New Zealand 2 Coromandel Peninsula

On September 13th, we picked up a rental car in Auckland and headed out to the Coromandel Peninsula. To get there, you go south from Auckland until you get below this large bay extending down from the Hauraki Gulf, then go east under the bay and turn back north again onto the peninsula. In all of the websites that we studied for our trip, it was advertised as the place New Zealanders go for a vacation.

We learned about "baches" while researching the Coromandel Peninsula. There's a website http://www.bookabach.com/ that you can go to and rent these baches or holiday homes. People own them as their cabin or holiday home, but rent it out to tourists or friends. This was our first bach and you can see the view from the deck in the picture below. It's unbelievable!



The bach sits on a large hill (Mt. Paku), so we had a great view. If anyone is ever going to New Zealand, this bach is called the Tairua Escape. We recommend it highly, as it was only about $100 US per night in off-season. We walked down the hill towards the bay, and you can see the bay and harbor below.

We spent several enjoyable nights on the deck, with a glass of New Zealand wine watching the moon come up, listening to the waves, just soaking up the feel of New Zealand. At least until the cold drove us inside! Then you were reminded that it was still late winter in New Zealand!

We drove up to Hahei and hiked to Cathedral Cove. It's a beautiful hike. The picture below is from the parking lot where you start the hike. The hike will go off to the left of the picture, down to the water where you can see the white cliffs, then up over the hill where the cliffs are and down to the next cove, which is the Cathedral Cove. At times, you are walking underneath enormous ferns, growing 15 to 25 feet high. You feel like you are in a tropical jungle, and you have to keep in mind that you are in the South Pacific. So it makes sense that this type of foliage is here.

Finally, we reached Cathedral Cove, and here is the cathedral that you walk through to get to a really nice beach area. Annie is in the center of the picture, since I am always walking behind taking pictures!

On the 16th, we went to the Miranda Shorebird Center. To get there, we went back towards Auckland, then drove up the western shore of the bay. We took two hikes while there, the first to a bird "hide". We saw plenty of harrier hawks and one huge White Heron, but little else. As I said earlier, this was late winter, so many birds had not come in yet.

The next hike was to a shell bank, which was literally made of trillions of shells. To the right is a "art shot" where a jellyfish had washed up and was caught near the shore.

In this picture, you can see the extent of the shells. It just goes for miles down the coast of the bay and way out into the bay, which looked to be very shallow at the southern end.

While we were at the Shorebird Centre, we kept getting "buzzed" by a WWII Spitfire fighter plane. I thought it was beautiful, but Annie disagreed! I guess it's a guy thing!







Next, we go to the geothermal heart of the North Island, Taupo and Rotorua!

Take care, everyone!

John & Annie