Easter Road Trip Part 2 (Coromandel)

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Sat 11th April 2009 cont.

We drove to Coromandel town via Waihi Beach on the Bay of Plenty and at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula. We continued up north and through the Karangahake Gorge - the scene of the north island's first gold rush. It was also around here that the British and Maori fought in the New Zealand wars.

We made a stop in Paeroa to get our photo taken with a giant bottle of L&P (Lemon & Paeroa) - a kiwiana soft drink which I bought a bottle of and it was actually quite horrible. Still its very popular here and is "World Famous in New Zealand" .

The drive up the west coast of the Coromandel was beautiful - right along the shores of the Huaraki Gulf and the weather got better and better the further north we went. This is where all the Aucklandites holiday and it doesn't feel like you're just an hour and a half or so away from the big city. Infact you could see the Sky Tower right across the water in the distance!!



We stayed at the Tui Lodge and went into Coromandel Town for a drink and the best fish and chips I've had (Snapper)! Chips weren't a patch on the ones back home though!














Sunday 12th April 2009

Drove around the coast and up and over the Coromandel Ranges. Some good old twisting rally driving again!! BUT its just no fun in an automatic 😞

It was a lovely hot sunny day (yeah go figure after our freezing in Rotorua) and we went to Hot Water beach so called because of the natural hot springs that bubble away beneath the sands - but only in certain spots. We promptlybdug ourselves a cold water pool and then got invited into a hot water one by a nice kiwi family who felt sorry for us. Then I burnt my bottom .......

We also went out on a great speed boat trip from Hahai and saw the famous Cathedral Cove and where Narnia, Prince Caspian was set. The water was so clear and we could see lots of fish and apparently there was an eage ray right next to the boat that I missed boo 😞

Its so nice over the Coromandel east coast and I saw a lot of diving schools so I'll be back doing scuba next summer. Now I just need to find someone who owns a Bach there........

Drove on to our accommodation for the night at Opoutere where we had dinner and wine outside and saw shooting stars....then were kept awake all night long by some big pacific island dude's monumental snoring!!! He is now banned from the hostel because of breach of the peace issues.











Monday 13th April 2009 (Happy 30th birthday to my big sis x)


We got up early and went sea kayaking (well we were already awake anyway thanks to Mr Snore). It was so nice & peaceful out on the water but we are a couple of weaklings and lasted about half an hour before we went in hunt of coffee and cake!! After coffee and cake we headed back to Auckland wishing we had more time, stopping off for another kiwiana - hokey pokey ice cream on the way. Yum. Hmm but I do foresee a number of extra gym sessions coming up!!

I had a great easter weekend seeing lots more on NZ now why can't all weekends last 4 days!!!!

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