Coromandel Peninsula

Once we left Wellington, it was our goal to just book it to the Coromandel Peninsula as quickly as possible. We stayed one night on the way up there around Taupo. We managed to make it to the peninsula by late afternoon the next day and stopped in a town called Thames for the night. We did a little tour around the town, had dinner and then did a little planning for the next leg of our adventure, back in Australia.

The next morning we finally set off to explore the peninsula. We started by heading over to the east coast to an area called Mercury Bay. In this area there are a ton of beaches and beautiful little spots to check out. We did a hike into a few secluded beaches. We started at Cathedral Cove, which was the most spectacular of them all. It was so pretty; white sand, clear blue water and neat rock formations. We stayed there for a couple of hours to soak up the sun and have lunch. Then we made our way to Gemstone Bay, which was supposed to have a little snorkel trail laid out in the water. We did some snorkelling, but there wasn't much to see and the water was a bit rough so we only lasted a little while in the water.

Cathedral Cove

That night we had planned to stay near a beach called Hot Water Beach. We stayed at a caravan park that had a small micro-brewery right on site. So, obviously, we had to go for a tasting and a drink. The beer was really nice and we got to enjoy it while sitting in the sun on a lovely patio.

At about 10:30pm that night we set off on an adventure. You see, Hot Water Beach is called that for a reason. At low tide, there is an area of sand that becomes exposed that is heated from below by carbon dioxide gas. It is totally crazy! So, you go and find an area near this sort of spring and start digging a hole. The water from the ocean mixes with the hot water/gas being released from underground and you basically make your own hot tub on the beach. We had originally gone to the beach at low tide during the day, but it was a madhouse! There were hundreds of people in this small little area trying to dig pools. Since low tide was at midnight that night (and you can dig 2 hours on either side of low tide), we decided to go back at night. There were probably about 40-50 people there at night, but it was much more manageable. We got together with another group there and started digging and managed to make this massive hot tube. It was pretty cool to sit in your own hot tub on the beach under the stars!

The next day we continued up the east coast. We spent the morning in a town called Whitianga, then we drove to New Chum Beach. All of the guide books raved about this secluded beach so we had to check it out. It was pretty neat because you could only access it at low tide by hiking in along the coast line. There weren't many people there and it was a beautiful beach, but we both preferred the beach at Cathedral Cove. I especially didn't like the hike in aspect because I managed to stub my toe so bad that it split open and was bleeding everywhere. It got all dirty and I had to clean it out that night, which hurt!

Coromandel Peninsula

 

From New Chum Beach, we continued through Coromandel Town and back towards Thames for one more night on the Coromandel Peninsula. The next day we started to make our way to Auckland because we had to try to sell Wanda :(

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xoxo