Coromandel

The Coromandel Peninsula is one of those places that people go to slow down and relax. You can feel your blood pressure drop as you drive across the one lane bridge that is on the main route from Auckland to the Coromandel.

Our first stop after crossing the bridge was the Kauaeranga Valley which is in the southwestern part of the Coromandel Forest. It is not really a forest at this time because the area is still recovering from the logging done in the early 1900s. The Kauri Trees are just starting to regrow and the hills are mostly covered in Manuka (Tea Tree) scrub. We took a hike up one of the old logging trails that had been carved into the valley as a supply route in the mid 1800s. It took us right to the top of a rocky outcropping called Pinnacles. From there we had a great view in every direction and got our first glimpse of the east coast of the Coromandel.

On our way north we grabbed some smoked mussels in Coromandel Town and drove out to Fletcher Bay on the very north end of the Coromandel. We camped there for a couple of nights, hiked the northern coast and caught fish for dinner. We were reluctant to leave, but the trip had to go on so we headed south and onto the east coast. Our next stop was a camping ground in a farmer’s field next to Otama Beach. The farmer was amazingly friendly and Otama Beach was a long white sand beach that squeaked when you walked on it so we had a wonderful evening.

From Otama Beach we drove to the biggest tourist hotspot on the Coromandel, the Mercury Bay area. The Polynesian explorer, Kupe, is said to have landed around this bay after leaving French Polynesia and Captain Cook made landfall on Cook’s Beach to take the first latitude and longitude reading of New Zealand. There is also a Hot Water Beach in the area as well as some incredible rock formations at Cathedral Cove.

Our final stops on the Coromandel involved the mining area of the southeast. In the Broken Hills we took a hike up to an old mining tunnel and walked 500 meters through a mountain to come out the other side, in Waihi we took a look at the huge open pit gold mine that is within the city limits and finally in the Karangahake Gorge we hiked around the ruins of the old processing plants, wandered through mining tunnels and walked through a 1 kilometer long railway tunnel. The open pit mine in Waihi is the only one that is currently operating and so the other stops had a distinctly spooky vibe to them.

Leaving the Coromandel on the east coast is a more gradual process than entering it on the west coast because there is not a one lane bridge to let you know that you have left and the traffic does not get immediately worse. We will certainly remember the green fields running right down to the crystal blue ocean and the incredible beaches that make up the Coromandel.