April 30th - Coromendel Peninsula

So 14 hours elapsed from our 8:30pm Wednesday flight on April 28th and we arrived on Friday April 30th 5:30am. Had a surprise delay at Eurocar. I forgot to check whether my Roadstar plus provided auto insurance while in New Zealand. I just found out minutes ago from ICBC that it covers only Canada and the US :( .
tip: New Zealand is 19 hours ahead of Vancouver BC in the Pacific Time Zone.

Coromendel Peninsula Highlights:

• Beautiful Beaches and Sea Rock formations at Cathederal Cove



• Hot Water Beach



• Location: North Eastern part of the North Island
  
  

The drive to the Coromandel Peninsula took us about 2 hours. We check in our lodge at the beach and was told that low tide was at 2:30pm and we had to be there if we wanted to enjoy the hot water beach. We stopped by for lunch in town and off to the Hot Water Beach. We took our spades there and arrived 30 minutes before 2:30pm there was already a crowd of people gathered around a particular rocky area at the beach. We took a couple of shots at digging a hot water pool, but this wasn't possible with the tide. The earth heats up the sand beneath the beach and heats up specific areas along the beach. We found a couple of pockets if we dug deep enough and scolded our feet.


I was chatting to a friendly gal at the Hot Water beach cafe about our disapointment of the hot water beach when she mentioned that the Cathederal Cove might be closing permanently. We quickly took a short drive to Hahei beach after to take the 45min hike to the Cathederal Cove beach. The hike briefly reminded me of the Peru inka trail as I haven't done a hike since Dec 2009. Cathederal Cove was a small intimate beach with postcard picture ops and beautiful and inspiring backdrop that was worth the hike. You have to see the pictures to understand as my words are not do it
justice