A GRAND DAY OUT

Every day is different on this trip, but this is a snapshot of one day.
We left Te Puru en route to Whitianga on the east coast of the Coramandel. Lin had told us that after about an hour and a half's drive we would reach a great coffee stop at Black Jack Beach. It was, as the Kiwis would say, 'AWESOME'.
As you can see, it was deserted, with silver sand, and unspoiled lush green extending to the coast and river estuary. The coffee place doubled as an art gallery.

Yet more re-planting of kauri trees. The Kiwis will end up with more of them than there were in the 19th century!

No time today for the walk, but we would love to come back here one day. 

To get a better view of where exactly we went that day see:

http://www.panoramicearth.com/1691/Coromandel_Peninsula/Cathedral_Cove_Sea_Arch_Cave

Hot Water Beach

You have to get there within 2 hours of high tide to join in the fun at Hot Water Beach. On this day high tide was at 6.57p.m. so we headed there for 5p.m. only to find that many fiendish people had broken the rules and got there early to bag the best spots!

The idea is to take a spade, dig a hole and lie in the natural pools of hot water that result from the hot springs bubbling beneath the sand. We'd also been told to bring a bucket to fill the hole with cold water but, being us, we left that bit out. 



Steve decided to claim squatters' rights on an abandoned hole but found the water scalding....perhaps we needed the bucket of cold water after all.....

Sue had no luck in digging a hole......

.......unlike all these people.

This man was taking it all VERY seriously.

The Hahei Explorer.

The reason we'd gone to Hot Water Beach 2 hours before high tide was that we had booked into the 6.15p.m. trip on the Hahei Explorer. We were told to meet up at Hahei beach and were expecting a jetty or pier, but found ourselves on a stretch of wide golden sand. Then the boat arrived, a lot smaller than we had anticipated, and we were asked to take off our shoes and wade out to board it: water up to our knees.

Believe it or not, this is what we got into with another couple from Windsor(!), a Canadian couple and the driver.......

And off we went on the most fantastic and exciting ride at speed, bouncing over the waves.

First stop was at the Elephant's Trunk rock.  ( This is the rock to the right..)

On the left of the Elephant's Trunk is the Champagne Glass, looking like an inverted glass.

The Letter Box

The Blow Hole

Then on to a series of caves.

And this cave we  sailed inside....

The guide said this would be  pretty bad place to be if there was an earthquake as the Fault Line was clearly visible in the rock above our heads! (This was a couple of weeks before the Christchurch quake).

Exiting the cave.

Interesting rock formations.

The water is amazingly clear here but we could see no fish at first. Then we came within 4 metres of a shark whose fin was clearly visible for several minutes.... the second sighting that day according to the guide.  He suggested that they are not aggressive here! We didn't manage to get a photo of the shark BUT we did capture him on video. (DVD can be purchased later.)

The Pied Cormorants looked as if they were posing for the cameras.

And then we were on our way to the high-spot of the trip: Cathedral Cove, named after the cathedral- dome-shape cut into the rocks between two beaches.

Difficult to access on foot at the best of times, since the recent cyclone Cathedral Cove has only been accessible by boat due to landslips.

A beautiful beach all to yourself once you get there.

This rock is known locally as The Sphinx.

Gemstone Bay, named after the colourful rock formations.

So back to Hahei Beach, a wade-in to collect our shoes and a drive home to Te Puru.

A brilliant day!