Thames is the gateway to the Coromandel, and it behaves like one, a handsome, slightly worn gold town that still has a main street of old verandahs and a stack of heritage stories. In the 1860s the strike of gold in the nearby hills brought thousands of diggers, and for a few years this was one of the largest towns in New Zealand. The mines have gone, but the School of Mines building and the mineral museum are reminders, and the long tidal flats on the Firth of Thames in front of the town are a world-class stopover for migrating shorebirds.
For a rider, Thames is the point where you decide what you need before the peninsula swallows you. The town has about seven thousand people, so fuel, groceries, repair shops and cafés are all here, and farther north the supply thins. The climb to Coromandel town runs along State Highway 25, which hugs the western shore of the Firth with the sea only a few metres from your wheels, past bays shaded by pohutukawa trees. The road is narrow and winding, with frequent blind corners, tight turns and the occasional logging truck or camper van, so ease through and use the pull-offs to let faster traffic by. In December the pohutukawa burst into red flowers, and the display is genuinely spectacular.
Inland from the town, the Kauaeranga valley climbs into the Coromandel ranges, where the kauri logging history is on show. Settlers cut the giant kauri trees for ship timbers, and they built huge dams in the valleys to flush logs down in a wall of water, some of which still survive in the forest. Walking tracks lead up from the valley road to old dam sites and views of the whole peninsula.
The weather is changeable, and the range often catches heavy showers while the town stays dry. Summer is busy, with the roads full of holidaymakers, while March and April offer settled weather and quieter roads. Whatever you do, eat a pie in Thames, and have fish and chips on the foreshore as the tide comes in.