16.02.2014 - Coromandel

I left the house at half past eight to drive up to the northern tip of the Coromandel peninsula to Fletcher
Bay. It's just a 56km drive but more than half of it via a gravel road. Since my Toyota Corolla isn't really
a 4WD it took me about 3h or so to arrive at Fletcher Bay. The road was really narrow and curvy and
one had to be careful to not slip down at the side. And again I could experience how the slow driving
Kiwi transformed into the rally driver. It's almost like the less you can see on these curvy roads and the
narrower it get's the faster they go. And so every curve is kind of a highlight cause you never know if
there is a Kiwi just trying to break a record by cutting the curve and almost ramming my car of the street.

At one point the gravel road crossed a little creek and I saw myself already going all Colt Sievers with
my Corolla but I decided that it may be better to just drive trough it instead of jumping over it.

Fletcher Bay is a really remote and beautiful place and well worth the adventures drive up there. Almost
no one is up there and so I only meet four people on the one our hike I did there. On my way back from
the hike I spent an hour sitting on a beautiful beach enjoying the waves and the breeze only sharing it
with a seagull. After I got back to the camping site where I parked there were two camper vans parked
next to my car and one had the Bavarian flag covering the rear window. The Bavarians are everywhere!

Fletcher Bay and the drive up there alone is worth the trip to Coromandel. Next time I would take a bit
more time up there and take someone with me to share that experience. Seemed almost wasted to just
be there on my own and it just doesn't sound as weird saying out loud 'that's so fucking beautiful' if
someone's next to you than just saying it to yourself.