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After stopping back in Auckland at Bamber House again, for one night, to pick up our registration document for the van and do our laundry, we decided to tackle the Coromandel Peninsula as our next port of call. And what drew us there first and foremost was the alluring idea of Hot Water beach on the eastern coast, where thermal hot springs beneath the sand bubble to the surface and, if you dig deep enough, you can create your very own spa pool. The waters are most active two hours before and after low tide which today occured at 3pm so when we arrived just after 1pm, we were perfectly timed to catch the heat, but also the many other tourists who'd had the same idea. Everyone'd hired a spade each from the local shop cum cafe to dig their own private pool but, as we found out, the springs were only really hot at certain points so we ended up gatecrashing someone else's pool. They didn't mind though and we proceeded to get to know them pretty well, chatting away as the hot water warmed our tootsies, sometimes proving too hot to handle (it can reach 58 degrees celsius). It was a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours, being bathed in hot water overlooking a stunning beach setting and later on, when the tide starts to come in, our handmade pools will be washed away, a virgin beach awaiting the next horde of tourists tomorrow. We got dried off and headed up the coast a few km to another tourist magnet, Cathedral Cove, so-called because of the way the sea waters have formed a tunnel in the volcanic cliff which resembles a cathedral vault.
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view of Te Whanganui-a-Hei Marine Reserve
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Cathedral Cove
The cove itself was picturesque but the panoramic views of the Te Whanganui-a-Hei Marine Reserve with its many rocky islands and the fern forest walk down to Cathedral Cove proved stunning in themselves. Foxgloves lined our path down through Pukuhatawa fern forest. The Pukuhatawa fern is the country's national emblem, used on the All Blacks shirts notably, and is justly so, as it appears almost everywhere along the forested roadsides and is very pretty, especially when seen against the sun's rays. Our road driving so far has encompassed mainly green scenery against blue skies with the odd bright red mailbox or corrugated iron roof punctuating the landscape. The range of greens is diverse with a huge variety of foliage from fir, kauri, fern, grass, gorse, palm and thistle.
