Up at dawn and our first stop was the gold mine museum at Waihi, which was really interesting and informative. There was a huge pit and various pieces of mining equipment to investigate at the Martha mine.
From here we travelled up the eastern Coromandel coast, passing through Whangamata and Tairua just stopping briefly to admire the beautiful beaches. Our next visit was to the popular Hot Water Beach. An amazing phenomena, where 2 hours either side of low water, you can dig a pit in the sand and allow thermal springs to fill your pool! The water was very hot and the beach was very popular indeed ...
We continued our drive up the coast heading for Hahei. Here we found the Cathedral cove coastal walk, which had beautiful views over the islands of the marine reserve. Cathedral Cove had a very picturesque beach with a huge tunnel through the rocks to the adjoining beach.
On to our next campground. Well, kind of .... The Kaiaua boat club allows freedom camping on their grounds. Not the usual freedom site but a beautiful grassy area on the seashore. 2 minutes walk is a wonderful fish and chip shop and a local hotel with Saturday night karaoke. The hotel bar ran a handle club, where the locals have 'their' glass labelled with a number. If their number is called they win a prize! Unfortunately, we won't be going back after Christine's karaoke performance left a lasting impression!
From here we travelled up the eastern Coromandel coast, passing through Whangamata and Tairua just stopping briefly to admire the beautiful beaches. Our next visit was to the popular Hot Water Beach. An amazing phenomena, where 2 hours either side of low water, you can dig a pit in the sand and allow thermal springs to fill your pool! The water was very hot and the beach was very popular indeed ...
We continued our drive up the coast heading for Hahei. Here we found the Cathedral cove coastal walk, which had beautiful views over the islands of the marine reserve. Cathedral Cove had a very picturesque beach with a huge tunnel through the rocks to the adjoining beach.
On to our next campground. Well, kind of .... The Kaiaua boat club allows freedom camping on their grounds. Not the usual freedom site but a beautiful grassy area on the seashore. 2 minutes walk is a wonderful fish and chip shop and a local hotel with Saturday night karaoke. The hotel bar ran a handle club, where the locals have 'their' glass labelled with a number. If their number is called they win a prize! Unfortunately, we won't be going back after Christine's karaoke performance left a lasting impression!
