March 12, 2014
One of the North Island’s unique features is the Coromandel Peninsula, which sticks out from the mainland like a thumb sticks up from a hand, parallel but also separate.
At 50 miles long and 20 miles wide, it’s a big place, but its mountainous terrain, single-lane winding highway, and rugged individualist residents give it a remoteness that’s both appealing and challenging. In fact, while the Coromandel Peninsula is a favorite travel destination for New Zealand residents, it’s too off the beaten path for most foreign visitors trying to cover a lot of ground in limited time.
Rich and I had visited some of the Coromandel’s anchorages on its west side, but the best part of this peninsula would definitely be on its east side. This area is famous for having magnificent beaches, a scattering of charming little towns, vacation homes, and beautiful scenery. I couldn’t wait to see it!
Below, a map showing our first destination of the day, Hot Water Beach, and the town where we’d be staying, Whitianga.
Our first hurdle would be the drive to the town of Whitianga part way up the peninsula. From our boat it was an easy hour-long drive to the base of the peninsula, but then the road started to wind up into the mountains. Since it’s only one lane each way, you can imagine how frustrating it is to get stuck behind slow cars and trucks, of which there are plenty, with few turnouts or bypass lanes. It takes a lot of patience to drive on this road, and Rich’s was sorely tested on this drive. Since then, I’ve heard more than one New Zealander say they would never want a vacation home on the Coromandel simply because of this road. There is one area where people fly their own planes in, but that will be the subject of a future post.
Aside from the nerve-wracking road, the scenery is pretty impressive, although getting a good photo from the car was challenging with all winding curves and sudden view-blocking trees. I’ve managed to get a couple of reasonable quality (OK, maybe dubious quality ) to post below.
As we made our way up the peninsula, we passed towns I hoped to visit on the way back. Our first stop today would be a place called Hot Water Beach. The name comes from an area of the beach where hot springs filter up through the sand within 2 hours of low tide. If you dig in the sand, you can make your own hot water pool to soak in. Many people actually bring their own shovels to do this, but they can also be rented on site.
We parked and walked down a pretty path to the beach. My first reaction was to be impressed by this huge stretch of sand! We’d come to see the hot water, but I felt like this area was beautiful enough to be an attraction in itself! The beach was party divided by a rocky area, and we noticed a lot of people seemed to be gathered there while the rest of the beach was nearly empty. We figured this must be where the hot water was located and headed over. Below, a couple of photos from our arrival at the beach. (You can click on any photo to enlarge.)
We soon found ourselves in a small crowd of people who were either digging pits or sitting in the pools they’d dug. We had no plans to dig a pit ourselves but instead went to scout out an abandoned one, stepping into the pool to find it wasn’t very hot. It quickly became apparent the hot water here varies—some spots are hotter than others which was made apparent by only a few of the pools being steamy. We also learned that one has to dig reasonably deep to get hot water; so maybe that was the difference, but when we walked by pits at the shoreline, I merely dug my foot down in the sand and found a hot spot.
It was pretty interesting to watch the crowd all bunched together, sitting in pools ranging from shallow to a couple of feet deep, partying while trying to enjoy sitting in hot water under the summer sun. Yes, the whole thing seemed rather silly, but everyone seemed to be having fun. Below, a gallery of the hot water area…..
Plus a panorama of the crowd……
And another….
Rich had taken the panorama photos while I stepped into the ocean to get the best view of the beaches. What a contrast to see the quiet majestic beauty of this entire beach vs the little “Disneyland” over by the rocks where the hot water was. Below, some photos of the quieter areas away from the hot water.
It was time to head on as I had more in store for us today, an area close by called Cathedral Cove. –Cyndi
