Hot Water Beach

 
Ok, it's time to titillate you again with a post about a place in New Zealand.  I do hope you come to visit real soon!

Hot Water Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula is a pretty special place.  Not only is it a great big and beautiful beach but at each low tide you can dig yourself out a hot spring pool to lounge in!  Lots of people do visit to do just that.  The local cafes do a brisk trade in hiring out little spades to dig.  You can make your own hot spa for 2 hours each side of the low tide. 

 

One warning – if you dig down you will find very hot water – so it's not advisable just to leap in without testing just how hot it is.  People do manage to burn themselves quite regularly. 

 

Another warning – if you are all hot and want to cool off by swimming – don't just dash into the sea right where the hot springs are – there is a notorious rip right there and you might get towed out to sea.  Just go back down the beach a little ways to swim – the safest place is between the flags, of course, when the beach is being patrolled (ie during the summer).

Our preferred time to visit Hot Water Beach is not at summer's height – too many tourists all at once for us.

Hot Water Beach is about a 2 ½ hour drive from Auckland – a lovely drive through some great natural scenery.

Sailor's Grave

Sailor's Grave Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula is a favourite with surfers. Its surf is apparently pretty reliable.

 

It is a beautiful beach accessed off State Highway 25.  There is indeed a sailor's grave on the beach reserve.  22 year old William Sampson, a sailor on the British Navy ship HMS Tortoise drowned in the surf in 1842.  His grave is surrounded by a little white picket fence.  It was rare in those days for a sailor to be buried on land.

 A lovely place to visit.

Cook’s Beach

Cook's Beach is a holiday town on the eastern side of the Coromandel peninsula.  It only has about a hundred or so permanent residents although there are masses of holiday homes (we call them baches – said like "batches").

A bach - lots are much bigger than this one!

The beach and town got its name from Captain James Cook.  It was at Cooks Beach that Capt Cook first raised the Union Jack in New Zealand in 1769.  He was in the area to observe the Transit of Mercury – and named the broader area Mercury Bay as a result.

Cook's Beach has only a few little shops – a small grocery store, a liquor store and a take away place plus a little restaurant.  Oh, and I almost forgot the hardware store.  These stores only get busy in the summer which is when the beach is fully populated.

The beach is popular with swimmers – it is a very long beach (3 kilometers) so is never really packed.  Not like some of the pics you see of European beaches.   There is a lovely estuary at one end of the beach with a small park and playground and some barbecue facilities.

There are no hotels/motels at Cook's Beach so if anyone wants to vacation there they need either to own a bach or rent one.

Otama - come and see!

This is another post about a corner of New Zealand you have probably never heard of.  Just trying to entice you all to visit…

Otama is a beach on the Coromandel Peninsula.  As you can see it is a lovely ocean beach in a reasonably isolated location (about a 2 and ½ hour drive from Auckland).  There are never crowds on the beach. 

Otama Beach is the beach just at the top of the red square around the Whitianga area

There is no hotel type accommodation but people do rent out their baches (summer homes) and that is the best way to go.

The best months for visiting are between November and April.

Pauanui

Pauanui (which means a large paua in Maori – a type of shellfish) is a very popular resort town on the Coromandel Peninsula.  It was developed in stages by the same development company and as a result there is a homogeneity to the roading and baches which is not found in much older seaside towns which are more higgledy piggedly.  But despite this it is hugely popular because it is less than a 2 hour drive from Auckland and so an easy place to spend weekends in the summer.

Very few people live in Pauanui full time.  In fact over half the properties on the whole peninsula are holiday homes.

Pauanui has a golf course, a grass strip airport and a network of canals where people moor their boats right at the bottom of their property.  The sections near the air strip have hangars where people can park their light plane on their own place.

There are a few shops.  And then the main attraction – a spectacular beach.

Hahei – get a true Kiwi bach experience

Hahei beach

 If you visit New Zealand and want the quintessential Kiwi beach experience, you could do worse than renting a bach (said – batch - that's what we call summer houses) in Hahei on the Coromandel Peninsula.  There is a little bit of motel type accommodation there but, in my mind, a bach is the way to go.

Basic bach

Fancy bach

Baches range from the basic to the luxurious – and are priced accordingly.  I am not in the business so can't give you advice about how to find one but there are several NZ sites that specialise in bach rentals.

Dolphins at Hahei beach

Hahei is a lovely ocean beach – it has a surf club which patrols the beach during the summer.  When there, we have seen dolphins gambolling just offshore.

Hahei store

There are only a couple of cafes and one restaurant – so unless you range further afield you will need to self cater – buying your things from the one general store there.  Hahei is very close to Cathedral Cove – which is one of the prettiest spots anywhere.

Whitianga and Buffalo Beach

Location of Whitianga

The town of Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand has been occupied for over a thousand years. Originally by Maori.

Buffalo Beach, Whitianga

Its original name was  Te Whitianga a Kupe –which means  Kupe’s crossing place.  Whitianga is believed to be where Kupe first landed in Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand).  The original Pa is on the Ferry Landing side of the river.  The first European settlement was also on that side of the river.  Whitianga was a leading timber and kauri gum port.

Dolphin watching

Today it is the largest town on the Coromandel peninsula and is a favourite with holiday makers.

The Lost Spring

Things to do in Whitianga:

Ride the Banana boat

Swim at Buffalo Beach

Surf at Simpson's beach

Go out on a glass bottomed boat

Go out game fishing on a charter boat

Kayak to Cathedral Cove

Visit the museum

Chillax in the thermal pools at the Lost Spring

Fish off the wharf

Buy fresh fish and crayfish from the fishing boats

Go to the Saturday market

Go on the passenger ferry to Ferry Landing

Go to the Scallop festival

Go on a horse trek

Cathedral Cove

If you come to New Zealand.  Don’t miss going to Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel Peninsula.  It is about a 2 hour drive from Auckland but then takes a bit of a walk to get to the cover so it isn’t really day trip material.  It is about 45 minutes each way.  You can get there by kayak from Hahei – too much like hard work for me.  The walk down to the cove is steepish but there is a good path – you need quite a bit of puff to walk back up to the carpark.

When you do make the effort to go down there, this is what you find.

Yep – really beautiful.  And unless you are there at the height of the season, you won’t be too crushed by other people.  You need to take your own water down there with you and any food you want, there is no shop or anything down there.  There is a food truck in the carpark.

The Maori name for Cathedral Cove is Te Whanganui-A-Hei.  The Cove was used as a location in one of the Narnia films.

A Tale of Two Tails - crayfish that is...



I have long been a lover of crayfish.  But I don't get it often - too squeamish to kill and cook it myself and too miserly normally to pay the exorbitant prices for it in restaurants.  If only I knew a diver or two who would generously give away any surplus!

When in Whitianga recently I had crayfish twice.  First at a Thai restaurant which shall remain unnamed.  While the crayfish I had there was very badly done, the rest of the standard Thai fare was fine.  The crayfish was a special for $42 and it was a real shame it was wrecked by bad cooking.  It was chewy and had to be prised forcibly from its shell.

So when we went to Squids I almost didn't order their crayfish special - but was very glad I risked it.  It was beautifully cooked - simple grill with a soupcon of butter - the vegetables with it were forgettable but the crayfish made up for all that.  It was reasonably priced and they provided the right implements for claw cracking etc.

The entree I had of kingfish ceviche was also very good.  We'll be back.

Top Ten places I have visited in New Zealand

        

 

1      Central Otago.  The great empty majestic landscape.  What can beat it?  And it is still relatively unpopulated – except by those pesky rabbits.  It is very well represented in the art of Grahame Sydney.

2      Coromandel Peninsula.  The bush, the beaches, the fishing, the tranquillity.  The classic Kiwi favourite summer holiday spots.  I don’t mean the couple of places spoiled by too many tourists – Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach at low tide.  But just all sorts of interesting nooks and crannies on both sides of the Peninsula to explore.

3      Lake Manapouri and the Wilmot Pass.  For my money, a much nice place to visit than Milford Sound.  Not the tourists and tour buses.  But an absolutely stunning, majestic lake and the Wilmot Pass under snow in winter is a delight.  The Wilmot Pass is the road that runs between where the boats come in and Doubtful Sound.

4      Queenstown/Wanaka/Arrowtown Okay all these areas are a bit chocolate boxy but at the same time such spectacular settings, they have to be included.  A paradise for skiers in winter, golfers the rest of the time with lashings of water activities thrown in.  If you like touristy things there is the Gondola and bungy jumping etc – although why anyone would want to do that beats me.

5      Waiheke Island  Some of the great memories I have of lunch at Te Whau Lodge looking out at the Hauraki Gulf.  I’m not sure they are still operating as a function centre/restaurant as well as a lodge although the Te Whau Vineyard Restaurant is still I understand.

6      Sailing on the Waitemata Harbour.  I prefer the Waitemata but others can certainly argue the merits of the Bay of Islands.  Tootling about, doing a little fishing, preferably under sail.  Bliss.

7      Auckland It’s a great city.  Taken for granted by those who live there.  Beaches all over the place.  A great harbour.  Good cultural and popular events.  Parks of all shapes and sizes.  Driving through the Domain is one of the pleasures of being in Auckland.

8      Wellington.  A small city which is spectacular on a fine day.  A compact city centre where you get the feeling most people know each other.  A sort of super sized village.  We have to be thankful that they put up with having all the politicians and let Auckland get on with life.

9      The West Coast and Fox Glacier   I haven’t been there for years.  It was a sleepy backwater when I was there with a natural wonder in the glacier.  Very high rainfall so the vegetation is lush.

10     Rotovegas – included with some hesitation.  While I hate the more fake touristy bits, it is a place where you absorb the importance of local iwi.  I would go there more often but the duck egg smell gets to me.  The thermal springs and mud pools are great.