Whitianga, Coromandel Peninsula, North Island, New Zealand

11th November – 15th November 2017

After setting off from Paihia, we both fell asleep pretty much straight away – it’s the only way I can get through the journey without feeling sick; Joe just likes napping, so he joined in. We were initially getting the bus back to Auckland, where we had to stay for one night because of the bus times (it wasn’t possible to go straight from Paihia to the Coromandel peninsula). We arrived into Auckland quite late, which we were very glad about once we stepped into the hostel. It was the worst hostel I have seen in a very long time.

We checked in, handed our bedding and were told where our room was; we opened the door and were hit with a horrible smell and literally had to climb over everyone else’s stuff just to get in the door. I have never seen a messier room, it was obvious that some people in that room live there but the hostel shouldn’t let them have the room in that state when there are other guests checking in too.

After literally dumping our bags, we went to heat up our dinner – it was a good job at this point that we had cooked in at the previous hostel, so we only had to heat it up. The kitchen wasn’t much better than the room: it was dirty and there wasn’t anything for us to use, including cutlery. Once we had eaten dinner, we went to the TV room and sat in there for as long as possible. We were doing anything we could to stay out of the bedroom for as long as possible.

When we eventually went to bed, it wasn’t easy to sleep: there were people coming in and out all night. They were turning the light on and off and talking to each other. I know you have to expect that to some extent when staying in a dorm, but it was just too much after us already feeling horrible in there. We were glad that we had an early bus the next day, so we could get up and out as soon as possible. We checked out and walked back to the bus station to get our bus to our next stop, Whitianga in the Coromandel peninsula.

We had to change buses on the way to Whitianga so in Thames we got off the first bus. The driver told us that there was a shuttle for people that had booked one, but we just assumed that was for being who had booked shuttles to hotels in Thames, we didn’t know that it was for us, until about three minutes before it was leaving – it’s a very good job we checked. The shuttle bus was a tiny minibus, which was full, so there wasn’t much room for comfort. It was quite a long journey over very high and very windy roads, which explained to us why we were on the small shuttle bus and not on the usual coaches.

Fortunately, we were dropped off right outside our hostel, so we didn’t have to walk far with our bags. The room wasn’t ready straight away, so we had to wait in the lounge area, but as soon as it was ready, we were shown to where we were staying. At first, we weren’t really sure how to get to the things we wanted to do in Coromandel, so we had to do a bit of research.

Once we had dropped our bags in our room, we went for a walk into the town. It wasn’t very far from the hostel and it wasn’t big at all. We wanted to go and see about renting some bikes for the following couple of days, as Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach (which are the main tourist attractions in the area) weren’t in walking distance and buses didn’t seem to exist. We walked to the bike shop, but it was shut, as were most of the shops in the area. It was a Sunday, but it was only about 2pm, so it was strange for us that nothing was open. The tourist information centre was open, but she didn’t have very much information for us, so that wasn’t very helpful.

After realising that we weren’t going to have much luck on a Sunday afternoon, we walked through the town to the esplanade. We walked along the esplanade and back, before finding a bar to sit in so that we could have a few drinks – there was nothing else to do. After a few drinks, we started to make our way back to the hostel, so that we could get showered and ready, as we had decided to go out for dinner.

Once we were ready, we walked back through the town and along the esplanade to a restaurant on the front. We had a lovely view of the sea while we enjoyed our food and a drink.

After dinner, we walked back to the hostel and got an early night, ready for a busy day the next day.

The girls in our room got up really early in the morning, so I was awake quite early but as soon as they went out, I fell back to sleep until about 8, when we decided to get up. Once we were ready, we went down for breakfast (which was included), before packing our bag and heading out for the day.

Although we didn’t have a complete plan, we knew that we wanted to cross the water onto the side where the main attractions were. We walked to the ferry, which was on the esplanade and when we got on the boat, it was less than two minutes until we were at the other side, which was nice but it seemed so silly. We got off the ferry and started walking along the main road, which led to all of the points of interest along the way.

Our first stop was to see Shakespeare’s cliff, a viewpoint over the different bays in the area. It wasn’t too far from the ferry to the start of the climb, it took us about twenty minutes, but the climb itself was a little more difficult as it was much steeper. We made it to the top though and the views were definitely worth it. While we were up there, we tried to make a plan for the rest of the day. We wanted to make it to Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach over the time we were there, but it was too far for us to walk.

From Shakespeare’s Cliff, we started walking towards Cook’s Beach, named after Captain Cook. It was about forty minutes further along the coast and by the time we got there, we had worked up an appetite. Along the beach front, there was a rope swing hanging from a tree; I couldn’t resist, so had a go before we carried on.

When we got to Cook’s Beach, we had a sit down for a while. We found a fish and chips shop which we thought would be great for lunch, but when we got there, it was shut – I was not pleased at all. Instead of fish and chips, we settled for a cold drink and started to walk back to the main road.

Back on the main road, we thought we would try and head towards Cathedral Cove, as the weather was nice and we didn’t know if would be as good on the second day (plus we still weren’t sure of the best way to get there). As we were walking, we were offered a lift, which made our journey much easier, as it could have taken us over three hours to get there if we walked.

We were dropped off in Hahei, the town closest to Cathedral Cove, as we still hadn’t eaten, and we needed to. We got our fish and chips before starting the hike up the hill towards the Cathedral Cove carpark. It was a steep hill, but we were on a mission to get to the top, so that we could start the trek and make it to Cathedral Cove in time to enjoy it. The Cathedral Cove trek lead from the carpark down to the beach and said it should have taken forty five minutes; as we were on our mission and were power walking, we made it down in twenty, which wasn’t a bad effort.

When we got down to Cathedral Cove, we had to pass under the cove to get to Cathedral beach. As it was later on in the day, the tide was quite high, so we had to run through, trying to dodge waves. It didn’t bother us so much because neither of us were in long trousers, but it was so funny watching some people try to run through in jeans and trainers – they had no chance of staying dry!

Once we were through, we sat on the beach for a little bit and enjoyed the views, which were stunning. We thought it would be a nice idea to go for a paddle in the sea but the water was icy cold, so we didn’t stay in there for long; we just took a few photos and got out. The sun had come out by the time we had settled down and it was quite hot, so it was enjoyable to just sit there.

As time was getting on, and we had no idea how to get back to the ferry, we decided to leave after about half an hour. We walked back down the hill to Hahei town and on the way could see a shuttle which said it went to Ferry Landing. When we got to the bottom, we found the lady, who took us back to the ferry, but also charged us a fortune. We got on the two minute ferry back to Whitianga, and then walked back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel, we started to do some research for the next part of our journey, as we weren’t sure where we were heading next. We looked a few things up and got some ideas, before making our dinner. Dinner was an easy one, as we were having the rest of the curry that we had made a few days earlier, so once there was a spot free in the kitchen, we heated that up. After we had eaten, we carried on our research and booked a few more things, which made our trip sound even more exciting.

At around 10, we decided to head up to bed, as we knew we were having an early start the next day, to try and get to Hot Water Beach and enjoy that, while the tide was still low (even though we weren’t sure how we were going to get there, at this point).

After the alarm went off at 7am, we gradually got ourselves up and ready; we had breakfast and packed the day bag, before walking into the centre of Whitianga. We were undecided at the time whether to hire a car for the day or rent bikes, as the bike journey was obviously much longer and very hilly, but we thought a car would be expensive. We started off by going to the car rental place to get a quote, but it was closed (even though the website said it opened at 8am and it was after that time). We wandered around the town for a little while but very few places were open, so we sat on a bench for a bit to weigh up our options.

As the car rental place didn’t seem to be opening, and the bike shop wasn’t opening until 9, we decided to sit in a café and get a drink while we waited, as there was still about half an hour to go. As we knew it would be cheaper, although harder, we decided to hire bikes instead of a car, so at 9, we walked to the bike shop.

Once we had the bikes, we rode towards the ferry and got the boat across the water to Ferry Landing. We got off the boat and started our cycle. Although there were some hills, it wasn’t as hard as we expected. We cycled along the road, the whole way from Ferry Landing, to the other end, which was 12km. Once we got there, we still had another 6km to go, until we reached the beach.

Just before we got to the beach, the rain started to come down, which wasn’t very enjoyable. It was coming down quite hard, which made it difficult to see where we were going, but it didn’t last too long, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

When we arrived at the beach, we couldn’t believe how busy it was already: there were so many people crammed into such a small space where the hot springs were under the sand. We made our way across the beach to the hot springs area and I couldn’t help but stare at the number of people – it was quite a funny sight to see everyone sat in holes that they had dug in the sand.

After watching for a little bit, we decided we should probably make our own. Joe went off to rent a spade, while I looked around for a good spot, which was harder than it seemed because you could dig two holes right next to each other and one would be freezing cold and one would be boiling hot. When Joe arrived back with the spade, we started to have a go. We started off by dipping our feet in the empty holes that were around us: most of them were cold, besides one that I tried, which nearly burnt my feet off – it was like stepping into a kettle! I didn’t think that they would get that hot but that one was, and it explained why no one was sat in it. We started to dig down in a few patches, but all of the water was cold. Not long after trying, a couple were getting out of there hole and offered it to us, so we jumped right in. it was so nice but strange, as one side was lovely and hot, but not too hot and the other was just warm, but it was all in the same pool.

As we were sat there, I realised that I had put my bikini bottoms on backwards when I got ready in the morning – it did explain why they felt so uncomfortable all day though. I had to make a quick dash into the sea to change them, the temperature in the sea was so different to the temperature in the pool, it was not nice!

We sat in the pool for about an hour, before we decided we should start to make a move back. We timed it well with the tides, as we were ready to leave, just as the tide was reaching our pool; we had already watched it wash other people out of theirs. As Joe went to return the spade, I got all of our things together. I was just in time, because as I lifted the bag up, a wave came up and nearly got me.

Once we were ready, we walked back to the car park where the bikes were chained up. We got ourselves ready and set off on the mammoth cycle back to the hostel. We thought the ride back would be harder, as we thought we had done quite a lot of downhills on the way, so we knew we would have to go up them on the way back. The hills weren’t the problem for us, and they actually weren’t as bad as we expected, the thing that made the ride back so difficult was that when we got to the 12km mark, the rain started to come down again, only this time it didn’t stop. It poured and poured for the full 12km back to the ferry and we were soaked and frozen by the time we made it to the ferry.

When we got off the ferry, we decided to return the bike straight away, while we were out. We gave them back and walked back to the hostel, still in the rain. When we got back, the first and only thing we needed was a hot shower to warm ourselves up.

After the shower, we put some laundry on and made a very late lunch, as it was 4pm by this time. For lunch, I made us both a cheese omelette each and we ate it while watching the rain come down.

After we had eaten and sorted things out, the rain had finally stopped, so we decided to get out while we could. We needed to do a food shop, so we walked to the supermarket and the weather was gorgeous again by the time we came out – it was just our luck that it had stopped once we finished the 12km bike ride.

Once we were back from the supermarket, we collected our laundry from the dryer and re-packed our bags. Once that was done, we went down to the kitchen to make our dinner. As we had eaten quite recently, we weren’t massively hungry, so had decided on a chicken salad for dinner.

After we had eaten, we went back to the room to chill out for the rest of the evening. We had two new roommates, who seemed to be travelling together, but also seemed to have just met each other. I had a little chat with them before we all went to bed.

We had another early start on the final morning in Whitianga, as our bus was leaving the hostel at 7.47am. We got up about an hour before to finish packing the final bits and eat breakfast before we left. We were ready and waiting on the driveway of the hostel by 7.40, ready to be collected.

Whitianga was my favourite place in New Zealand, so far. It is so beautiful and there are so many amazing natural sights, that I would have loved to have been able to spend more time at. The hostel was a good choice, the only downfall was the distance it was from a lot of things – we’re starting to find that a bit of a problem in New Zealand without a car. As much as I love the Coromandel Peninsula, it’s time to leave now and see the next part of the country: Mount Maunganui, in Tauranga.

To travel is to live, Katie x