North Island Trip Part III - Coromandel Peninsula & Whatipu

North Island trip - Part III - Coromandel Peninsula & Whatipu

For the next leg of our North Island adventure, Mike and I headed north up to the Coromandel Peninsula hoping to catch a couple days of relaxing at the beach. 




We camped at Hot Water Beach Top 10 Holiday Park for an exorbiant $44 NZD/per night. The reason we stayed here is because it is just a ten minute walk to the most amazing beach where you can dig your own hot tub!

Hot water beach, Coromandel Peninsula

Your personal 'beach spa' can be created only within two hours on either side of the low tide. The beach hot tubs must be located in the right spot, specifically where thermal water bubbles up through the sand. We rented a small spade at the campsite for $5 (plus $20 deposit), which helped with the hot tub digging. On this evening low tide was at 10 p.m., so we started digging around 8 p.m.

Our first few attempts at building a sand spa were a bit frustrating because the waves would periodically crash in and dissolve our precious mud walls. In some spots the water was too hot and started to burn our feet, while in other spots there is not enough hot water percolating up through the sand. Eventually we found the right spot and spent the better part of an hour toiling away. 

Hot water beach was a fun experience; however, the beach was crowded with tourists all trying to build the perfect beach tub. Also, we had to work pretty hard to excavate our spa and then once constructed the water level was not deep enough to submerge my whole body at once and inevitably the tide rolled in and filled everyone's pools with cold sea water.

Another tourist attraction near Hot water beach, is Cathedral Cove. Mike got up at the crack of dawn to get a nice picture (see below). I could not be bothered to hike down the 45 minutes of stairs and fight the hordes of tourists trying to take selfie-stick pics of the iconic rock. Apparently by 8 am there was absolutely no parking anywhere near Cathedral Cove and even residents were offering parking for $15-20 several blocks away. Yikes!

Cathedral Cove, posted with permission (www.mikeashbeephotography.com) 

It was time to leave the Coromandel Peninsula, a place with beautiful beaches, winding roads and A LOT of tourists.




West of Auckland is the scientific reserve Whatipu, where Mike and I spent Christmas. We camped at the Whatipu campsite which is just a stone's throw away from a very beautiful black sand beach. This is where I saw my first New Zealand dotteral.

Black sand beach at Whatipu

The facilities are very basic at Whatipu (composting toilets, cold shower and very weak and intermittent cell signal), but you can't beat the price of $14 per night. The ranger was nice enough to give us a free nights stay for Christmas.

We did a bit of exploring in the swampy areas for dragonflies and other insects, which was the main purpose for staying here. 

There are also a number of caves within walking distance of the Whatipu campsite.

We had a very nice quiet Christmas camping Whatipu, but the Ranger warned us that all the campsites would start to fill up starting on boxing day as it is very popular for Kiwis to camp out during the time between boxing day and New Year's (remember it's also school holidays and the start of summer).


For the next chapter of this trip we head back to the city and then north to Waipu where we found a very impressive cave and very overcrowded campsites.

Stay tuned......

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