30 hours in the Coromandel

You can accomplish a lot in 30 hours...an overnight call shift for example...and when you've had, say, 3 of those in one week, you are pretty exhausted. But not too exhausted to get out of town for the weekend. Geez, it's been six weeks since I last road tripped in in New Zealand!

So...the Coromandel Peninsula it is! It was originally a gold mining town, but since that dried up, it's mainly just a jumping off point to great beaches and spectacular hikes.

My first stop was Hot Water Beach. So there's this story that at low tide you can dig a hole and it will fill from beneath with hot water (147 degrees F) and make some sort of hot tub. Well, based on the weather I was skeptical and I'm pretty sure unless I dug a hole to China (or wherever) it wasn't getting warm. So, I abandoned that plan...

Onward to Cathedral Cove where the clouds began to part and the sun began to shine!

I love that the first part of the hike went through a farm...a common theme I later discovered...

Verdant pastures...

Excuse me, is this seat taken?

Then I descended through a sort of tropical rainforest with lots of fun tree ferns

Before finally ending up at Cathedral Cove (aptly named as you can tell).

Nice sheltered beach.

Then a nice stop off at Gemstone Beach (a rockier one)

After working on my Vitamin D levels a bit, I headed back to the car and crossed the peninsula to Coromandel town. Gorgeous descent near sunset.

After spending the night in Coromandel town, 'El Cheapo' and I decided to take to the unsealed roads...all two hours of them...winding along the cliffs to Fletcher's Bay (the start of the Coromandel Coastal Walkway). The drive was a bit unnerving but simply breathtaking...there were even dolphins frolicking in the bay!

The walkway starts out in pastures (again) and then hugs the cliff line to the south in the picture.

Absolutely gorgeous hike to lookout point! (Looking south towards Stony Bay)

Looking North towards Fletcher's Bay

And sadly, the drive home.

So life is good in New Zealand - it's springtime and it can only get better from here. And then there's work tomorrow...

Hopefully there will be posts in increasing frequency!