Coromandel

After leaving Rotorua, we made a quick stop in the small costal town of Whakatane. There's not much to do there, but from there you can take a tour to White Island, an active marine volcano! Unfortunately, we went during a week of patchy bad weather, and our trip was cancelled due to gusty winds. We're hoping to try again when we head back up to the North Island at the beginning of Spring. We made a quick stop in Ohope beach, a 10 km long beach along the East Coast, right at the end of the Bay of Plenty, which is very popular during the summer. It was rather empty when we were there. 

Next, it was off to the Coromandel Peninsula!

Our first stop was at the south end of the Coromandel in a little town called Paeroa. It's famous for the birthplace of a popular (and tasty!) New Zealand soft drink called Lemon and Paeroa, or more commonly, L&P. It's so delicious and addictive! I love the stuff. It's a nice mix between ginger ale, mineral water, and iced tea with lemon (John says a dry lemonade). The secret ingredient is mineral water from a spring located just on the edge of town. The (very small) town is quite proud of it's claim to fame, as there are L&P flags on every power line pole in town and almost all the buildings have the logo on them. We stopped at the little touristy cafe where there is a gift shop and, more importantly, L&P ice cream! I had to try some, so we got some to-go in little taster-size cups. It was very tasty and worth the pit-stop. 

We then drove up the east coast of the Coromandel, over some pretty curvy roads, before settling in the little costal town of Whitianga for the night. It was a very windy evening, but luckily we had great weather the next day! Our first full day in Coromandel we wanted to hit the highlights. We headed a bit South, to the little town of Hahei, to do a little walk to the famous Cathedral Cove and make a visit to Hot Water Beach to enjoy the hot pools at low tide! The walk to Cathedral Cove was very nice with some gorgeous views and we made pit stops at the little bays in between.

First was Gemstone Bay:

And the second was Stingray Bay--very picturesque little cove where, if you were lucky, you could spot some stingrays in the water. Unfortunately, there were no stingrays that day, but it was a still a beautiful sight to behold:

The last stop was Cathedral Cove, famous for it's rock archway between two very beautiful beaches. 

The archway was recently roped off due to a few rock slips on the side wall--but that didn't deter John as he quickly snuck across to snap a few photos of the actual Cathedral Cove side. 

After enjoying the beautiful beach and sunshine, it was a small hike back and then off to the next destination: Hot Water Beach! At low tide (and you have to visit during low tide), visitors dig holes in the sand within very precise areas and the water exposed underneath is quite hot (thanks to geothermal activity)! By the time we got there, plenty of holes had already been dug, so we occupied an empty one and enjoyed the nice, hot water! Indeed, in some spots it was almost too hot to stand. Some people were able to mix the hot water from the sand and the cool water from the ocean, which I imagine was the best bet. Still, it was really cool!

That night we stayed in a cute little backpackers called Black Jack Lodge in the very small costal town of Kuaotunu in between Whitianga and Coromandel Town on the Northeastern part of the Peninsula. It was recommended to us by John's great Aunt and Uncle, who stayed there on a previous trip to NZ a few years ago. Indeed, it was situated in a beautiful spot, the owners Carl and Carol were very nice, and it was a very nice little place! Felt more like a B&B but at hostel prices.

 They were about to close in two weeks as they work at a ski field in Wanaka over the winter, thus we were the only guests and they let us have a bit nicer room for the same price as the one we booked--really nice! We enjoyed the peace and quiet, and I was able to get into some reading again (with my Kindle which now has a spiffy cover thanks to John's mom Stephanie--thank you, Stephanie!)

The next day we headed back into Whitianga as the weather wasn't fantastic and John wanted to do some bone carving at a little arts and crafts studio in town. The place was run by a German guy who was really nice and very into carving--and he gave John a two hour lesson and John was able to carve a Maori fish hook of his own design. The guy had a showcase of some really neat carvings, made from a mixture of bone, wood, sheep horns, paua, and seashell. A well-spent morning that I documented (in between reading chapters of my book to pass the time):

That afternoon we decided to venture over to Coromandel Town on the west coast.  On the way there we decided to stop for a short walk to a little spot called Opera point at the end of a beach reserve:

Turns out Coromandel was quite a sleepy town with not much to do. Most of the interesting tours and attractions had already ended for the day (we got there around 3:30 p.m.) However, there were some nice walks about 30 minutes down the road, including one that went to a grove of Kauri trees, a well-known tree in Northland that are some of the biggest in NZ but have been predominately wiped out due to logging and gum digging. Thus, they are now being fiercely conserved and, hopefully, re-flourished. It was a nice walk and a good way to pass the time.

 Once we got back to Coromandel Town it was almost sunset, and so we parked our car on the wharf to watch the sun go down over the inlet between the Coromandel Peninsula and Auckland ( on the other side). Turned out to be quite a beautiful sunset and worth the wait:

We ended the evening at a little restaurant in Coromandel Town called Pepper Tree. As it was quite a chilly night, we were able to grab a table right in front of the small, wood-burning fire place. It was a cozy and delicious meal!

Overall we really enjoyed the north end of the Coromandel--plenty of beautiful, non-crowded or almost deserted beaches, little towns with cute shops and restaurants, beautiful scenery and weather, and a peace and quiet that would be very easy to get used to. However, our journey would not have been complete without completing one of the more popular tramps on the peninsula: The Pinnacles!