Around the world photo album

New Zealand

Around the World Photo Album Part 4 

Part 3

New Zealand

Coromandel, New Zealand

Coromandel

New Zealand

Coromandel, New Zealand

Coromandel, also called Coromandel town to distinguish it from the wider district, is a town on the Coromandel Harbour, on the western side of the Coromandel Peninsula, which is in the North Island of New Zealand. It is 75 kilometres east of the city of Auckland, although the road between them, which winds around the Firth of Thames and Hauraki Gulf coasts, is 190 km long. The population was 1,830 as of June 2019.

The town was named after HMS Coromandel, which sailed into the harbour in 1820. At one time Coromandel Harbour was a major port serving the region's gold mining and kauri industries. Today, the town's main industries are tourism and mussel farming.

Coromandel Harbour is a wide bay on the Hauraki Gulf guarded by several islands, the largest of which is Whanganui Island. The town and environs are a popular summer holiday destination for New Zealanders. Coromandel Town is noted for its artists, crafts, alternative lifestylers, mussel farming, and recreational fishing. One of the most popular tourist attractions is the Driving Creek Railway.

Driving Creek Railway

The original line was built by the potter Barry Brickell on his 22-hectare property, which he had acquired in 1961, aiming to start a pottery collective. He started construction of the 15-inch gauge rail line in 1975, originally mainly using it to transport clay and pine wood fuel to his kiln.

In 1975, Brickell purchased a larger 60ha block of land, and began working on what would become the Driving Creek Railway and Potteries. The new line would be of 15 in (381 mm) gauge instead of 10 1⁄2 in (267 mm) gauge, and would serve the same purpose as the original, to bring clay and firewood down from the slopes above the potteries. It would also be used to help re-plant the hillsides on Brickell's property with kauri and other native plants.

The Driving Creek Railway (DCR) was slowly expanded over the next 25 years to become one of the very few completely new railway lines in New Zealand in recent years. The project required significant civil engineering works due to the steep and complex terrain that the line traverses. Among these are the famous Double-Deck viaduct, three tunnels, ten bridges (including the Double-Deck Viaduct) and inclines as steep as 1 in 14. There is also a short branchline from the potteries to a firewood drying shed, including a short bridge, bridge No 1A, just behind the workshops at Driving Creek; this line is not used by passenger trains, although passengers will see the drying shed climbing up from No 1 bridge towards the Lower Spiral. The trip takes approximately 1 hour return.

The line terminates at the Eyefull Tower, completed in 2004 as the final terminus of the railway. The design of the building was based on the Bean Rock Lighthouse in Auckland, and includes a large viewing deck which was added in 2005 at Brickell's suggestion. The view from the Tower has been compared to the Kereta Hill layover just north of Coromandel, although Brickell maintains that the view from the Eyefull Tower is better than that from the Kereta layover.

The attraction now brings over 30,000 people to the railway per year, with much of the proceeds funding nature conservation works.

Coromandel, New Zealand

Whanganui Island

New Zealand

Coromandel had a population of 1,743 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 225 people (14.8%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 249 people (16.7%) since the 2006 census. There were 720 households. There were 852 males and 891 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.96 males per female. The median age was 52.5 years, with 258 people (14.8%) aged under 15 years, 243 (13.9%) aged 15 to 29, 732 (42.0%) aged 30 to 64, and 510 (29.3%) aged 65 or older.

Ethnicities were 83.1% European/Pākehā, 29.9% Māori, 2.2% Pacific peoples, 3.3% Asian, and 1.0% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities).

The proportion of people born overseas was 16.0%, compared with 27.1% nationally.

Although some people objected to giving their religion, 59.2% had no religion, 26.0% were Christian, 0.3% were Hindu, 0.3% were Muslim, 1.5% were Buddhist and 5.5% had other religions.

Of those at least 15 years old, 192 (12.9%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 360 (24.2%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $23,500. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 555 (37.4%) people were employed full-time, 249 (16.8%) were part-time, and 39 (2.6%) were unemployed.

Whanganui Island is the largest of a small group of islands at the entrance to Coromandel harbour in the Hauraki Gulf, off the coast of New Zealand's North Island.

The island, which is privately owned, is 2.83 square kilometres (1.09 sq mi) in area. Much of it is farmed, but there are some forested areas.

American William Webster established a shipbuilding and trading enterprise on the island in 1836. He owned the island until the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, when he lost legal title to the island as all titles passed to the British crown.

Woolshed Bay on the protected southern shore is a popular overnight mooring spot for cruising from Auckland.