D&K's Blog
  • Honeymoon 2013
  • Europe 2014
  • East/South Africa 2016
  • Prev
  • Next

Kiwi Dundee

January 14, 2013May 28, 2016 By Denise

I’ve started adding captions to some of the photos, so look there for interesting tidbits.

For the past couple of days we’ve been touring the northern end of the north island of New Zealand. This place is incredibly beautiful! Sort of like California, only greener and a lot less populated.

Today we had a prearranged “walking tour” on the Coromandel Peninsula. It was set up by our travel agent, and we really had no idea what we were in for. It turned out that our guide was local legend Doug Johansen, a.k.a. Kiwi Dundee. He absolutely lives up to the nickname. Karel found a brief (outdated) biography (http://www.kiwiphile.org/mar1990.html) that gives you some of the background of this guy. He built many of the trails he took us on in what is now the Coromandel Forest Preserve. The area was the site of some of the richest gold mines in the world back in the late 19th century, followed closely by wide-scale logging of the ancient kauri trees. Doug built the trails in the 1970s as part of his efforts to popularize the concept of eco-tourism, and thereby gain protection for the forest. He took us into old gold mine tunnels and regaled us with plant lore and history lessons.

He also delighted in freaking us out with bugs, making up tall tales, pulling little pranks, and telling off-color jokes. It was very entertaining as well as educational, and we find ourselves wishing we’d signed up for a week with him.

This entry was posted in Honeymoon 2013
Share

Related Posts

  • By The Numbers

    May 25, 2013May 28, 2016
  • Where The Vikings Went

    May 16, 2013May 28, 2016
  • Family time

    May 13, 2013May 28, 2016

Post navigation

  Traveler’s illness and dolphins
Gold Country  

One thought on “Kiwi Dundee”

  • Mark January 17, 2013 at 8:17 am Reply

    Hi K & D.
    Looks like you guys are having an awesome time! I have only glanced through the pictures & blog entries, but will sit down for a more thorough read soon. Looking forward to more adventure stories and beautiful pictures (the high temps are below zero this coming week here in MN, so some tropical scenery is a welcome view)
    Have fun!
    Mark Mazz

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

2 × five =

Archives

  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2015
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • October 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • September 2012

Meta

  • Log in

Previous posts


© Karel Zuiderveld and Denise Cote. All Rights Reserved.
en English
nl Nederlandsen Englishfr Françaisde Deutschit Italianopt Portuguêses Españolsw Kiswahilisv Svenskath ไทย