Advertisement
Published: January 16th 2009
Edit Blog Post
On Saturday, we left Taupo and drove up to
Hahei on the east coast of the
Coromandel Peninsula. We stopped at 'The Talisman' cafe in the
Karangahake Gorge and noted that it was getting a lot warmer and more humid the further north we travelled.
We arrived at the camp-site late afternoon, set up camp in the intense heat and then, typically, when everything (chairs, tables et c.) was out and all the tent doors were open, the sky opened and deposited a lot of rain on us. We are rapidly coming to the conclusion that it only rains:
a) when we pitch a tent, unpack the car and leave all our gear out on the grass
or
b) when we have to take down and put away a tent.
We jumped back in the car and headed half an hour north to the larger town of
Whitianga to refuel, find wireless internet and grab some food at a cool little oriental cafe called 'Blue Ginger'.
The next day, we considered our options:
a) go the the beach (which was 2 mins walk away and one of the best in NZ)
b) walk over the cliffs
to
Cathedral Cove (which was 90 mins away and one the best in NZ).
We opted for the 2 minute walk, reserving the second option for later in the day when it was cooler. It didn't get cooler, even by early evening...and we later read that North Island hit a high of something like 37 degrees Celsius that day.
In the evening we ate ribs and snapper at the local pub and listened to live music from a guy with his acoustic guitar who claimed he'd written a UK hit - but we never did find out his name nor identify the song in question. In good holiday tradition, we also drank a bottle of some very local Merlot Malbec, but let's just say that no one ever claimed that the Coromandel was a good place to grow grapes (too humid and hot) and quickly moved onto to a good Hawkes Bay Merlot to remove the taste!
The next day we drove to
Cook's Beach where Captain Cook anchored and observed the transit of Mercury, walked on Shakespeare Cliff for views of 'Lonely Bay' and 'Flaxmere Bay' and then headed back via 'Purangi Winery' (famous for it's
port and liqueurs - next Christmas sorted) and 'Cathedral Cove Macadamia Farm' where we picked up some macadamia nut oil, some macadamia nut butter and some other macadamia nut related products. That night it was just to hot to eat in so we took a picnic to Whitianga beach.
On Wednesday, realising that it wasn't going to get any cooler we did the walk along the cliffs past 'Stingray Bay' and 'Gemstone Bay' and down some evil steps to
Cathedral Cove . We both swam in the sea and Tim got stung by a jellyfish - which was fun. Afterwards we showered under a freshwater waterfall falling onto the beach and then drove to Whitianga for pies. As we walked past the cinema we noticed a huge sign that said "Yes - we do have air con" so after a little walk around town we dived in and watched
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. We found a little place that did great pizza afterwards and contemplated the next stage of our journey...onwards to Auckland!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.089s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 15; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0452s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
John G
non-member comment
re. "Mmmm...I like this"
That's been airbrushed.... far too perfect and toned - reeks of Photoshop to me