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Published: August 27th 2007
Hot Water Beach, Cathedral Cove & Haihei Beach We wanted to experience the hot springs at Hot Water Beach, so set off from Auckland in time to get there for low tide (the only time that you can experience the hot springs). We stopped off at Thames for lunch on the way at Cafe Sola, which did the job nicely. The other reason for coming into Thames though was to go to the Goldmine. Much to Jason's disappointment (he wanted to do some panning) it was closed for maintenance for the next couple of weeks. So, we actually arrived at Hot Water Beach a bit too early and decided we could fit in Cathedral Cove before low tide, as it is only about 6km further up the coast. Here we did the 1 and half hour walk down to the beach to see the rock formations. The walk is quite strenous in places if you come expecting the typical 15min walk to a lookout, as it winds its way up and down the cliffs, but it is worth it. We didn't spend as long as we wanted down there as we had to get back to dig up the beach
and have our hot bath on the beach!
By the time we got back to hot water beach there was quite a crowd who had already started digging and found the spot. The area of the hot water springs is quite small and precise. You could be digging 5cm away and you wouldn't hit the spot. Jason had a go digging in various spots to see how far the area spread. People were lying in their swim wear in the hot pools. It was bizarre, as the wind was quite cool on the beach but in the hot springs people's skin was glowing red. There were even places where it was far too hot to stand, obviously the epicentre. We gatecrashed the party and stood in others pools warming ourselves up.
Coromandel Town The drive to Coromandel Town is spectacular, winding up and down the mountain side with stunning views. We stopped at various viewpoints, to take in the views and to give Jason a rest from driving the windy roads.
Our home for the night was Tui Lodge. It was really nice, quite small in terms of the number of people that could stay there. The
double room we had was lovely, especially for the price. The town itself was nice enough, but probably more of a base to do other things in the surrounding area.
The next day we intended to go to Driving Creek Railway, but the first journey of the day was fully booked up and we were on a tight schedule to get down to Rotorua so had to give it a miss. We drove down the west coast, stopping off not far south of Coromandel Town to view some huge Kauri Trees and Waiau Falls. After another very scenic drive, we called in at Rapaura water gardens for a spot of lunch. The guy there was extremely helpful at recommending places to stop on our journey to Rotorua. The water gardens themselves were well worth a look, especially the falls there. In fact, just the drive up to it is very scenic.
All in all the Coromandel Peninsular had some stunning scenery with roadside views to rival the more hyped up Great Ocean Road in Australia. Every mile of the journey was a pleasure.
Having left the Peninsular long since out of sight of even the rear view
mirror, we then stopped at Karangahake Gorge to take in the views, but sadly couldn't hang around to do one of the scenic walks around the area - we needed to press on. We also passed through Paeroa taking in the view of the huge L&P bottle (the most famous drink in the world according to the Kiwis - ever heard of it?!).
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