Beautiful Coromandel

On November 23, 2015, after visiting Hobbiton, we drove north to the Coromandel Peninsula on the North Island of New Zealand.  Lizzy and Kenny had recommended that we stay in Whitianga, which we made the base of our explorations.

Whitianga (pronounced, "Fit-ee-ANG-a") is located on the east coast of the peninsula, toward the tip, and is one of the largest towns on the peninsula.  It has a wide, long beach (known as "Buffalo Beach" from the name of a vessel that shipwrecked there) on Mercury Bay:

The harbor boasts a small ferry that connects Whitianga with the coast to the south, saving a 45 minute drive to beaches below the town.  There is also a marina, which is quite striking at night:

Whitianga has been continuously occupied for more than a thousand years since Māori explorer Kupe’s tribe settled here after his visit in about 950 AD. Following this visit, many of Kupe's tribe settled here. "Te Whitianga o Kupe" is the original place name of the town, meaning Kupe's crossing place.

There are several beautiful beaches to the south of Whitianga, and we made it a point to visit most of them.  Our first stop was Te Whanganui-A-Hei (Cathedral Cove) Marine Reserve.  Cathedral Cove is named after the cave located there, linking Mare's Leg Cove to Cathedral Cove. Gemstone Bay and Stingray Bay are also located within the reserve. A walking track exists from the northern end of Hahei Beach, and it is also possible to walk from a car park at the top of the headland between Hahei and Gemstone Bay.  We drove our car to the car park and started down the track, getting a view of the reserve as we started:

The reserve protects some old growth forest, which we explored in many ways:

Down at Cathedral Cove, we viewed Cathedral Cove from Cathedral Cave:

Kayak tours to the coves are offered from nearby Hahei.  As we were hiking back up to the car park, we spotted one group of kayaks exploring Stingray Bay, which adjoins Mare's Leg Cove and Cathedral Cove:

Our next stop was Hot Water Beach, which is a beach on Mercury Bay on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula, south of Cathedral Cove. Its name comes from underground hot springs which filter up through the sand between the high and low water tidal reaches.   The beach is popular with visitors who come armed with shovels and dig holes to let warm water seep in.  They then soak in the hot water.  Lots of people enjoy this:

We came prepared, too, with a shovel and our jandals (known as flip-flops or thongs to you Americans):

The art in locating your hole is to find the hot water flow, but not put your hole directly in the flow line, or you'll scald yourself.  You need to find a strategic location that gets a friendly mixture of hot and cold water, and then it's just right!

Here, David digs away to make a suitable hole for soaking:

After soaking until our skin wrinkled, we headed north to Shakespeare Cliffs, across from Whitianga. From the cliffs, we got a view of Lonely Bay, in the foreground in the photo below, and the rest of Cooks Bay beyond:

We hiked down to Lonely Bay and were treated to spectacular views both south --

-- and north (with Shakespeare Cliffs featuring prominently):

This was a busy day!  We had a wonderful seafood dinner and arose the next morning to continue our drive around Coromandel Peninsula.  Much of the drive was high on the cliffs, inside low-hanging clouds, making the morning wet and foggy:

We reached the town of Coromandel for lunch, just in time to catch a view of a family of ducks swimming across the marina channel for their own lunch:

We drove on around McGregor Bay and found this lonely shorebird feeding among the rocks in Wyuna Bay, across from Coromandel town:

The town itself was an interesting stroll, with native statuary at the community center --

-- and some unusual mining equipment at the School of Mines museum:

Continuing our drive back down the west coast of the Coromandel Peninsula, we caught another view of McGregor Bay before heading inland and back to Auckland:

The Coromandel Peninsula is gorgeous.  We were taking photos right and left.  We couldn't include them all in this blog entry, but we did upload them to our Flickr Page if you want to look through them.

Thus ended a fabulous Kiwi Adventure!  Thank you Lizzy, Kenny, Beau and Keegan for welcoming us into your home and giving us lots of tips and resources to explore the Land Down Under!

Next stop:  Toronto and Sir William & Co.!