Coromandle Peninsula & Bay of Plenty

From Auckland we set off to the Coromandle Peninsula, to the East. Our first night was spent camping on the seafront just outside the town of Thames. It was Valentines and we celebrated with a dinner of pate & cheese, followed by an illegal fire on the beach...all very romantic (once the rain stopped!). From here we headed north to Coromandle Town, found a disappointing muddy/stony beach, and as the road north from here is a dead end we decided to shoot across to the East coast. Here we found a gorgeous beach 'New Chums' with esturary running into it, so after a couple of hours spent soaking up sun rays and splashing around in the sea, we all grabbed our soap and had a good old wash in the river....another night with no need to pay for camp facilities (but what tramps we are?). Found another perfect camp spot right next to a beach further down the coast, complete with picnic table...they really make it to easy to camp rough out here!

The next day we drove onto Mercury bay, our first stop being 'Hot Water Beach' where you just dig a hole in the sand to find boiling hot thermal spring...making your very own hot tub!! We'd been a bit dubious about how good this would be, but it was better than we ever expected, the sand too hot in places to be able to dig a hole! Our first bath in 5 months, albeit in salt water! After this we drove up to Haihi Beach from where you are supposed to be able to do a 2 hr walk to Cathedral Cove....unfortunately the walk was closed but we did have fun on a rope swing on the beach. Drove onto the carpark of Cathedral Cove only to find the cove itself was shut due to filming for The Chronicles of Narnia....did get to see lots of helicopters lifting out equipment, etc and also got free ice lolly as some sort of compensation for not getting to see one of the highlights of the Coromandle!! We camped that evening in our first official campsite for over 1 week...complete with hot water and its own beach!!!

The next day we parted company with Welsh travel companions (Mat & Rach) and headed on south to the Bay of Plenty. We had lovely walk out to yet another waterfall, followed by brief walk around decomisioned gold mine (just a big hole in the ground, 250m deep!), before finding our best camp spot yet! On cliff edge overlooking the Tauranga Harbour, its own picnic table and a stunning sunset over the water! These free camping spots are better than any campsite! That morning we headed for Mount Manganui (extinct volcano), which made a very pleasant morning tramp up to its summit....followed by a cheaky free shower in the campsite at its base! We then headed into Kiwi (the fruit this time) Country, checking out a very tacky Kiwi themed park....but despite the fact the kiwi vines (they grow like grapes) were full of big ripe looking Kiwi, they are apparently out of season so the only fruit sold in the shop came from Italy!!! Spent rest of the day making our lesiurely way down to Roturua....

Soaking in Tub!

Will we ever grow up??

Out of season...I don't think so! (so we bagged a few to try later!)

The little growth off the top left is actually Chris! Overated attraction, but still worth a photo!