Life . . . Reframed: Whitianga and the Coromandel Peninsula

Gollum statue in the Hobbit tourism centre at Matamata

Leaving Hamilton, we decided to drive to the town of Matamata to check out the filming area for “The Hobbit” movie. Upon discovering that the fee to tour the set was $75 each for 2 hours, (part of that a bus ride there and back), we decided we didn’t want to see it that badly. Honestly, New Zealand is so beautiful all by itself, that it seemed silly to fork out that kind of money to see something ‘manmade’. I’m sure it was very cute.

The Hobbit Movie set tours sales centre in Matamata

So we carried on up the west coast of the Coromandel Peninsula, on a very narrow, winding road that completely hugs the rocky coastline. It’s a stunning drive - the peninsula is directly opposite the Auckland area and separated by a large bay of water. It’s very rocky, hilly and wild and the little towns are reminiscent of some of the gulf islands towns of BC. Lots of little arty-type shops, lone houses on a cliff, quirky little cottages near the water and plenty of greenery in between. We drove up the coast about 2 hours to the town of Coromandel, where we turned inland and headed for the east coast of the peninsula. We had to cross a mountain range that was heart-stopping at times. I’m glad I wasn’t driving as my knees turned to jelly on some of the winding, cliffside corners. Yikes! I was actually happy to see a bit of rain as it partially obscured some of the scarier views. They don't seem to be big on roadside barriers in this country.

Driving along the west coast of the Coromandel Peninsula.
Auckland is across the water

Stunning views, large drop-offs, winding roads

This place is impossibly beautiful

Old farm at the top of a hill

What goes up, must go down. A long ways!

Straw flowers for sale in a little shop in Coromandel Town

I liked these little driftwood & shell mobiles

Fun piece of worked driftwood

About 5 hours after leaving Hamilton, we arrived at the sweet little town of Whitianga on the east coast. Our AirBnB here ROCKS! We have a room and private bathroom that is the full top floor of the house with a killer view of Mercury Bay and Buffalo Beach right across the road. We instantly hit it off with Brian and Belinda, who will be our hosts for the next week. Belinda’s dad built the house in the 30s or 40s and it’s been in her family ever since. Brian has added on to it, but managed to keep that feel of family beach cottage that is so wonderful. Belinda is an amazing painter and her paintings are all over the house. She has given me some little cards of several of the paintings - so sweet of her. Brian is a real character - full of silly one-liners (kind of like my dad). Unfortunately for him, I often have to ask him to repeat the jokes because my Canadian ears don’t always get the NZ accent!

Table with a beach view - all set for dinner

This is the view from our bedroom for the next week. We
have the entire top floor all to ourselves.

I liked this mobile in the dining room. Made with long dressmaker
pins, white plastic sails and little coloured bits for the boats. It
reminded me of doing crafts at girl guide camp.

Our host Brian, about half an hour after meeting him.
Yup, we're going to get along just fine!

Our hostess, Belinda, on the right and her friend Marion (who
left the next day, sadly). Great conversation, fun people.

Glen admiring the view from the front verandah of the house

There must be hundreds of beaches on this peninsula, and in true NZ fashion, they are mostly empty of people, the water is clean, warm and fun to swim in. Some of them have currents to stay away from, but so many are safe and shallow enough for kids - just wonderful. The shoreline is fabulous for hiking and there are loads of trails and walking tours to take. We went out every day to do some exploring, but never for more than 3 or 4 hours. The house was just so nice to stay and relax at - why leave heaven?

Glen admiring the house from the beach :-)

This is how I collect shells - take a picture!

This is how Glen collects shells - fill the bag!
This is the far end of our beach

Lots of these - so pretty

A week goes by very quickly here - walking the beaches, hiking several trails in the area, swimming (well, Belinda and I swam almost every day and Brian joined us once. Glen waded.), shopping, and cooking together. Belinda and I conspired together on the evening meals, and Glen contributed his bbqing skills a few times. It was like being at the cottage with friends for a week, and I shed a couple of tears the day we left. I’m going to come back here so I can learn to paint with Belinda. That’s a promise to myself.

Saw this at the beginning of a beach walk one morning and I liked it!

Love these orange-beaked, orange-footed birds.

I'm glad I didn't meet this guy while I was wading in the water.
Look at that tentacle!

Beautiful kelp on the beach

Sand-dune flowering succulent

This happens so often - seeing the reflection of the bird in the
receding waters.

These gulls are very pretty - they have white polka dots on their
black tail feathers.

There is a large promontory of land called the Shakespeare Cliff Reserve that we can see from the house, and so we decided to hike out there one day. We walked to the end of the street to catch the little ferry - it's a $6 round trip and takes about a minute and a half to cross to the other side.

Leaving Whitianga side on the ferry.

It's a passenger-only ferry. You can see the opposite shore to the left

Roadside weeds

Random side-of-the-road chair to stop and admire the view. It's
made of 4" long pieces of wood all stuck together.

That's where we're headed

A roadside garden along the way

Getting closer

Up a long forested trail

Out onto a huge grassy area with lots of native shrubbery

This is a huge Pohutukawa tree grove up on top of the cliff. I bet
it's spectacular when blooming with all those red flowers

View from the top looking south. I think the first one is
called Lonely Bay and Cook's Beach and town farther along.

The ferry dock at Whitianga. I had to do a double take
when I saw the sign!

Another day, we decided to head south past Cooks Beach to the Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove near Hahei. Hot Water Beach is definitely a tourist magnet. It was the only beach we have visited on this entire trip that seemed full. And you can see by the pictures that it's not really full by Vancouver standards. We didn't stay long there, as the hike into Cathedral Cove is fairly long.

At low tide, you dig holes in the sand which fill up with
warm water from the hot spring below. Then you sit in the hot
water and let the cool ocean water wash over you as the tide comes in.
Lots of people with shovels here. It's a beautiful beach to walk as well.
There was a very strong rip here - a bit dangerous for swimming.

Maybe they are arguing about who's going to do the digging?!?

The lookout at the head of the Cathedral Cove hike

Pretty burgundy-coloured pampas grass

They trick you into thinking it's an easy hike.

Then it starts to get a LOT steeper

After about 45 minutes, you get to this beautiful
little beach - spectacular!

Quite a large flat rock that people were suntanning on

And then there was this

A giant natural tunnel through to the next beach

Looking back at the tunnel

This is how the cheaters get to the beach. Yes, we
were tempted to catch it back :-)

But we did the 'Cathedral Cove Grind' back

The people on the boat missed stuff like this

This was the next cove over - Stingray Cove. You can
just make out a cave in the rock ahead.

The people on the boat missed this huge wall of white rock too.
There's a small cave at the bottom

There's a secret beach in the area that the locals don't want tourists to know about, called New Chum Beach. You can only access it by hiking in. But we had insider information, so we decided to check it out one morning. We had to scramble over a lot of rocks and hike down a funny little trail, and then we found it. Very quiet and secluded. Clearly it's not much of a secret, because we met three other groups of people there who were also tourists in the area!

You start off on this beach that everyone knows about.
It's called Whangapoua Beach.
We're headed out around that rocky cone at the end.

You can't really see this in the picture above, but it looked
like this once we got closer.

At the end of the beach, you have to take the
rocky route for awhile. Love this red rock.

Lots of fun stuff to look at

And then you come to the trail and the giant
fern trees.

So pretty - about a 15 minute walk from here.

Beach shelter that someone built

The far end of the beach. The stick in the foreground
is to mark the trailhead for the beach.

Not a lot of action here!

The cone-shaped land from the New Chum side

On the way back from New Chum Beach, we took a little side road to Kuaotunu to take the back way home to Whitianga. Unfortunately, the road we wanted was blocked to traffic, so we decided just to walk along it for awhile.

No idea how you pronounce this!

The beach at Kuaotunu seen from the closed road above

I see why they closed the road

Shoreline along the closed road

We hiked out to one of the lava points

The road was washed out (you can see at the right side of the picture)

Ooops - we only noticed the road closed sign
when we were in the car. Glad rocks didn't
fall on us as we were walking!

Plants in a local garden

Love these - no idea what they are.

Pretty garden

There are a lot of feathery flowers in NZ.

It was sad to leave here - we had such a wonderful relaxing time, and made two special new friends while we were here. Onward to Auckland for a couple of nights and then we leave the north island to start our south island adventure. It’s been a fantastic month.