We got an early morning ferry from Auckland to Coromandel Town. The scenery was beautiful - lots of green islands and an emerald sea under a bright sun. Despite the sun though it quickly became too cold to sit outside and we had to retreat to the cabin out of the wind. The last half hour was very rough and we got thrown around a bit but it was a great ride.
We were picked up at the wharf by the people from Coromandel Adventures who seemed a bit disorganised but were lovely people
. They transported us to our hotel which was 2.5 kms out of town. I hadn't organised this transfer and had expected to pay for a cab to get to the hotel but Coromandel Discovery does this as a Welcome.
After dropping our bags in our room, the Adventures guy took us back to town so that we could have some lunch before going on a tour with them at 2.00pm. We had lunch at a cafe where I had the biggest serve of fish and chips I've ever seen, including two fried eggs. The whole meal was a heart attack waiting to happen but it was very good.
At 2pm the guide from Coromandel Adventures drove us out to Long Bay for an hour long walk through regenerated forest to see a 1200 year old Kauri Tree. Apparently this tree was one of only two left around Coromandel Town following logging and gold mining in the area and these two trees have helped regenerate the whole forest.
The forest was lovely, with lots of ferns and trees related to the Australian Bottlebrushes which have beautiful red flowers (more about these later and I may even remember the name).
It was a great walk and afterwards we did some shopping and returned to our hotel. The hotel room was too nice for words so I'm going to let the pictures do the talking. Tara cooked dinner and we generally relaxed until bedtime.
Life at the Beach
Saturday, January 05, 2013
Coromandel, North Island, New Zealand
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2025-02-14