Leaving Auckland for the last time felt great after too many days here, and once the 36 hours of rain had dried up it was onto the Coromandel peninsula, easy one to skip as looks like a dead end but you’d be missing out, it’s packed with fun things to see and do, first job was an exciting drive up the windy and windy west coast dodging some massive waves crashing over the road and car, we had been informed this drive was millpond flat, but not today!
Coromandel town proved a nice stop to stock up on supplies and fresh mussels and we enjoyed the quirky mountain railway north of town, before driving over the hills and down to our campsite at Kuaotunu Bay. We had this campsite pretty much all to ourselves due to being the end of the school term which was a nice touch. This also meant that the super honeypot tourist attractions of Cathedral Cove and Hotwater Bay were busy but not crazy and both lived up to the hype with stunning beaches, great views and you can’t beat digging your own hole in the sand and soaking in the relaxing warm water. We also explored the remote Opito Bay and enjoyed a walk along our local beach to do some fishing off the rocks using worms we found under rocks at the campsite, a very relaxing place to spend a few days and somewhere we could easily have stayed a week…
We now had our first difficult decision of the trip, to head West to Raglan’s world famous surf break or South to volcanic Rotorua, after some reshuffling of the plans we of course decided to do both with a bit of a zigzag and after a long drive we pitched up at Raglan for some epic surfing at Manu Bay (made famous in Endless Summer) – some of the biggest waves I’ve ever surfed and really satisfying long rides across the bay. Should have stayed longer than two nights in Raglan, nice vibe to the place and evening swimming in the harbour (more like a tidal estuary) and having dinner on the beach was a nice touch. Kids starting to get tired of being on the road and camping I think, definitely a higher incidence of temper tantrums the last few days, hopefully this won’t continue!! Missing our van but large family tent seems to work and saves a lot of money in accommodation…
Final stop on this leg of the journey was the famous Waitomo caves and again we weren’t sure whether we wanted to sell out with tourist attractions so soon but this one is worth paying for, the lighting in the impressive caves is really well done, the tour guide did a great job and the final boat trip past lots of glowworms was a fine finish….next stop Rotorua for Christmas in the sun…onward!
Harrison Family Adventures Down Under 