PENINSULA NEWS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 58, Issue 4104, 23 February 1949, Page 9

PENINSULA NEWS

TOUR MADE

TIP OF THE PENINSULA INSPECTION OF THE AREA COROMANDEL COUNCILLORS Combining business with pleasure, six members of the Coromandel County Council and press representatives made a trip recently to Port Jackson, Fletcher’s Bay and Port Charles. This was the last of several trips in accordance with the council’s policy to acquaint itself with the individual problems of each riding. Councillors are now well acquainted with the peninsula and its attendant assets and liabilities. The tour was made in ideal weather, and on this occasion the county clerk, Mr J. H. Lucas, was accompanied by Crs. E. Deeble, T. V. Whittle, W. J. Hare, J. H. Reddy, R. Dyson and A. J. Denize, and two press representatives.

Following a winding road for 17 miles, which revealed the sea on one side, and virgin bush inland, some of the world’s most beautiful views were seen. The bright sunshine, brilliant blue of sky and sea, and green islands dotted about, made an unforgettable picture. Nearer to hand, long miles of hill and flat, with a road bare of metal in places, and which seemed to lose and find itself, met the eye.

Reaching the township of Colville, the first stop was at Colville bridge. Councillors examined its weak understructure, in which they apparently had little faith, for at the approach of a large truck they hurried off, to record details in notebooks and take photographs. The cars drove on up Lang’s hill—a winding road bare of metal and almost impossible to climb by truck on a wet day, then down along the sea front and where the road is just a track along the edge of the beach, to Big Bay bridge—a solid structure being undermined by the tide. Councillors took a serious view of this erosion, and observations were again recorded in notebooks.

Climbing up Waiaro hill and through a flat pocket of rich grazing land, the party passed over a concrete crossing, where the fast running water seeping under the concrete was causing serious damage. Onwards and upwards, along and around, the party continued until it reached Te Hope stream, with another concrete crossing to carry it safely over the water. So away and along to Ongohi stream, running swiftly over a concrete ford, with the miles of road beyond it shaded on either side by old pohutukawas, their gnarled roots and branches spreading away down to the sea. Onwards still

through a stretch of grazing country, beautiful as a rural painting, where sheep and.cattle are fattened for the markets. Big fat polled Herefords with white faces, looked at the party from the hills along the road. A mob of sheep was being shifted from one paddock to another, the dogs working around them, and passing through we came to the Ohinewai and Waitoitoi streams where more recent fordways have been constructed. The party was now in the granite country; huge granite boulders strew the beach and bulged from the road banks. They dotted the grass lands like a prolific and ugly growth of dark mushrooms. But still the giant pohutukawa thrived amongst them. No sooner over another small stream and the party came to a beautiful spot—Fantail Bay; on from here to Parkinson’s granite quarries. Great slabs of granite were stacked on the jetty, ready to be shipped to Auckland. Reaching up to tremendous heights, the granite cliffs showed no signs of being worked out, even after many years of quarrying. Granite from here is used all over New Zealand. It can be seen in the Auckland Post Office building, in the construction of Parliament House,in Wellington, and other notable buildings. The plaques on the soldiers’ graves in Egypt are made. from this granite too.

Leaving the quarries the party continued on past Goat bay, where the Geard family made their first homestead many years ago, and where their stores from Auckland were landed from a sailing cutter. Once out of Goat bay the party started to climb inland, coming later to Port Jackson. Stopping at the top of the hill a wonderful panoramic view was enjoyed. Below a sandy beach, about a mile long stretch out in the sunlight, with the surf breaking over it, and further out, in the haze, was Great Barrier island. The road this far had been narrow and only just passable in places. From here the cars went down the hill over the Pahi stream, crossed, and on to a track which is now being formed into a road. The grader was met and the party noted the engineering pegs stretching for about threequarters of a mile along the sandhills, where drifts of sand completely covered a fence in places.

Leaving the beach the cars turned inland and, under a green canopy of puriri trees, travelled up the Muriwai valley until the land was flat and grassy. By now the cars had struck the road again. Quickly the landscape changed. The cars wound around a precipice, where the roots of the flax bushes helped to hold the banks. The party was now on the northern edge of the peninsula, eventually coming to Fletcher’s bay and the beautiful home of Mr Stewart Jackson, set on a wonderful site with a background of pines and enormous puriri trees and looking out towards

the Pinnacles and across the sea to the Barrier. The garden was aflame with beds of hibiscus, lantana, verbena and at the side of the house fruit was slowly ripening on the banana trees.

After a brief rest and refreshments the party took the road back, hugging the banks where it was so narrow that one overlooked a drop of hundreds of feet. It was a' relief to wind down to the grassy flats under the puriris where Mr J. Jackson waited with the tea that everyone was ready for. After a brief stay here, the party started off again, once more crossing Big Bay bridge and branched off to Port Charles. Up and on and around the cars went to Waikawau where lunch was ready at Cr. Denize’s home. True pioneer hospitality was extended by Mrs Denize and her daughters. But too soon the party was on the road again, skirting hills covered in places with tea-tree or patches of virgin bush. The cars crossed two new concrete fords, both of which cross and recross the Tangiaro stream. Councillors alighted here. The vagaries of the stream worried them. They conferred with each other, and made a record in the notebooks. The cars covered many more miles before the party arrived at Sandy bay and the end of the road, with a further view of Great Barrier island and the Pinnacles, but from the opposite direction. The little post office and store was besieged before the party moved on with boxes and bags of tomatoes.

Away again, up and down and around, and so back to Colville and on to Coromandel, ending a most delightful and informative trip of approximately 100 miles in eleven hours. Many problems are there, all along the road for these public minded men, who give their time and thought for the benefit of all who are here today and who will comq after.