COROMANDELS and ROTARUA

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Rotorua
March 17th 2008

Published: June 17th 2008

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Lozzle

Cathedral Cove

The Coromandels are stunning. We went to Thames, then up through the East and back round again to the West. We camped at various campsites, and sat at many beaches. Lots of beaches we went to are off road, and no one else there.

The Hot Water beach was an experience. There are sulphar spots in the beaches, and you grab a shovel and dig! Oz started making me my very own hot tub, but how to downsize as it was taking ages, I was impatient and the tide was coming in. After many hours of digging, it first dawned on us, that a, we weren’t in a “hot” spot, and b, if we were in a hot spot, why would we want to sit in hot bath water when the temperature is actually boiling already?! Didn’t make much sense. We instead decided to try out other people’s spas when they had vacated them, and then left after way too much energy was used. Too much digging for one day.

We also went to a stunning cove called Cathedral Cove. You had to walk for about an hour with amazing views either side of you, and then you hit

Cathedral Cove

the beach. There are rocks forming from the water and white beaches. You couldn’t swim though as the current was had too many rips, but well worth the walk….and just in time before the tide came in.

After spending a week or so checking out the different spots, we then headed for Rotorua. We stayed at the Crash Palace, which had an amazing hot tub, and met some interesting people. The one thing that really stands out about Rotorua is the smell. Rotten eggs. Bad rotten eggs. You think you would get used to it, but you don’t. Sometimes it would actually wake you up in the night because the smell was so overpowering.

We went to a Maori village one day, and saw Geysers exploding, had corn on the cob cooked in a mud pool, Kiwi birds, wood carving, and of course saw the HAKA. The Haka was amazing, and the “chief” looked pretty intimidating. The performance was the best one yet.

The Village is still a working village and was a great day to tour around it.

We also visited the Redwood forests and took a hike in the stunning NZ countryside. Many blisters