After our Waitomo Cave Tour we drove up towards the Coromandel Peninsula, which is a famous holiday spot for Aucklanders, as it is only a few hours drive away. It has beautiful beaches and views onto the South Pacific on the east side and a more rough and rocky coast on the west side enclosing the Hauraki golf. As the weather forecasted was again a lot of clouds and little sunshine, we took it slow and stayed at the Hauraki golf first, looking on to the Coromandel. When the sun came out and stayed for a while, we drove further up the coastline to Opere Point. We were presented with a beautiful black stony beach and great view onto the Coromandel. As it turned out, it is also a famous sundowner spot with the locals.
The next day we woke up to a wonderful sunrise and clear sky! Yet again, we were lucky with the weather and the forecast proofed once more that the weather in NZ is just as predictable as the lottery. So we decided to drive up to Cathedral Cove on the east side of the Coromandel. It was an 1 hour walk from Hahei beach to the cove. We were surprised to find us walking through a beautiful forest along the coastline with breathtaking views onto the Pacific. I could not help but think that this felt a lot like walking The Abel Tasman just in flipflops and sunshine :). When we got to Cathedral Cove it was 1pm and most of the people who got there in the morning had already left. So there were only a few people on the beach, which made the scenery we were about to see even more special.
Cathedral Cove really has a majestic feel. When the sun shines through the cove and the sky above you is as clear as the blue ocean water, it just makes you think you arrived in paradise. Have a look at the picture and decide for yourself. As you can probably imagine, we were in 7th heaven and spent almost the whole afternoon at the beach. Mathias even saw a stingray when he went for a swim. We were so happy. We had one more day left at the Coromandel before it was time to head back to Auckland. After that day though it didn’t matter if it would be raining or not the next day. So nothing prepared us for what we were to experience on our last day at the Coromandel. When we woke up the sky was filled with sunshine again and there was not a cloud in sight. We thus decided to drive up even further to the north. The tip of the peninsular is still mostly untouched and only accessible via gravel roads. It is thus a perfect place to seek loneliness and quiteness for a last day on the beach.
We picked a small bay on the map that did not get any big mentionings in the Lonely Planet in the hope we won’t meet other tourists there. The drive through the north tip was already very impressive. Coming from Coromandel Town where we had spent the night, we drove along the rocky west coast for a bit before crossing to the east side again. The pass brought us through bright green farmland and mangrove swamps before reaching the coast. The spot we picked was called Waikawau Bay. When we got there, there were only a few holiday homes situated along a small street. However they seemed empty at this time of year. We parked our van, walked down to the beach and this is when we discovered our real first paradise spot of this trip. In front of us was a beautiful bay with a stunning view onto the South Pacific Ocean. As we walked along the beach and found a both sunny and shady spot underneath a tree, we were thrilled to realize that we were the only ones on this whole beach. And that is how it stayed throughout the whole day: The blue South Pacific, beautiful sunshine, two seagulls and us. Our first paradise spot! Thank you New Zealand for saying goodbye to us with such wonderful last 2 days. We will be back!