The Coromandel Peninsula

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After only one full day in Auckland Brett and I decided that it was time to do some surf-chasing, so we stocked up on groceries and headed over to Whangamata, a little beach town on the Coromandel Peninsula. As Murphy's Law would have it, the ocean was completely flat, and remained that way (much to our dismay) for the entire four days that we stuck around - despite our religious checking of it each and every morning and afternoon.

So, to keep the 'no waves' depression from sinking too far in, we came up with ways to entertain ourselves. We set up in a nice campsite in a place called - interestingly enough - Wentworth Valley. There was a nice trail out of the campsite up to a beautiful, high waterfall. We wandered down to the base of it for a bit of a picnic lunch beside the waterhole. We nourished ourselves so well that we were able to run the 4K trail back to the campground.

Wednesday morning we woke up and made our way up to Hahei to go snorkelling in a place called Gemstone Bay. The water was slightly cold, but we did manage to stay in long enough to see many fish, crayfish, and even a stingray in plain sight. We then got dried off and continued walking down a trail to the next beach, known as Cathedral Cove. It was a beautiful spot - a sandy beach with limestone cliffs as the backdrop. We decided to stay a while and enjoy the sun and sand (and the picnic lunch we had packed in for ourselves) before heading back to our cosy campsite.

Thursday morning we talked to the owners of the campsite and cut a deal with them: an hour of work from Brett and I for three nights free accomodation - not a bad deal, really. We calculated it out to about $60/hr (considering we each really only did a half hour of work). After that little bit of work, we headed into town for a walk on the beach and some body surfing.

Friday we drove over to Thames, a little town on the west side of the Coromandel, to do some hiking up in a DOC park. The hike was quite challenging - a good bit straight up on stairs carved into the mountain-side from old loggers, followed by a good bit straight down (again, on stairs carved into the mountain-side). In total, 10 km which took four and a half hours - so you can imagine how tired we were by the end of it.

By Saturday we'd had enough of the frustrating 'no-surf' conditions and so decided to move on. First we took the time to head up to Hot Water Beach, where we dug our own little hot-tub into the sandbar. The heated water is created by geysers pushing up from beneath the earths surface... unfortunately, ours was too warm so we spent most of our time sitting on the edge having people taking pictures of our bubbling bath. After our day in the sand, we made our way down to the city of Tauranga where we are considering finding jobs to have a little income.

I suppose that's all for now. Pictures to come. I hope all is well at home - keep in touch 😊

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Photos

Limestone Formations
at Cathedral Cove

Having some fun in a giant hollowed-out tree
on the Billygoat Trail

One Person Maximum!
This is not a joke - the swinging bridges on this trail kept me holding my breath as I crossed them.

Comments

[Chris]

Amazing!!!!
Leigh!!! Your stories are so exciting and are getting me pumped for my trip - we leave in 5 weeks!!! I spoke to Colin last night and he's getting us all geared up for a terrific 3 weeks! Sounds like you're having a blast! Tell Brett that we're missing him at Wednesday night ball!!!!! :) Take care.

[Amanda]

My junk would never fit on that teeny tiny bridge. If you two keep being so active, how are you going to bulk up to prepare for winter?... oh right.