Indigo nights at Coromandel

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Our trip in early October takes in two nights at Coromandel and the east coast of the peninsula as far as we can drive. It always a rush leaving home, so we look forward to a coffee stop not too far away. There’s not a lot to excite in this direction and we usually drop in to the nursery café a right turn a few hundred metres or so, once over the Kopu Bridge.
To our delight this time, at the Tauranga and Coromandel turnoff we see two new grey corrugated sheet metal buildings on the flat, looking out to soft hills and stone and water features. One houses a clean, friendly and spacious licensed café, the other a studio with works by sculptor Elizabeth Fyfe-Morgan, co-owner of the properties.  Called the Abstract Café and Gallery,  it’s only been running a week and is great location for a drive from Auckland or to break a trip. We wish it well.
A passion we both share, is pottering in second hand bookshops. You never know what you will find. We stop briefly in little main street shopping centre at Thames, where at least three shops sell old books and china.
It’s a much smarter look in Coromandel township, where the colonial flavour has been preserved with a collection of different businesses lining the main street. Useful shops like a chemist, small supermarket, stationer, butcher and fishmonger, function next to quality galleries selling the work of local artists, cafes and restaurants. My favourite is the generous sized delightfully time-wasting James and Turner Ltd general store. Shelves and display stands are laden with every type of gadget and household item you can imagine from garden and fishing paraphernalia to china, aprons, novelty pegs and dozens of baking trays and tins. Some years ago I bought a top quality large round cake tin, bigger than I could find anywhere else, with a removable bottom. It’s still looks like new, even after lots of use.
We looked for somewhere a little different to stay and Travelbug www.travelbug.co.nz brought up Indigo Bush Studios at 19 Flays Road, on the outskirts of Coromandel town. Run by local painter and potter Robyn Lewis, these are two stylish architecturally designed studio apartments with a Balinese theme, a Logaire, little kitchen with elements, tall stemmed wine glasses and smart white china. Guests can take a candlelit bath on the front deck under the stars. Tucked into the bush, Tuis come to plunge their chests in a mini birdbath an arm’s length from the windows, while peasants can be heard calling to each other. It’s not surprising visitors have filled a guest book with compliments. However, the property is described as a B & B and breakfast is an extra @ $18 a person.
We eat out, enjoying superb coffee and a great bacon and eggs breakfast at Success Café, are disappointed in the casual attitude at Umu Café and return to Pepper Tree Restaurant & Bar on both evenings, where service and food - with mains of generous whitebait fritters and fresh sweet Gurnard in beer batter - are outstanding.
Before heading north east of Coromandel we drive past the old wharf to Wyuna Beach, a flat and sandy bay with a floating pontoon and row of letterboxes sitting all alone on the grass verge above the beach. The houses are all on the other side. Driving a little further, the no exit road ends at Long Bay Motorcamp.
We then cross the peninsular, heading up the coast through Kennedy Bay, Little Bay, Waikawau, Port Charles and Stony Bay. It’s very slow with many twists, a reasonable portion unsealed and the last 7kms not maintained by the council.
Stony Bay, at the very end of the mostly one-lane pitted lumpy access road, is beautiful. With just three motor homes and four cars parked, there is only one other person in sight, a young woman sitting facing the sea writing in a notebook. The only sound is gentle sea swishing over the rocks and pebbles. Two walks are signposted, both three hours plus long, to nearby by beaches on the other side of the hill.
Little Bay (about 46kms and 40 minutes from Coromandel) and Kuatanu a long beach right on the main road are the only two sandy shores we see.
The surprise of the stay and where we have lunch is an unexpected café/restaurant right in the middle of native bush near Port Charles. Tangiaro Kiwi Retreat www.kiwiretreat.co.nz combines smart stand-alone Alpine style chalets with a conference centre and café/restaurant. Described as an eco-tourist retreat, the natural surroundings and spotless presentation of this quality establishment, finished about seven years ago, has a helicopter landing pad and offers free transport for guests from Coromandel. It’s very special and we hope not always as quiet as the day we visit.