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Published: January 11th 2013
The drive from Whangarei towards the Coromandel took way longer than expected as we got caught up with all the folk heading home back to work after their New Year celebrations. Once we reached the peninsular the roads were quiet and we drove through some beautiful and quiet villages as well as Coromandel town that was crammed with heritage buildings and people alike. We passed cafes, art studios, loads of interesting shops and restaurants, but we had no time to stop as we still had a couple of hours to go further up to our destination of Port Jackson, right on the tip of the peninsular.
The further north we drove the more isolated and beautiful everything was, the coastal road was lined with pohutukawa trees and luckily we didn't pass anyone! The gravel track clung and weaved its way around the cliffs and the drop to my left was enough to make even Paul nervous! The views were truly gobsmackingly gorgeous and we stopped several times to take pictures and we were lucky to see a fantastic sunset. We eventually arrived at our DOC campsite just as dusk came, a relief as we would not have liked to be
on the cliff edged track in the dark! The next day we drove further still on the same scary road to Fletcher Bay to start a section of the Coromandel Coastal Walkway, a lovely scenic hike to Stony Bay that had great views and sections of it were across farmland. The weather wasn't the best so our pictures weren't very good and we got absolutely drenched, more drowned rats than beach rats! Back at the campsite the sun made an appearance and we dried off drinking some fizz and watching a whale bob around in the bay.
The next day we set off just after sunrise and headed east to Whangapoua to make the walk to the hidden New Chum's Beach, regarded as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world! After a thirty minute walk avoiding the rising tide along cobbles we were rewarded with a secluded beach, it was gorgeous but I think we have visited better during our trip! Back in The Hoff we drove to Cathedral Cove to see its famous gigantic stone arch, we then headed to the famous Hot Water Beach, where at either side of low tide
you can dig a hole and sit in as hot water oozes up from beneath. We had intended to do this but the place was packed so instead we grabbed an ice-cream and watched the masses dig! We then drove inland to our forest campsite, by a stream where we chilled some beers and sat in the last of the day’s sun.
For our last day on the coromandel we ventured to the beach at Whangamata to watch the surfers and catch some rays, it was really busy but we had a good time and I enjoyed myself looking round the shops in the town. We headed to Thames, named by Cook in 1769 as its Waihou River resembled its English namesake. We stayed at a fantastic campsite that was green and quiet for our last night on the coromandel and enjoyed the last three bean chili of the trip as the sun went down.
We spent our last day in NZ on the same free site we'd stayed previous on the the bird watchers coast at Kaiaua, where we saved some cash washing The Hoff ourselves, sat
in the sun, walked the beach and then had the last supper of fush n chups before witnessing the best sunset we'd seen in NZ!
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