Christmas Eve - the Coromandel Peninsula

Well, it’s Christmas Eve here today on the east coast of New Zealand and the Coromandel Peninsula is the name of the area we are spending it - in the pouring rain! Yes, it’s going to be a Wet Christmas! In spite of that, we decided to go exploring today, and headed out to Hahei Beach, about 40 minutes by road from where we are staying. The beach itself is beautiful, and I’m sure on a sunny day, even more so! Oh well, not going to let a few raindrops stop us - we walked along the beach for a while and it really is lovely. We then looked around a few gift shops in the small town of Hahei, and ended up for lunch at a brew pub called the Pour House for lunch and a few samplings. This is the place where Jeff’s good friend, Chelsea worked for almost a year as a bartender, and we met Neil, the owner and brewmaster ( who incidentally is from Widnes, near Liverpool and emigrated to NZ in 2004). Had some amazing NZ Green Lipped mussels for lunch.

We drove up the hill to a trail which is the start of a hike out to Cathederal Cove, where we plan to visit once the weather is better - it’s about a 40 minute hike in, but apparently well worth it! From there we drove out to Hot Water Beach, a few kms down the road. In a small area just down the beach were scores of people sitting in holes they had dug, enjoying the hot water which is underground at the edge of the waterline. The photo below explains this natural phenomenon, and it was very cool to see - and the water was very hot!

We drove back to our place, and being inspired by Hot Water Beach, Dave decided to go for a swim in the pool - not quite as hot as the water at the beach, but pretty warm! We came back to relax for a while, then went out for a nice Christmas Eve dinner on the waterfront overlooking the harbour and fishing boats. We had picked up a couple of Christmas movies this afternoon, so just finished watching one, and are now listening to the rain pounding on the windows and waiting for Santa!! 😉. Merry Christmas everyone!Read more