy is up so people are converting.
We have been on the road since 8:30 and it is now 5 with many miles yet to go. Typing this in the car is good for me. Al has been doing a great job driving but being a passenger on the left side of the car is a bit un-nerving. The weather has been fantastic yet another day.
We finally arrived at Coromandel about 7:30 PM very tired. This is our first experience staying in a hostel and will be our last. It was a luxary one and was nice but the bedding was like concrete. There was also no insulation so you could hear every sound and our room was next to the bathroom.
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