We have now travelled down to the south part of the North Island. The first stop was the Coromandel Peninsula, which has some of the most rugged coastline and fabulous beaches in the North Island. The view of Tairua Town is typical of the beaches on the Peninsula.
Beautiful Coastline of the Coromandel Peninsula
View of Tairua Town from nearby Mount Paku
Two of the most famous and unusual beaches in the area are Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove.
Naturally heated mineral water bubbles up from deep within the earth to emerge through the sand at the appropriately named Hot Water Beach. You can dig your own spa pool in the sand – up to two hours either side of low tide; for us that was 7.00am! It’s a strange but very pleasant feeling to be lying in a pool of hot water just metres from the refreshing sea. And of course it’s important to bring staff with you to dig the pool.
Hot Water Beach – Staff Digging!
Hot Water Beach – Charlotte relaxing in her personal pool.
Cathedral Cove is arguably one of the most picturesque spots in the Coromandel. Here a gigantic cathedral-like arched cavern passes through a white rock headland to join two secluded coves.
Cathedral Cove
We then drove further south to the Bay of Plenty and the town of Whakatane, which is the gateway to White Island. Known to Māori as Whakaari, White Island is New Zealand’s only active marine volcano and is just 50 km offshore from Whakatāne. With the majority of the volcano sitting beneath the sea it means access to the crater complex can be achieved by boat without the need for any mountain climbing. It has been releasing volcanic gas, including sulphur dioxide, at least since it was discovered by James Cook in 1769. Walking around the island and crater was simply fantastic.
White Island
Finally we headed across to Rotorua and Taupo, an area renowned for its geothermal activity. We visited a couple of Thermal Parks, including Wai-O-Tapu. Here they have one of New Zealand’s most famous sites, Champagne Pool, with its iconic orange ring created from the volcanic activity and myriad of minerals brought to the surface.
Rotorua – Champagne Pool
As you can see from the photos we have continued to have excellent weather. However, over the last couple of days that has changed and we are now having a spell of heavy rain. No matter today though as we have been White Water Rafting on the Rangitaiki River. There was just two rafts and we had one of them to ourselves, together with the guide. As you can see from one of the photos we had a water fight with the other raft, which we clearly lost!
White Water Rafting
White Water Rafting
We have one more day in Taupo and then we head south again for a few days in Wellington, before catching the ferry to the South Island.
Charlotte & Graham's Travels 