Coromandel Penisula

Lots of narrow winding roads formed our first impression of this area. I don't think we really had thought about what to expect but it certainly is much more mountainous than we had thought. The road from Thames to Coromandel Town is very picturesque, hugging the coast line along very pretty bays but it is also very slow and windy. The state of the roads leaves a lot to be desired and we arrived in Coromandel Town feeling somewhat fractious. The town is very much a summer resort, with much of it shut down for the winter. We did a good walk up the Kauri Block track to the look out, the next morning before heading off to Whitianga.

A mussel farm in the Coromandel bay.

Kauri 2000 project.

Hundreds of young kauri have been planted on this
hill as part of the Kauri project. At present this area
is really only at its best scrub, a far cry to the beautiful
kauri forests that would have been here before European
settlement and their mining exploits.

The view from the highest part of the road over the top
to Matarangi and beyond.

Excellent views of the area can be seen from the top of the bluff that you climb out of Coromandel.

Matarangi Beach.

We drove down into Matarangi, a holiday makers township, and found a gorgeous beach to look at while we ate our lunch.








Whitinga is definitely a summer resort town too and although busier than Coromandel Town it was also in 'winter mode'. We had a good fossick around the water front area before finding our camp site for the night - this time the Mercury Bay Golf Club. It was quite a shock to wake the next morning to find there had a been a good frost overnight - the first we have experienced since crossing Cook Strait.

This photo doesn't quite capture the degree of this frost.

 With a frost, of course, usually comes a beautifully clear sunny and we weren't disappointed. Our destination was Hot Water Beach.  We managed to get the tides just right as the best time to experience the hot water is between one two hours either side of low tide. We arrived on the beach at 10.40am, exactly an hour before low tide. We had befriended a couple of West Aucklanders, Dominic and Johann, and between us we managed to build ourselves a very respectable spa.

The boys digging out and forming our spa pool.

A little engineering skills were needed to bring the
very hot water down into our pool.

Enjoying our 'spa.'

As the morning rolled on, quite a crowd arrived making it much busier than I would have thought for this time of the year. Though talking to others winter is the best time to experience this beach and being a Sunday with a low tide at midday probably helped with the numbers. This place would certainly be high on our lists of 'must dos' for all of you out there yet to explore our own country!

Hahei is only about 10km north of Hot Water Beach and it was here that we wanted to spend the night so that we could walk to the famous Cathedral Cove. We had seen lots of boat rides advertised but our trusty book of Short Walks told us it was an hour and a half return walk which suited us just fine.

A view through the arch to Cathedral Cove.

Cathedral Cove arch.

The view across the bay at Hahei from the Cathedral Cove
car park.

Once again we we quite surprised at just how many people were doing the walk, late on Sunday afternoon though judging by the size of the car park we shouldn't have been surprised. One piece of information that was missing was that visiting this cove closer to low tide would be better as you could then walk right through the arch. Fortunately the tide wasn't too high but we were only able to view the adjacent bay. In saying that the beaches are truly beautiful with the white sand and blue waters. Even though we haven't been able to enjoy a swim we feel that we have had quite a different experience than had we been here in summer and had to share it with thousands of holidaymakers.

A view of Hahei from the Te Pare Historic Reserve
we walked up to in the morning.

Our final spot was Whangamata. We initially had only intended to stop here for lunch, but on pulling up on the water front we found a sign that said freedom campers could stay one night. It was such a pretty spot that we decided to stay. Our outlook was across the estuary to the channel that all the boats and yachts used. Just like Whitianga, Whangamata is a holidaymakers mecca with large numbers of baches to accommodate the population that swells during the summer months.

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