sleepy coromandel town

peace and quiet. that's all you'll get in coromandel town in the winter.

i arrived just after 5:30p on thursday via the bus from auckland. the ride up the coast, through the town of thames and winding along the shore north was gorgeous and the sun was out and shining for most of the trip (still a chilly temp, though). the bus driver dropped me off at the corner of driving creek road, just past the "downtown" part of coromandel town (that you will miss if you blink or sneeze or look the wrong way), and i walked the 50 meters up the road to the driving creek cafe.

mehow, the owner and my new boss, was just getting in the car to leave when i rolled up. he managed to give me the penny tour in about 5 minutes and told me to make myself comfortable, another wwoofer would show up some time in the night, and that he would be back in the morning. um, ok. so, i'd be living in a cafe. alrighty.

the cafe is on the outskirts of town, on the way to the driving creek railway - and it seems that during the winter the train tours are the only tourist draw to the town - so customers are often either on their way to, or coming from their train ride. we get a few regular locals but so far it has been pretty quiet. the cafe is cute and cozy, there is a wood burning stove in the main room and some comfy couches off to one side. there are good windows for natural light and a front patio and garden seating (more for the summer).

the menu is strictly vegetarian and 90% organic and it is all really delicious. so far my jobs have been taking orders, doing dishes, cleaning, making smoothies, baking cookies and helping anna sarah with meal prep. on sunday i got to make melting moments, which are delicious little butter cookie sandwiches with butter cream filling... so good!

the crew is mehow on the coffees, craig (wwoofer from england) and i on dishes, orders and smoothies and anna sarah as the cook. we are only open friday, saturday, sunday and monday during the months of june and july but will open back up for 7 days a week mid-august.