rom Tauranga north to Auckland one direct route is over the Range and across the Hauraki Plains on State Highway 29, but if time allows, consider staying on State Highway 2 and travelling on to the Coromandel Peninsula, which is easily reached from Tauranga through Katikati and Waihi. This road skirts the eastern edge of the Kaimai Range, which extends almost to the southern end of the Coromandel Range.

Initially the road runs parallel to the Tauranga Harbour. It is worthwhile checking to see which waders are present, particularly around the western end of the harbour where kotuku and royal spoonbills are known to feed.

At various points along the highway, roads run up into the hills of the Kaimai-Mamaku Forest Park. There are over 19,000 hectares of virgin forest here, and the region is the southern limit of the kauri and the northern limit of red and silver beech. Kiwi, kakariki and some smaller birds are to be found together with lizards and bats. Native frogs and kokako still occur in the west of the park.

The highest point of the park is Mt Te Aroha on the western side of the range. Fortunately, a road runs up to the top of the mountain from behind the town of the same name. This is an enchanting place to visit on cloudy days when mist wreaths the 'goblin forest' of kaikawaka, toi, neinei and silver beech. On fine days you can see a great sweep of country from the Hauraki Plains in the north and west to the Bay of Plenty in the east, and as far as Cape Runaway in the south.

To reach the Coromandel Peninsula itself take the Whitianga Bay turn off from Waihi along State Highway 25. From there it is a pleasant drive up the coast through scenery as diverse as anything to be found in the country. High forest-covered ranges, boulder-strewn beaches, pohutukawa-fringed bays, patches of neatly tended farms and estuaries teaming with wading birds are all located within a few kilometres of each other.

Because the Coromandel Peninsula is a sea girt mountain range it shares many of the characteristics of an island. The vegetation has more in common with that of the neighbouring islands than it does with other mainland regions. Many plants have the northern limit of their range here, while others reach their southern boundaries. This creates a tremendous variation in the Coromandel vegetation which is in keeping with the physical diversity of the peninsula. In stark contrast to the rich sub-tropical forest of the lower reaches, the mist-shrouded peak of Moehau has plants and trees that would seem more at home on the South Island's West Coast - silver and pink pine, kaikawaka, mountain toatoa, sweet hutu and southern rata.

The Coromandel Range was covered in kaun when the Pakeha arrived, but logging started early. The Royal Navy was the first to exploit this resource as the timber was in demand for use as spars in their sailing ships. Wide-scale logging soon followed and this continued until few sizeable trees remained. One that does is 'Tane Nui', our fifth-largest tree. It was protected by its isolation and even today one must be a tramper as well as tree-lover to see it. It is a three-hour walk from the road inside the Manaia Sanctuary, about 13 kilometres south of Coromandel.

The largest tree recorded in New Zealand was a giant kauri known as 'Father of the Forest, which stood near the head of Mill Creek, in Bay. Its girth was recorded as 23.77 metres and the height to the first branch was 24.38 metres, which would have made it half as big again as the present record holder, 'Tane Mahuta, in the Walpoua Kaun Forest.

On remote ridges there are still to be seen the gaunt skeletons of burnt kauri, too inaccessible for the loggers to retrieve and, here and there, other grand old trees grievously damaged by fire, but still standing to testify to a once-glorious forest. Yet the regenerating forest is rich and diverse; good stands of young kauri seedlings known as rickers flourish along with rimu, totara, tanekaha, rewarewa, rata and a great mass of shrubs and herbs.

Many of the roads on the peninsula are shingle and should always be tackled with caution. Be careful, too, when walking through the bush, particularly in areas where there was once gold-mining activity. In some places overgrown mine shafts and workings are a trap for the unwary.

The Coromandel is home to a number of endangered species. Small numbers of kaka and kiwi are still found, and two native frogs, first found by Pakeha in this area in 1852, survive in a few small colonies. Other bushbirds are easier to find. Korimako, tui and kereru occur in most places together with the common forest dwellers.

The drive along the eastern side of the peninsula takes you through a variety of habitats which permit a diverse range of birds to be seen. This coast is a favoured area for shags, as well as for reef and white-faced herons.

At Whangamata, many waders use the estuary and dotterels, gulls and tems are nearly always present. The Tairua Forest, which edges the town, is all pine, so few native birds are to be found here except where it adjoins native bush - here you can sometimes find pied tits.

North of the Tairua Forest is the Wharekawa Harbour, another spot popular with waders and waterfowl. The best place to see them is at Opoutere on the harbour's northern side. Here there are shags along with white-faced herons, black swans, mallard, grey ducks and sometimes shovelers. Rarer visitors are kotuku and cattle egrets while banded and fernbirds can also be found in suitable cover.

The sand spit at the harbour mouth is a reserve for feeding pairs of dotterels and oystercatchers. Near here, in 1987, a sea elephant dubbed ‘Humphrey’ took up residence in a farm paddock where he remained for several weeks.

Further up the coast we come to Mercury Bay where Cook landed and his party observed the transit of the planet Mercury. Joseph Banks was particularly taken with a pa built atop a natural rock arch here at Mercury Bay and it moved him to describe it as '. . . the most beautifully romantick thing I ever saw.' Unfortunately it has since disappeared.

From Mercury Bay it is sometimes possible to take a boat to the Mercury Islands, but a permit is needed to land. Many seabirds can be seen from the boat, including gannets and skuas. Petrels and shearwaters are also numerous, but only experts can identify the different species. The Alderman Islands to the south are home to many tuatara.

From Mercury Bay north the road deteriorates and if you wish to travel on to the Moehau Range you will need to cross to the western side of the peninsula. Mt Moehau, at 892 metres, is the tallest peak in the range. If you can cope with a strenuous day's climb you will be rewarded with the most spectacular views of the Coromandel. The Moehau Range is also noteworthy for the rare native frog Leiopelma archeyi sometimes seen here, whose young hatch from eggs, bypassing the tadpole stage.

The harbour at Port Charles is connected by walking tracks to the coast road around the west of Moehau. It is a four-hour tramp with wonderful sea views and many seabirds to be seen.

Because of Coromandel’s equable climate kingfishers flock here in winter for the insects they need to sustain themselves during the cold weather. These birds are particularly plentiful in the pohutukawa along the coastal beaches. Kingfishers were considered by the Maori to be unlucky and if a war party came across one the battle would be called off. As several dozen kingfishers can be seen in an hour's walk along Coromandel’s beaches, this area might well suit a tribe of a peaceful disposition.

Offshore from the town of Coromandel itself, as well as off Manaia, there are many islands and rock stacks, several of which have breeding colonies of gannets. Also breeding are blue penguins, grey-faced storm petrels, white-faced storm petrels, diving petrels, gulls, tems and shags.

The area south of Coromandel was once the scene of intense goldmining activity which, together with logging, has left a tremendous amount of environmental damage. Now multinational companies are talking about resuming mining here, spouting all the usual platitudes about protecting the environment. But if in the wide open spaces of countries such as Australia and South Africa the effects of strip-mining are bad, here on the Coromandel, with its physical diversity and fragile and often unstable terrain, they would be calamitous.

From Coromandel township south to Thames the road is sealed and is an easy drive. It follows the coastline, so unless you make a detour along a side-road you will see mostly wading and seabirds.

After passing through Thames the road crosses the Waihou River not far from where it flows into the Firth of Thames. Cook travelled up the Waihou River as far as he could get in a longboat looking for timber suitable for ship building. He found large stands of kahikatea, which Banks described: 'The banks of the river were completely cloathed with the finest timber my eyes ever beheld of a tree we had seen before, but only at a distance in Poverty Bay, Hawke's Bay ... thick woods of it everywhere, every tree as straight as a pencil and of immense size.' These trees were all logged in the late 1890s.

After crossing the Walhou, the road traverses the Hauraki Plain toward Auckland. When the Pakeha arrived, these plains were covered with a huge swamp, which was eventually drained. The draining of the swamp meant the many birds that lived here disappeared, but the moa had already gone. Hohua Ahowhenua, who died in 1889, told the anthropologist J.C. Firth of the death of what he thought was the last moa in a great fire: