Cape Reinga till Coromandel

We arrived at about 8 pm at Pukenui Lodge, where we had booked earlier. The hostel was situated in an old wooden house next to a bay, really cozy and in beautiful surroundings. The reception lady was very helpful and helping us a lot with tips and even giving us the key to the already closed laundry, where we did a big amount of washing and hanging it up behind the house. The beds were the only horrible thing in this hostel. They were so soft that we had the feeling we were sinking through to the ground. I even had a special experience on our second day: I literally fell through the bed with the mattress and had to decide very quickly if I wanted to use my hands to keep holding the laptop I was holding at the time or if I needed them to catch myself. So I threw the laptop on the ground and saved myself. Fortunately the laptop was alright as well. But I chose another bed for the next night. Our first day on the peninsula took us to the very North tip of New Zealand: Cape Reinga. The nature up there and the view onto the surrounding beaches, coves and islands was simply amazing from very far up. We also visited the Lighthouse – actually the smallest lighthouse I have ever seen before – it was maximum 4-5 m high, but standing on top of this high cape it had once played a big part in the safety of passing ships. We could also see the mixture of the Tasmanian Sea and the Pacific Ocean from this spot. The waves were crashing into each other – the Tasmanian ones being more forceful at the time. Maori legend says that souls are jumping off the cliff when they want to pass into the next world. There was also a rock near the beach which is known to draw big whales to it to scratch off barnacles and get a massage. Unluckily this was not whale season so we couldn’t see one doing it. After leaving the cape we wanted to do some sand boarding nearby but the guy at the (only!) local shop told us that we were too late for today, they would close and we needed to come back the next day. As this was another 45 min drive back up when we should be driving towards the South we decided against it and wanted to try another spot further south that promised the same activity. But for today we wanted to do some stuff more so we visited the very unspectacular village of Te Hapua where we took some nice photos of boats stranded on the dry beach and then took a turn towards Rarawa Beach on the East side of the peninsula, which had lovely white and fluffy sand. The famous 90-mile-beach we left for the next day to explore. As there are several small gravel roads and one asphalt street at Waipapakauri leading towards it we decided on the latter one and parked our car to enter the beach on foot. As we had no 4x-wheel we didn’t dare driving on the beach, which was good thinking as we watched several twens having to solve that exact problem while entering the beach. There was a Jucy with 4 blondies in it who were totally stuck and were waiting for some handsome young guys to help them. Cliché, but that was what happened. We had a laugh and took lots of photos of them trying to free both of their cars. The 90-mile-beach itself is quite cool, because it is so long and you can try to drive on it, but it wasn’t very spectacular apart from that and the sand was a little grayish so I would always prefer the white sand on the other side. We also visited the so called Ancient Kauri Kingdom, a company that has been digging up ancient Kauri trees from swamps and making wooden objects and furniture from it. They even have a complete staircase inside an enormous tree trunk inside their shop. After having a good look around we tried to speed ourselves up and drove to Ahipara at the southern end of the long beach. Tina wanted to do some sand boarding there. I wasn’t too keen on it because of the long way we had ahead of us and I really hate to get sand everywhere. We couldn’t find where to get a sand board so we drove off following our noses to a secluded beach with very tiny waves and a flat beach. We could park the car on the beach itself and had some fun taking funny bikini pictures on top of the car. People who were driving by wolfwhistled. ;-) After swimming a little (or in my case: walking in) we drove back to town to inquire about the sand surfing and were pointed to the exact beach we had just left. The lady in the shop rented a sand board to Tina and told us that we had to park the car at the beach and then walk for 45 minutes to get to the sand dunes. And so it was. The walk was extremely long even if the dunes seemed so close by. We were taken over by several jeeps going who knows where and in the end reached a small dune. Tina walked up a few times and surfed down and I took photos. Then we had our lunch – we had brought delicious self-made couscous salad and then headed off to the very big dune next door. In the meantime there were 4 other people trying out surfing the sand there, so Tina joined them. I enjoyed a few horses that were chained to a big rope on the foot of the dune, probably belonging to someone living nearby. Then we headed off to walk back really dreading that we had to walk such a long time, because we had to drive back to Auckland, which was another 5 hours. Then a jeep turned up driving into our direction and so we raised a finger to stop it – and it did. The guys were of course pointing out that we actually should do the walk but as we indicated we had to get back to Auckland they let us jump onto the loading area. The journey back to our beach was fast and very shaky but we enjoyed every second of it, just loving the adventure. The next 5 hours were quite unexciting apart from driving through lots of different landscapes varying from the Black Forrest to the Great American Plaines and the Rocky Mountains, sometimes even showing a bit of original Hobbitland. We reached Orewa, north of Auckland, at around 11pm and checked into Pillow’s Hostel for one night. The hostel was nice, with a little garden inside where we took our breakfast the next day. Then we drove off, further southeast. We neglected Auckland completely and went for the peninsula of Coromandel directly. Somewhere on the way we had a rest from the burning hot sun (it would have burnt everything off my arm and neck if I hadn’t worn a huge scarf) in a small café with garden. They had lasagna there, so instead of taking a coffee and a cake as Tina did…I chose 2 pieces of lasagna and it was FANTASTIC! I just felt like Garfield afterwards. It was wet and thick and tasty..just like at home. Now I drove a bit and soon we reached the hills of Coromandel, which meant a lot of bends in the road once again after a long while of perfectly straight roads. The trip took us another 4 hours in total. Before we reached Whitianga on the east coast of the peninsula we took a detour to the famous Hot Water Beach. You can rent a shovel there and then go to the beach and dig yourself a hole. There are hot springs underneath the beach and people dig their own mud pools to sit or lie in, which looks very funny because a lot of people are there: adults who do kids stuff and are having a lot of fun. We tried to find a hot spot, but all we dug out was cold water (the hot is not everywhere) and so we tried out pools of other people who had already left. Some of them are quite hot and you cannot walk through them. We also enjoyed the huge waves at the place, which really made your bikini want to escape from your body. Wicked experience! Finally we headed off to Whitianga to the Cat’s Pajamas Hostel. You always have to be in time because BBH-Hostels close quite early (this one at 7 pm). We both didn’t like the looks of the hostel much (lots of handwritten graffiti of guests, which gave it a scruffy look) but for staying it was absolutely fine and the host couple, Jill and John, were very helpful and sympathetic. We got ourselves a tiny room with a bunk bed, too soft mattresses again, but at least on our own. On the first evening we got to know a guy from Israel, Itai, who joined us at the table talking. We talked about taking him on a ride on the next day, but instead we three ended up doing a boat ride to the Cathedral Cove. We spent the next morning organizing stuff and I writing my blog further. At 2 pm we hit the little pier and entered on a tiny little boat with 12 seats. The kiwi skipper told us a lot about the rocks and coves and holes in the rock we were seeing and he also knew his skippering job well. We went into so many holes and he never touched the rocky walls a bit. So he must have had a lot of skills. In the middle of the trip we had a stopped in a bay where there were lots of dolphins, at least a dozen. They were swimming around us, hopping and playing – it was fantastic to see how they ‘showed off’ as somebody called it and I took some amazing pictures of them. Tina and Itai even got in to swim with them, but they obviously were not so keen on human company, because they headed off soon, as there were more and more people getting into the water. After doing the whole coast there and ending our trip looking at the Cathedral Cove (I was glad I didn’t have to walk there) we headed back to Whitianga. We hadn’t planned much for the night so we just hung around a bit and finally drove off again to another beach nearby, which was called Opito Beach. It was nearly sunset and the beach was almost lonely and bathed in beautiful sunlit colours. There was a swing on the beach, hanging in a big tree. We played a bit on the wing, taking pictures and then walking on the very white and soft sand enjoying the last sunlight. On the next morning we had to check out but unfortunately had a lot of trouble finding an accommodation somewhere near Hobbiton (Mata Mata would have been nice, but there was nothing available). We finally found something in Tauranga, 40 min away from Hobbiton. But it took us so long that our host got a little impatient and finally, after reminding us a few times barely threw us out, because it was already 11am (check-out was at 10 am). Itai was not ready either and as we had agreed that we would take him on a ride to at least Tauranga or further, so we could not leave the hostel… After finally packing up we took off for the rest of the Coromandel Peninsula first making a 30 min-hike to the world famous New Chum Beach (the 20th most beautiful in the world, somebody had said). It was quite beautiful because of some brick-formed cliffs on the righthand-side, but further it was just a nice white sand beach, with quite a lot of people. Itai and Tina went for a beach walk while I looked after our stuff and then I went into the waves!!! Splashing, and really mighty but I just loved it. Tina joined me shortly and we had lots of fun in spite of having to hold on tight to our bikinis. The rest of the trip meant passing a lot of mountains, Coromandel Town, a long way along the coast to the town of Thames where we had a coffee break ( I had an ice coffee, delicious!) and we discovered an old wooden church across the street with a David’s star in it (which is very rare nowadays). Another 2 hours and we finally reached our destination Tauranga on the Eastern coast in the Bay of Plenty (plenty of what?). Our hostel was called the Appletree and the rooms were named accordingly: Pink Lady, Granny Smith, etc. The hostel appeared to be a little neglected, but was okay for 2 nights. We three had a dorm room almost to ourselves.