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Published: April 20th 2010
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Coromandel is a peninsular on the north eastern part of the main part of the north island if you know what I mean - it’s quite hard to explain where it is without a map but anyway, it’s north of Rotorua. We headed in that direction as we’d read that there was a beach there called hot beach where we could dig a hole in the sand and the geothermal activity below would allow the sea water to be heated up so that we could bathe in our own freshly dug hot spring pool. Imagine having a bit of a laugh digging out a hole in the sand similar to when you were a child at the beach, basking in the gorgeous sunshine on a beautiful beach with amazing views and then lying down, relaxing in your own hot spring pool. Sounds fab doesn’t it?! Well that’s what we thought too! However, the reality of it was somewhat different. Sunshine; check. Beautiful beach and amazing views; check. Having a laugh while digging out a hole in the sand; check. Being able to dig a hole in the sand; no chance! Geothermal activity heating the water near us; nope! Basically, when we arrived and managed to get parked up, we took a walk along to the rocks where there is supposed to be a geothermal activity nearby and were greeted by about 100 other people, all digging holes. It was actually quite funny to see. Everyone was there for the same reason and everyone was determined to dig their holes and relax in the hot spring water. As we looked around, there were many people digging used hired spades or their hands and others just standing near the hole that they had already managed to dig, looking a little lost. It was probably because the sea water in their holes was freezing cold. Had we all been led on? Well no, actually there was one small area of sand that had bubbling water by it and after checking it out with my foot - I realised quite quickly that that was the geothermal area...I scalded my poor toes!
Yeah it was a ridiculous scenario really, with hundreds of people digging holes and then realising that they weren’t in the right place. There was enough space around the only area that was bubbling for two people to attempt to dig holes
... unfortunately the geothermal activity had chosen a position that wasn’t quite far enough in land as the tide receded, so we watched for what must’ve been fifteen minutes as two guys with spades valiantly tried to dig holes as the sea constantly thwarted them by flooding over the top of the defensive walls they’d built and filling in their holes. You had to admire their dedication though, they wouldn’t give up! Anyway, not wanting to leave without having a go ourselves,
and knowing full-well that we were digging in an area with no geothermal activity and therefore no chance of warm water, we also tried digging a hole (without a spade though) only to also have the sea constantly destroying all of our good work. Eventually we admitted defeat and headed back to Bertha past dozens and dozens of large holes full of cold water and lots of perplexed people standing around them, very funny.
So we headed on our way to buy some ridiculously expensive diesel from the only petrol station around (we’d run incredibly low) and found ourselves driving from Hahei to the top of the cliff where we could take a walk down to Cathedral Cove. This area was on the coast and was extremely beautiful. The sky was clear blue and the sun was shining brightly down on the sparkling blue ocean. There were islands prodruding from the water and it had a Thai look to it. We stopped to cook lunch before walking down the (very long) track to Cathedral Cove, knowing that the biggest challenge was going to be walking the 45 minute walk back up hill on our return to Bertha at the top of the cliff.
Cathedral cove was a fairly sheltered beachy area with very white rock (limestone I think) that we had to go under, dodging the incoming tide over to the beach area. We sat there on the sand for a while, just relaxing and taking it all in. It is a very special area - quite magical. Indeed, and nice to get some sunshine on our pale and pasty bodies again ... after four months of non-stop sunshine New Zealand has certainly been a shock to the system. With a full day of beach antics under our belt it was time to get back to Bertha and start driving as we wanted to
make it as far north as possible before bedtime to give us the best chance of getting to see the Northland area of New Zealand before leaving (although we did manage to find time on the journey to scoff down a couple of portions of fish and chips in Tairua before finally setting up camp for the night in a car park in Orewa, north of Auckland ... our chosen camp venue for the night, a carpark outside some public toilets by the edge of a busy road.
Longest sentence in the history of the world Matt, well done. Glamorous. In fact it was made all the more arduous when they locked the public toilets at 10pm, which caused a bit of a problem when nature called later in the night for Mrs G ... time for a 2am drive around town looking for an open public toilet, all good fun (and a strange start to Cate’s birthday!)
Yeah right, that was a stressful morning drive!
When I woke up the next morning, Matt presented me with my birthday pressie - a box of ferrero rocher. Yummy! We drove further north after a stop at the local Snow Planet to check out the situation for getting a skiing lesson and taking to the slopes, (indoors unfortunately) and found out that we would have to wait til the next day to get a lesson. We headed along the state highway towards Dargaville where we stopped for birthday lunch (a picnic of roast chicken - already cooked, lettuce and cheesy rolls. ) Lovely. With skiing out of the window until tomorrow, what super-special treat did we indulge ourselves in for Cate’s birthday I hear you ask? Well we drove 230km north deep into the Waipoua Forest to go and see a really big tree, rock and roll! Tane Mahuta was the big tree in question, one of a now rare species of tree called Kauri ... and to be fair it was pretty spectacularly big, 13.77m wide and over 50m tall, the biggest tree we’ve ever seen anyways.
Anyway, after seeing the tree (and hugging some other big trees) we began the 230km journey back to Auckland but only made it as far as a holiday park one hour down the road before giving up and crashing for the night, leaving ourselves an early start the next day to
get back to SnowPlanet in time the following day for our skiing lesson.
Over and out,
Matt and Cate x
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