When I chose Coromandel peninsula as my next travel destination, I didn't really know what to expect or what should be the reason to go there... I just did. And I must say that I did good that I did... Coromandel is rather small peninsula (I guess around 130x40 km) located south-east from Auckland offering many kind of beauties (by beaches being the top one of course). It is creating the outside border of the Hauraki gulf (the one where Auckland downtown is directed as well) and you can get here both by taking the road around the gulf or by ferry from Auckland. As I really liked the dividing of previous post into parts, let's do the same with this one again ;)
1) West Coromandel: the gold-diggers
As the west coast of coromandel peninsula is directed into the gulf, the beaches are not the attraction number one here (please wait for the east coast ;)). The main driver here (basically on whole Coromandel, not only the west coast), is the gold! There were (and apparently still are) some supplies of gold in the Coromandel soil and rocks, that's why one of the first settlements in NZ were established here. There are only 2 towns in west Coromandel (Thames and Coromandel town), otherwise it is just really small villages (basically few houses staying close to each other). As the weather was not really nice to me, I just did a quick walks through both of the towns. You can visit several mining museums or even take a ride on steam train through the old mine, but I was more interested about the real atmosphere in the towns. And it was pretty magical. These places are not that touristy, so I really enjoyed the mixture of local fishermen, gold diggers and housewives meeting in the 'boulevards' of these old towns. And what I liked the most were the 'no mining' signs - apparently they are trying to protect the nature as much as possible, that's why they proudly hang signs like 'NO MINING SINCE...' everywhere possible. I especially liked the ones hanging on few houses: 'No trespassing. Please do not mine under our home.' :)
Downtown Thames
Shop in Coromandel town
Coromandel town - gold-digger can't be thirsty, right?!
View over Coromandel town and harbor
2) Far north Coromandel: away from civilization
The civilization as such ends in Coromandel town, but the peninsula continues for another approx. 60 kms up north. The far north coromandel offers isolated bays, stunning views from the hills and beautiful coastal gravel roads... To get to the northernmost tip of Coromandel peninsula and back, I've spent almost whole day on uneven and bumpy gravel roads riding around 40km/h all the time. But I didn't mind at all, because:
The road was either stretched directly next to the coast...
...or climbing into the hills and offering these kind of views...
...or leading to the tractor beaches ;)
3) East Coromandel: beaches, beaches, beaches... And a mine.
The East coast of the Coromandel peninsula is facing the beautiful waters of Pacific Ocean, so you can imagine what is to be found here ;) Beaches. Beaches everywhere. Literally the whole coast is covered with really beautiful white sand beaches, so I will just pick up the three most interesting. And as a bonus, one bizarre town-centre facility :)
New chums beach: hidden behind a reef and accessible only by foot - approx. 30 min walk through rocks and forest and this is what you get as reward :) When I saw these rocks I already thought what will I do with that much of gold ;) But sadly I discovered that it's really just a stone.
New chums beach: I met several people on the way there and a group of around 20 kids with parents on the way back, but during the time I've spent on the beach, there was nobody... And it was magical :)
And this is the price I paid for seeing this beauty. This happened just after I got off the rocks (walking on them barefoot hurt quite a lot) to the forest trail and thought it's gonna be much better...
The weather during this day was really crazy: 20 min of the brightest sunshine, right after that 10 minutes of heavy rain followed by strong wind etc. But everything had a Hollywood ending with a calm breeze and rainbow on the sunset... Makes me wanna say: "and they lived happily ever after" ;)
Hot water beach: grab a spade, dig a hole, find some hot spring (notice the little bulb at the centre bottom of the picture) and build your own free spa directly at the ocean. Truly amazing :) the only problem is that you need to come during the low tides (which means either early morning or evening). I arrived just when the tides started to destroy the spas :) and the water is fucking hot! (at first I didn't get why the kids are bringing the water from the ocean to the spa, but I realized just after I stepped inside right next to the spring :))
Cathedral cove and Stingray bay: no comment needed :)
Cathedral cove
Cathedral cove: noticed anything weird on this picture? Yes, there was a stoned guy standing on the rock and pretending to be part of it :)
Stingray bay: snorkelers getting ready to explore the waters. The water was really crystal clear and I was so jealous when seeing them. I need to get back here and see the underwater life one day definitely...
Waihi: huge (still partially functioning) gold and silver mine (once most productive in NZ) right next to the town centre! The entrance to the mine was just next to the visitor centre, bank, Subway etc :)
Old steam-engine pump-house used for getting the water out of the mine back in the days. After it became redundant due to switching to electricity powered pumping and almost fallen down, they moved the whole building for more than 300 meters from its original place.
There could be also fourth part of this post - central Coromandel - but I didn't stop in the forest parts, as the main attraction there are the Kauri trees, and I've seen the best and biggest of them in the Waikatu forest before... And I think the post is long enough even now ;)
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