Coromandel, the Beautiful! - Tairua

30/11 - 03/12

From Raglan, we headed northeast to Tairua. This little town is located on the Coromandel Peninsula, which is said to be particularly beautiful according to our travel guide and the recommendation of a British couple we met in Kaikoura. Based on our experiences in New Zealand so far, we had some ideas in mind, but no specific or high expectations.

The first pleasant surprise was our accommodation. The room was larger than 8 square meters and the common areas made our eyes sparkle. The kitchen was almost as well equipped as our own at home, and the living room had a pool table and ping pong table - ideal for competitive leisure gamers like us! :)

The Coromandel Peninsula offers several attractions, mainly along the coast. I had already selected a few places that I wanted to visit during our stay. Therefore, we started our sightseeing tour on the day after our arrival.

First, we went to Hot Water Beach, where you can soak in hot pools directly on the beach during low tide. We got the shovels for digging from the owner of our motel - luckily, because renting them on the beach costs a whopping NZ$20 (about 12 Euros) per shovel!
Since we arrived relatively early, we were able to secure a good spot. It wasn't easy to find the right spot, as there are cold and hot water streams running along the beach, and ideally, you have to find and connect both of them, as otherwise the pool is either freezing cold or boiling hot. After an hour of collective digging, we were already chilling in our own hot water pool.

From the parking lot, it takes less than half an hour to walk to the bay, which amazed me with its beauty. I had expected a crowd of tourists, but instead we were greeted with a beautiful beach and relatively few people. Unfortunately, we had left our swimwear in the car - because I would have loved to spend the rest of the day there...





As the third and last stop of the day, we visited New Chum Beach. The Coromandel brochure described this beach as one of the most beautiful in all of New Zealand - rightly so, as we found out after over an hour-long drive and a short walk over rocks and stones.







So we spent the rest of the day on this wonderful piece of earth, walking up and down the beach, relaxing in the shade of the trees, and even ventured into the water a few times. Unfortunately, the water is quite chilly and the strength of the currents should not be underestimated, so we were content with cooling off up to our knees.

We also had a beach day the following day. This time, we went to a secluded beach near Tairua that the motel owner highly recommended. There were about 6 or 7 other people there with us - fantastic! :) In the evening, we took a short walk to Mount Paku, from where we could enjoy an almost 360-degree panorama of Tairua and the surrounding bays.

Conclusion:

In the past few days, we have been struggling with a little travel fatigue. We were a bit tired of New Zealand, as everywhere we went, we saw a similar picture. However, our stay on the Coromandel Peninsula positively surprised us and renewed our travel enthusiasm. The weather couldn't be better - sunny weather and summer temperatures around 25 degrees Celsius. This, along with the current off-season, certainly contributes significantly! Starting mid-December, it will be crowded everywhere when New Zealanders have their Christmas vacation and flock to these wonderful beaches with the tourists...

Originally, we wanted to spend a few days in Fiji before South America, but unfortunately, it's cyclone season there right now and the likelihood of bad weather is very high. Although it pains me immensely to have to remove the South Pacific from our travel plans, the sunny beach days on the Coromandel Peninsula were a good substitute. We couldn't have chosen a better spot for our second-to-last stop near Auckland! :)

Hasta pronto!

E&L

>> Next stop: Paihia <<