Haea Northland - Hello Coromandel

Time flies, it's unbelievable! On Sunday you will celebrate the 1st Advent. Obviously it is quite cold and uncomfortable at home, so we will try to get you in the mood for the weekend with some sunny reports.

With our last report our first stage of the adventure in beautiful Northland ended. With a heavy heart we initially left the Te Araroa Trail to visit a new destination, the Coromandel Peninsula near Auckland. We were particularly taken with the northernmost part of NZ because of its rough shell (nature) and its soft core (great people). But since we want to see as much as possible and time is short, we drove from Ngunguru to Whangarei after our last hiking stage (26 km) and from there we took the bus back to Auckland. From Auckland a ferry took us to Coromandel Town. We were already very excited because the region is famous for its beauty and we were expecting a free place to stay with Diana and Mike (we reported about it)😁.

The ferry trip was a change from hiking, forest and beach, and after two hours we arrived in Coromandel Town. Campsite nearby and ideal conditions for a trip to the famous Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove. Since this was not possible to walk, we booked a trip. The tide was a bit inconvenient the next day, so we had to wait another day. We used this day to take a trip on the historic Road 309 (destination: waterfalls) with completely worn out mountain bikes and unsuitable helmets. Since historic roads usually do not have asphalt and yet Kiwis and tourists drive at modern speeds, we swallowed a lot of dust and pushed the bike uphill sometimes😌. Nevertheless, we arrived at the waterfall and ultimately at a delicious mussel restaurant, great day!

Now let's talk about the tide again. In NZ there is low tide about twice a day. The times are always very different, which is why our planned trip was postponed by one day. However, it meant 6:30 a.m. pick-up to be on time at Hot Water Beach. That meant getting up at 5:15 a.m. as backpacking, packing up the tent, hygiene and taking medication takes a bit longer for older people like us. We were on time and off we went with 5 more tired Germans (not older than 30 years and quite taciturn) to Hot Water Beach.

Since NZ is tectonically located on a very active part of the earth, earthquakes and volcanic activities are part of everyday life. The beach is located directly above an underground thermal spring. At low tide you dig small pools in the sand and they fill up with hot water for bathing. And that's exactly what we did! Sometimes the water was so hot that we burned our feet. Unfortunately, the length of stay was limited and after 1.5 hours we had to continue to Cathedral Cove, an extraordinary rock formation and attraction for many tourists. And that is also the flip side of the coin. While we usually could do our own thing, here we were dependent on the group. You can't schedule your own time, tourist magnets are overcrowded and the enjoyment is somewhat lost. Nevertheless, it was worth it and in December we will return to our lonely trails.

And the absolute highlight awaited us. Already on the day of our bike ride we called Diana. We had met her and her husband Mike (both around 70 years old) on a beach during one of our hiking tours. They were very interested in us, in Germany, etc., and after we said goodbye, we were already moving on, the two of them stopped with their car, Diana jumped out and gave us her phone number. They had a holiday home in Coromandel and if we came there, we should call to stay there overnight. And that's exactly what we did😉. Without any problems Diana explained where the key was, named the alarm code and told us exactly how to behave. And while I am writing these lines, we are sitting in the house after two "great days" under the motto "Summer, summer, you are beautiful, summer, summer, let's go swimming, summer, summer, wonderful, summer, summer, tralalala!" Tomorrow we will continue our journey from the peninsula to Rotorua via various stages.

As always, we try to convey our impressions with a few suitable photos. In the end you will find a selection of cute bird motifs there. The variety of species is spectacular and we are awakened every morning by funny bird chirping. By the way, we actually always get up between 6:00 - 7:00 a.m., because following the motto:

"The walker's night starts in the evening at eight!"

we are always in bed so early that we can't sleep in the morning anymore😂.

So we wish you a peaceful and cozy Advent weekend. And to all merchants, restaurateurs and weekend workers - stay strong😘!

Sincerely, Susi and Andreas