Coromandel Coast

I drove up the Coromandel coast today and headed to Hot Spring Beach. This is a place where there are natural hots springs that permeate the sandy beach and get washed into the ocean. If you dig a hole in the sand you will have a hot water pool which you can sit in (or boil in). Apparently you add ocean water into it to cool it down.

Unfortunately due to a storm a couple of years ago the sand had been washed out to sea and as a result the hot water is diluted straight away so there's no way of collecting it in a sand pool as there isn't enough sand left. Shame. I'm sure another storm will put the sand back. The hot water is only accessible during low tide anyway.

On the Friday I met up with a French Couple who've I've met a couple of times at various locations (Monkey Island and on the ferry to Wellington). Anyway we decided to find somewhere to stay like a parking lot etc. Since it was Friday night we decided that staying in Thames wouldn't be a good idea since it would probably be busy with the Friday night crowd. We found a DOC campsite on the map and decided that that would be a lot quieter (OK, it was my call to go there!). The place was 14km outside of Thames and we made our way there. As it turns out, most of the road is a wash-board road and it was awful to drive on at night. We got to the campsite and it was deserted. Pretty scary. We actually pulled in at a trail head and the French couple had decided that we weren't going any further.

We pulled over and parked up. I commented that usually places are literally around the corner when you end up making decisions like this. Anyway I got my flashlight out and took a walk up the road. Low and behold 2 minutes walk away was the entrance to the campsite!! So of course we ended up staying in the campsite.

There were a few cars that sped by (which was weird since we were very remote). I looked at the map and it turns out that the road (even if it's a washboard road) is actually a shortcut across the Coramandel peninsula.

Hicks Bay

Today was a driving day. I headed North up to Hicks Bay. The sea was very rough and the weather was wind and rain. I spent most of the day reading and drinking coffee, watching the ocean.

On the next day I stayed in the Waihi beach resort. Waihi is a small little town with a massive open cast mine at the top of the hill. I didn't manage to go down the mine as the weather was the worst I've ever seen. Literally it felt like buckets of water were being poured on you! Apparently the locals were pretty shocked by the weather as well and haven't seen anything like it! It cleared up in about 20 minutes!! Amazing. The beach resort was pretty good and would have been packed in the summer months. A pool for the kids and great beaches. I wish the weather was better!

Mahia Peninsula

I made my way to Mahia and along the Mahia Peninsula today. The place had golden beaches and was a small sand spit which had a beautiful ocean view. There wasn't much to do and it looked like the place had closed down for the season. Lots of kids playing on the beach and a few fishermen bringing in their boat, but other than that there wasn't a lot to do. I took a trip to the northern side of the spit and it was pretty damn windy! It's amazing the difference one gets between the sheltered (leeward) side of the island and the windward side!

Later on I made my way quite far north on Hwy 35 and ended up in Tolaga Bay at a campsite. Tolaga Bay is where Captain Cook Landed on 23rd Oct 1769. The bay is incredibly beautiful and its pretty obvious why Captain Cook chose this as an anchorage. the beaches are gradual and there is shelter on both sides by high cliffs. during the night the stars were very visible and it made me wonder what Captain Cook and his astro-navigators would have seen. Maybe very similar constellations.

Lake Tutaria

On the Sunday I made my way across to Napier and stayed by Lake Tutaria. Nothing really much happened but the views were really spectacular.

Lake Tutaria

Tongariro

On Saturday I made my way up to Tongariro. This is where a lot of filming of Lord Of The Rings was done. Unfortunately, a few days ago there was a flash-flood and it took the lives of a Teacher (a young Lady) and 6 high school children (16 and 17 yo I believe). What a terrible thing to happen.

I made my way up to the base and was told about the weather conditions so I decided that after what had just happened I'm not going to take my chances with nature. It was raining and starting to get windy (which is when Flash-floods and avalanches happen).

Wellington

I spent a couple of days in Wellington. Wellington has to be my favourite city in NZ. It's cosmopolitan and has a character which is unique. It's a small town city! It has a very welcoming feel but also has a city feel. If I were to live somewhere here in NZ this would be my first choice. However the city seems to mainly host goverment jobs and thats not surprising since that's where the Houses of Paliament are.

Wellington from the harbour


The Houses Of Parliament

Boat to Wellington

I caught the ferry back to the North Island and met up with an Australian couple who I met earlier in my journey on the South Island. Rob and his Wife (sorry I can't recall your name) were really good companions and I would love to visit them in Perth, Australia as they have extended me an invitation. As it happens we met in Picton just before the ferry journey and ended up having a coffee together whilst waiting.

Leaving Picton into the Cook Straight


The Boat I traveled on