After a week of bad weather, it was a delight to see a sunny day on Sunday 22 May 2016. I collected 6 passengers from Auckland Institute of Studies and another 1 from downtown, Auckland, making a group of 5 people from South Korea, 2 from Japan and myself. There was very little traffic, so the drive to Tairua, Coromandel only took 1 hour 50 minutes.
Coromandel – $80 per person, full day tour.
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Destination: Coromandel
As the weather forecast was for possible showers late afternoon, we had decided it was best to start our time in Coromandel at Cathedral Cove where we would be further (about 45 minutes) from the vehicle and possible shelter.
There was a cold wind but luckily it was blowing from the south-west so we were sheltered from it for most of the day.
The Cove is always a stunning sight, with white sand, blue sea, rocks shaped by the sea and the archway which was made famous in the first 2 Narnia movies.
We explored the area and found a mini waterfall which may have been created by the heavy rain the previous day.
We took our time on the walk back to the carpark, enjoying the forest around us and the views over the sea and islands.
Hot Water Beach is only a 15 minute drive from Cathedral Cove, so we waited until we got there to have lunch, which was at 1.45pm. After lunch we made our way to the middle of the beach and excavated our hot water pool.
The window for hot water is usually about 2 hours each side of low tide, but this seems to be about 1 hour at the moment, probably because of sand build up from the recent storms.
As we were there we got a short period of drizzle (very light rain), so we had a beautiful rainbow, and the drizzle didn’t affect us. After some of us had a swim in the sea, we got changed into warm clothes and drove to Tairua.
We finished our outdoor activities at Paku Hill, Tairua which has spectacular views from the top.
Some of the group took photos, while others talked to friends and family back home, showing them the scenery via Skype or similar apps. We left the top of the hill as the sun was setting, and went in search of food.
We had a thoroughly enjoyable dinner at Manaia Kitchen & Bar in Tairua, a restaurant I will definitely be returning on future tours to Coromandel.
We stopped briefly for stargazing on the journey back to Auckland but there was a full moon which dimmed the brightness of the stars. Still, we were able to make out Mars, Neptune and Saturn as well as the Southern Cross.
We returned to Auckland and the passengers were dropped off between 9pm and 9.30pm, depending on where their accommodation was.
