Coromandel whizz tour

With a couple of days left before Derek flew out of Auckland, we decided to take a whizz tour of the Coromandel Peninsula. Driving up the west coast from Thames, the road winds alongside many small stony beaches. The weather was fantastic...about half way up the coast we cut across an unsealed road going East, and climbed up to the square kauri – one of the few remaining ‘massive’ native trees of NZ. Reaching Hahei beach (beautiful lunch spot), we walked along the track with superb views to Cathedral Cove, and spent a couple of hours there relaxing on the beach. Determined to get some climbing in during Derek’s time in NZ, we’d carried our shoes there and made some attempts to climb on the rock – pretty amusing, but we got some funny pictures anyway!

Cathedral Cove is a really beautiful spot, but also seems to be really popular with the tourists. Still, perhaps not quite as touristy as Hot Water Beach, our next stop that evening! This is where you can dig your own hot pool right by the water’s edge (near low tide only), and sit relaxing in seriously hot water…in our case while the sun was setting – pretty nice! Staying in Tairua that night, we had a short run in the morning, and I climbed Paku Hill which gave fantastic views over Tokaroa Point, Tairua and over to Pauanui. Back to Auckland, and Derek flew out in the evening after a great 3 ½ weeks travelling – nearly the entire length of both islands!!