The Coromandel

It's the end of autumn creeping into winter. As it is still quite warm up in the North we're being treated to an array of oranges, reds and browns as we pass forests. It's a lovely site contrasting against the green rolling hills. It truly looks a lot like Wales a lot of the time.

Our aim of the day was Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach. The latter we were told could not be enjoyed that day as the low tides were very early and very late. Change of plan then, we'd head for the Karangahaki gorge.

The walk down to Cathedral cove was a nice gentle walk through a few tropical forests along the cliffs amd then down to the beach. As we arrived the tide was coming in, so ditching our shoes and trouser legs we waded through to the next beach to get the best picture of the cove. Taking a quick picture I quickly ran back and waded/waddled back the water now reaching half a meter higher than before.

We sat and just enjoyed being on the beach for an hour. The sea was lovely and blue, the other end of the beach had a fresh water waterfall and in the middle I found a toilet with a window looking out on the vista, truly a toilet with a view!

Mid afternoon we arrived in Karangahaki gorge and enjoyed the quick old railway tunnel loop. The tunnel runs for 1km and it was a lot of fun doing long exposure pics with James' camera and experimenting with light painting.

Continuing west we stopped at Matamata for the night, which can only mean one thing tomorrow....Hobbiton!!!!Read more