Coromandel

Day 11: Coromandel

Our last day was an exciting one for me, because in reading my travel books there were three things that jumped out at me immediately - the first was the doing the Tongariro Crossing, which we were able to do on Thanksgiving Day, and then the other two were saved for last.

Good thing we crashed the night before, because we needed to get up bright and early to make it to Hot Water Beach while the tide was still low.

walking down the beach to find the hot spots

GOLD 

here we are sitting in our very own little hot sandy bird bath

A better picture of it. As you can see we didn't need to dig too far. Even this much water was hard to bear because it was boiling hot. From this very spot I watched the cutest old man in a Speedo have to get into the ocean to cool down, and then he hit a hot spot in the ocean and had to run back to the beach. It is kind of a dangerous beach.

Matty relaxing. We took a couple videos of the water boiling.

bliss

Last on my to do list was a hike to Cathedral Cove. You might recognize it from one of the Narnia movies. It is the one where they watch a train rush by, and then they see glimpses of the most gorgeous beach EVER. And then magically they appear there.

The trail goes along the cliffs and is oh-so-scenic.

When we started this trail it was still early in the morning. It is a popular one and we didn't see anyone the whole time. When we got there, there were two other couples already lying out on the beach. But other than that, everyone else was coming in as we were leaving.

A little disappointing to get down there and see it roped off. We walked back and forth a few times and then just said, what the heck, we're going through.

on the other side!!

and all alone xoxo

And then the mad rush along the rest of the Coromandel highways to make it to Auckland in time to return our cute little rental car and hit the plane headed home. New Zealand, we will see you again soon.
--- ---

 -- more NZ 2010 --
Pre-trip preparation
Day 1: Auckland
Day 2: Orewa to Paihia
Day 3: Paihia to Kaitaia
Day 4: Ninety Mile Beach to Rawene
Day 5: Rawene to Hamilton
Day 6: Hamilton to National Park
Day 7: Tongariro Alpine Crossing
Day 8: Taupo to Rotorua
Day 9: Rotorua
Day 10: Thames to Hahei
Day 11: Coromandel