Our plan for the day was to take a drive over to the Coromandel Peninsula for a day of sightseeing. One of the skippers on our Ted Cruise in Santorini who was from New Zealand highly recommended the area. When we woke up, it was freezing! Since I had only one pair of pants and no long sleeved shirts, we decided to do a little cheap clothes shopping. The receptionist at the hotel recommended this store called The Warehouse so we headed there to look for some warm clothes. I ended up getting a comfy sweatsuit for $45 NZD. Not bad.
After breakfast - Burger King for me and a chocolate muffin for Eric - we were on our way to the Coromandel Peninsula. Part of the way, we came across a shiny red Ferrari. We had heard that cars here cost almost 3x the cost in the U.S., so we could imagine how
expensive that car must have cost in New Zealand. It had to be the only one on the islands! We guessed the guy (in his late 60s probably) owned those Warehouse stores, cause after having gone to one, we notice them everywhere now.We drove up the west coast of the Coromandel peninsula. We stopped at an iSite location (tourist visitor centers all over NZ) and asked for recommendations on things to do. The woman recommended this train ride that Eric had also heard about elsewhere. We decided to go there. Before that though, it was time for lunch. We had lunch at the Success Cafe in Coromandel Town. Eric had a chicken lettuce tomato sandwich and I had to try to famous New Zealand green mussels. The mussels were ginormous! Probably 3x or 4x the size of the typical mussels you see in the states. They were tasty, but after awhile, I was getting grossed out by the size. It's like eating one of those big slimy oysters after having tried a kumamoto.
After our meal, we headed towards the train ride, which was called Driving Creek Railway. The railway was built by a single guy who owned 60 acres of land. It took him 27 years to complete the tiny railway. The ride was a bit hokey, but it was cute. It took us to this lookout point which provided great views of the western side of Coromandel Peninsula. This side of the peninsula reminded us of Point Reyes, a bit hazy, rocky and grey. They farm oysters and mussels on this side of the peninsula.
After stopping at a few amazing lookout points, we decided to head to the eastern side of the peninsula. We had read it was completely different from the western side, so we had to see for ourselves. It is indeed different. More of a beach town with pretty blue waters and sandy beaches. Since we've been cooped up in a car for so long, we decided to take a 45 minute hike down to Cathedral Cove. The hike was a good workout with lots of uphill and downhill pathways. We think we saw a kiwi bird on our way there. It was a short fat brown bird that kept chirping at us while hopping around. It chirped and then ran into the bushes. When we got to Cathedral Cove, the cove itself was closed off, but there was a cave there that we explored, a small waterfall, and an almost deserted white sand beach. Water was on the chilly-side and there were some nice waves.
We had read and heard about this hot water beach that was nearby. Basically, when it's low tide, you can dig a hole on the beach and hot water comes out of the group and you have your own personal hot spa. Low tide was at 6:45 pm, and we got there around 7pm. We knew it was late and we still had a long drive ahead of us, but we couldn't resist stopping to check it out. At first we were skeptical because it was grey and chilly outside. When we got to the beach, we could see the tops of peoples' heads in the distance, so we decided to hike down to the beach. On the walk there we saw all these people carrying shovels, so we started to worry that we wouldn't be able to experience the hot water since we didn't have a shovel. Luckily, we found a deserted hole in the group and waded in (it's only about ankle to calf deep). Still skeptical, to our surprise, we were greeted
with some super hot water! Certain spots were so hot that you couldn't stand there for too long or else you'd probably blister. It was amazing. You look around and you see people just chilling in these little water pits they dug up, some drinking champagne, others reinforcing their sand walls. These holes were about 2 feet from the surf. It was crazy how the surf was so cold but the water spas were so hot. You could see the water bubble up and steam come out from the ground - it was that hot.Sadly, because it was so late, we didn't have time to actually change into our swim trunks and laze around. Instead, we got back in the car and started our long 4.5 hour drive to Taupo where we were staying for the evening. Since it was so late, we didn't want to stop for dinner at a restaurant. Instead, we went to Woolworth's, loaded up on some snacks, and Eric made us some ham and cheese sandwiches out of the back of the car. Sadly, that was the second night in a row we didn't have a hot dinner. Nevertheless, it was a tasty sandwich.
We reached Taupo around midnight and finally got to stretch out our legs and go to bed.
For the pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5408869393680249745&authkey=Gv1sRgCPCR1vuJrJyilQE&feat=email
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