Coromandel is an around 70km long peninsula not far away from Auckland. It’s famous for its beautiful beaches including two specialities, the Hot Water Beach (description follows) and the Cathedral Cove. However, it will probably stay in our minds mostly because of our host Anthony, but one step after the other.
We already found a HelpX host in Coromandel town on a campground, but they suddenly cancelled our stay because they had a look into their schedule, saying that they had the weekend off and wanted to go on holidays. That a business owner is not able to know that a bit earlier doesn’t go in our head, but it is as it was. So we had to find another host quite quickly and Anthony (or just Ant) accepted our request for three nights. He lives in Tairua at the east coast, not in the city itself but a bit apart from it and rural which wasn’t very new for us. When we finally found his house, we were stunned of the view. He actually lives on a hill with direct view on the ocean! But now something about Ant: he is a really nice, polite and relaxed guy who wants to live without the need of money. He has no electricity (only solar during the day) now hot shower, but a bath tub outside the house whose water is heated up with wood and additionally a compostable toilet. He also has a vegetable garden, chickens, ducks and goats and goes fishing and hunting. He quit the “system” and fights a war against the political system. One example for that: on the Coromandel Peninsula freedom camping is forbidden everywhere. That’s why he just bought a piece of land and marked it as ‘freedom camping’. In addition he fights for the rights of the Maoris, whose land was stolen by the European settlers. He quite often is in the court and he gets quite a few threats every here and then because some people don’t like what he does. One of his goals is to build a Maori church on his ground which is big enough for that as it is 48a. But that’s enough to Ant 🙂
Later we got in touch with his other HelpXers, Francois from Belgium, Kyle from South Africa and Faustine from France. After a yummy dinner with rice, vegetables and (self-hunted) sheep liver and kidney we made ourselves comfortable in front of the oven before we went to bed. As there were a lot of people in the house, we were supposed to stay in another part of the house which is kind of a garage but full with beds and futons. But as we turned off the light, the noises began. There were mice in our room! We didn’t see one and there were none in our bed but as you can imagine the night was not the most comfortable one…
As the sleep was not so good, we slept quite long and had breakfast together with Francois and Kyle. Ant was already away with Faustine, as he had an appointment with a doctor. After breakfast they showed us what Ant wanted us to do. We should produce Cob and finish an already started house. You don’t understand a single word? So we did! But we should find it out. Cob is a material, which was and is still used in Africa as it is easy and cheap to produce. It consists of earth, sand, water and straw. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Basically you mix everything together and walk over it barefoot for 15 to 60 minutes while constantly adding new straw. After a while the mass gets solid and flexible which makes it easy to use for building houses. That’s why we helped finishing the first and biggest of the houses, but Ant plans to build another 7 of them in order to rent them out for different kind of workshops.
After a small snack for lunch we drove once around the whole Coromandel Peninsula. We saw New Chums Beach, which is rated as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world by lonely planet for a reason. Additionally, we saw the nice sunset on the west coast over Auckland. Back on the property of Ant we told him the story with the mice why he instantly put rat poison in our room. Just super nice and helpful!
We also had our first bath under the stars and as there were no mice anymore, it should become a perfect next day. Unfortunately the weather didn’t do as it was supposed to. That’s why we produced some more Cob before we went to Hot Water Beach in time for low tide. The name is the program. At low tide, when the water goes back, it frees some spots with thermal activity and one can dig a hole for a hot pool! Pretty cool! Unfortunately we were a bit too late, why all the good spots were already filled with tourists. Anyway, the weirdest thing are some spots in the ocean where the sea water boils. Yes you heard right, boiling ocean. You walk through cold water until you reach a certain spot, where you can’t stand anymore because it’s just too hot. Totally sick! We also drove to Cathedral Cove, a beach with a beautiful sandstone formation which looks a bit like a cathedral and we also went to Cooks Beach.
In the evening we got in touch with Ant’s six year old daughter. We didn’t see such a tough 6 y.o. very often. Not only that she fed the chickens on her own, she also wanted to go possum hunting in the evening. So Ant took her with him and they came back with a rabbit. It will probably be served for dinner quite soon. We also saw how Ant removed the fur 🙂
The next morning, we did our luggage, but before we went on Ant wanted to show us an old gold mine. But then it happened, what we always hoped not to happen. As we took Francois and Kyle with us in the car, we were now four people in it and got stuck in Ants steep and muddy driveway. Fortunately Ant always has a solution for things like that. He just took is digger and pulled us out. As he got stuck with his truck as well he had to rescue it also… After this exciting experience, we drove to the gold mine and an old jail which were full of glow-worms and wetas. We also helped him with putting something on the truck before we drove up north to our next host in Kerikeri…