The first place we visited after leaving Auckland, the Coromandel Peninsula, turned out to be one of our favorite areas of New Zealand. It is stunningly beautiful, with rugged coastlines, sandy beaches, and rolling, lush green hills. Our first destination, since we arrived at the base of the peninsula after dark, was the wonderful Miranda Springs Holiday Park. We were too chicken to try to free-camp that first night, so we spoiled ourselves by staying at the nicest campground in the North Island. To this day, nearly a month and a half later, we still haven’t seen its equal. And we’ve stayed at a LOT of campgrounds. Even better than the immaculately clean kitchen and hot showers was the ginormous thermal pool. We spent the evening (and the next morning) soaking in the biggest hot tub
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