Our plan for the trip
included a weekend in Auckland before flying home on the Monday. The van was scheduled to be dropped-off at
the depot on Friday afternoon and then we would head to our hotel in Auckland’s
centre.
As we reached Invercargill
and turned our van towards the north we had two weeks left in it. This seemed like a good time to find a hotel
in Auckland. But we quickly found that
there wasn’t a room available anywhere in the city or nearby. The reason was that Bruce Springsteen, “The
Boss”, was playing Auckland that weekend and every spare room had been booked
up by eager fans. We enquired about
extending the hire on the van but that had already been allocated. So, an alternative plan was hatched.
We decided to hire a car
and head for the Coromandel Peninsular on the North Island’s east coast. We had not been able to include this area on
our original itinerary but we now had an ideal opportunity.
The rental car desk at the
airport was manic and then the traffic out of Auckland on the Southern Motorway
was at a slow crawl. We were glad to
have finally escaped the city and its traffic.
After the open space and open roads of the last 6 weeks we were relieved
not to be spending our final days in a busy city swollen by the influx of
thousands of concert revellers.
Although the distance
between Auckland and our destination was not great, the heavy traffic and
then the relentless twists and turns through the hills of The Coromandel made
it a long drive to our motel at Hot Water Beach. Next
day we were able to find out that this beach is exactly what it says on the
tin. Bring a spade or hire one locally,
dig a hole at low tide and you can create your own hot spa until it is flooded
by the turning tide. There is a hot
spring under the beach and bathers are warned to take care as temperature of
the water can exceed 60 degrees Centigrade.
Hot Water Beach
Digging Hot Spas on Hot Water Beach
The next beach along is
Hahei Beach and we noted that there are sea kayaking tours departing from
here. We had jealously watched sea
kayakers a few weeks earlier during our lovely walk at Abel Tasman National
Park. We had both agreed that this was
something we would like to try; perhaps during our next visit to New Zealand we
mused. But here was a golden
opportunity; the sea was pretty calm and warm, the sun was shining and the
leaflet said “No experience necessary”.
Before any doubts had a chance to set in we had signed up for the
afternoon tour to Cathedral Cove.
Apparently, we would be at sea for up to 3½ hours and it would include
a cappuccino on the remote beach made by our guide. We both knew that it would either be a
highlight of our trip or our worst nightmare!
Well, thanks Boss; you
gave us the opportunity for a top 3 highlight of our tour if not ‘The’ highlight
of our tour.
Cathedral Cove
Coffee on the Beach
Kitted up for the Return Journey
