Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach ~ Derek's Travels

My last major destination of New Zealand was the Coromandel Peninsula, just a few hours North of Rotorua and East of Auckland. On the way up the Northern coast, after passing the numerous roadside stands selling kiwi fruit and feijoas (a sort of sour, small green fruit), I took a brief detour to check out the adjoining towns of Mt. Maunganui and Tauranga. Both towns are small surf towns with nice busy central streets lined with decent looking restaurants and shops, just a short walk from the water. As this is the end of the Summer and moving into Winter, the towns were nice and quiet as most of the gnarly surfers had jetted already. Mt. Maunganui is also a pretty resort town for some locals, with a big green volcanic mound overlooking the water and wide beach below. The beach also has a few rocky, offshore islands and some rock formations on the beach, one of which I sat upon while eating my morning snack of lime and chili flavored tortilla chips and watching the walkers and runners pass below me. I spent an hour or two in the two towns, and then I was soon heading North again to get to the Coromandel. The peninsula is another of the treasures of the North Island, with a few luxurious vacation homes, pine and native forests, and incessant vistas of green hills and pastures in every direction. The views of the countryside were beautiful, as they have been for almost all of my road trip, so I again stopped in random gravel pullouts along the way for pictures, making for a few tight situations trying to turn a large van without power steering around in the width of two lanes while a logging truck is drawing ever closer.

For me, the main attraction of the peninsula was the Cathedral Cove beach, which has been one of the star attractions of NZ in my mind ever since seeing a NZ tourism ad featuring the incredible beach and surroundings. As I've done in many other trips, I wanted to find the exact spot of the picture, knowing that the place would be unbelievable. Following a few small signs, making a few more photo stops at the lookout points, and heading up a large, steep hill, I soon found myself in the parking lot for Cathedral Cove around 4:30 pm, though I wasn't all that happy to see that the dreaded green Kiwi Experience bus was also there, meaning the loads of young travelers/revelers were somewhere below. The parking lot is actually on a bit of a cliff overlooking the bush and white-washed cliffs below and more offshore islands. From there, the trail to the beach winds in and out of forest and pasture land for about 30 minutes until finally leading down a steep set of 200 or so wooden steps to the beach below. I was instantly mesmerized by the place, despite having seen so many images of the place. The first white sandy beach that I stepped upon from the stairs was shaded by a few overhanging trees. Passing through the trees, the wide, 200 yard long beach unfolded before me, surrounded behind by a large stone wall at least a hundred feet tall with more overhanging vegetation and huge, white rock walls on each side. The rock walls seemed to have been washed clean by rain and erosion, leaving a fairly bright, beautifully colored wall to protect both ends of the beach, and to also prevent people from entering other than by boat or the long trail, keeping the beach somewhat secluded. The walls also had a few caves or arches in the bottom where small cracks have morphed over time into large holes and to what will eventually be tunnels to the other sides of the walls. The large wall to the left of me jutted out into the slightly green water, blocking off the next beach if not for the tunnel/archway in the middle, leading to the other side. The large tunnel has been worn away by years and years of erosion, now leaving a vaulted arch about 30 feet wide, 50 feet tall and 30 feet long, covered in sand and just a bit of the ocean water at high tide. By the time I got to the area from the car park, the sun had retreated behind the large walls and trees that surround the beach, so I wasn't even experiencing the ultimate views of the place, yet I was still in awe. I quickly walked through the tunnel, seeing the last two other people leaving the beach, as the Kiwi bus was leaving soon, and I had the whole of the area to myself. The other side of the Cove was similar, with huge white-washed stone walls backing the sandy beach, with one large, pointed rock (somewhat like a spearhead) of the same white rock just out a few yards into the water. The beach on this side was also about the same size, providing a decent amount of room to relax and enjoy the natural beauty of the place. I spent a long time admiring and taking pictures, but I knew I had to come back the next day for even better views of this place.

I quickly made my way back up the often steep, winding trail, deciding to take a different fork in the road at one point, just to change things a bit, heading towards the grove instead of another bay. Soon, I felt like a small child wandering through the dark, scary forests of fairy tales, as the trees, ferns and large boulders seemed to be closing in on me in the narrow trail. Not being able to see far ahead and completely void on any remaining bits of sunlight, I keep going, and I soon exited the thick grove, moving back to the more open main trail before arriving at the parking lot in time for a nice sunset over the cliffs and below. I headed back down the hill to the small semblance of a town on the road below, but the only two restaurants were either closed or over-priced, so I went into the market and got a loaf of bread for a few spartan peanut butter sandwiches for dinner. Then I drove just a minute down the road to the local beach, where I found an ample parking lot for the night, hoping that I wasn't missing any "No Camping" signs in the darkness. The next morning my watch alarm beeped, and I jumped up and quickly made my way to the driver's seat, speeding back up the hill to the Cathedral Cove lookout, as the sunrise is said to be unforgettable from that point. The sunrise was quite nice, watching the orange light come over the clouds and islands off the coast, though it wasn't as spectacular as described, but I still cherish every time that I'm actually able to watch the sunrise, particularly over a beautiful place like this. Just as the sun broke the horizon, I heard a car flying up the hill and then some quick footsteps, and it turned out to be a British woman with a really nice camera that I'd seen the day earlier at one of the lookouts, just in time for a view of the slightly colorful bay. It's funny how sometimes you come across the same people while traveling, including one Jewish guy with huge, curly hair that I've seen in Fiji and a few places here.

After watching the sun rise on the wooden bench overlooking the water, I returned to the van for some breakfast and packing a lunch for my time below at the beach. Around 8 am, I was ready, and I headed back down the long trail, making it to the beach to find myself and the aforementioned British woman being the only ones around, making the lonely beach even more mystical as the sun came over the hills and slowly lit up the white walls enclosing the cove, one by one. As the sun moved higher into the sky, people slowly filtered down to the beach, making their way through the dirt trail leading down there, and a few kayaks pulled up to the beach, though it was never quite full, with no more than 50 or 75 people at one time on the two medium sized beaches. I spent some memorable moments on each side and sitting on a large rock within the archway, watching the sunlight gradually pour into the entrances on either side of the tunnel, admiring the water and rock formations all around. The unbelievably picturesque cove provided amazing views from every angle, so I found myself walking back and forth, admiring each angle of the towering walls, the sandy beach, and the islands of the surrounding water. Eventually, a Kiwi family came up on their yacht, and as his children frolicked in the sand, I spoke to the father for quite a while. We talked mostly about nothing, while I marveled at the fact that someone traveling such incredible places in a somewhat extravagant manner would have somehow been oblivious to the existence of a toothbrush and toothpaste, judging by the build-up in between his teeth. I also met a somewhat arrogant American family and an extremely friendly Kiwi family, the mother of which seemed to be able to carry on a conversation for hours at a time while watching her kids play. I heard a good deal of stories about her children and places they've visited before eventually convincing her that I really did have to go to make it to my next destination, Hot Water Beach, in time to experience it at low tide.

Hot Water Beach is only about a 25 minute drive from Cathedral Cove (after getting up the trail to the car park), but I had checked the tide schedules the night before, and I knew that I'd have to hurry to make it in time. Willy and I sped down the small roads, and I followed the arrows to the beach, arriving as many of the people in the parking lot were leaving. I didn't exactly know what I'd be looking for, but I quickly saw a large group of people crowded around one small part of the expansive beach, so I figured that they had found the phenomenon. Hot Water Beach is named for some hot springs that exist just under the beach, only able to be found within two hours of low tide, before the ocean water comes in and masks them. The water of about 150 F degrees rests just below the surface, so tourists rent shovels from the general store and dig shallow ditches with sand walls all over the beach, letting in a little bit of hot water from below and a little bit of cold ocean water to create the perfect, natural hot tub. In the right spots, just a minute or two of digging reveals the surprisingly hot water, which would be too hot for more than a second or two without the ocean water to cool it down. I arrived late, so I didn't want to rent a shovel, figuring that I might be able to experience the effect in someone else's pool that they'd left behind. A bunch of other people also had this idea, and unfortunately, most of the pools remaining in the sand were just luke warm, not as cold as the ocean, but nothing spectacular, and the other remaining pools were completely occupied by groups of two or three people, depending on the size of the small 'tubs.' Just as I was starting to leave, I saw another pool that was starting to be covered by the incoming tide, so I stepped in the area and dug down with my feet, just a few inches below the surface, and I had to immediately jump out, as the scalding water nearly burned my feet. I soon had a nice mix of hot and cold below me, allowing me to see why this is one of the most unique beaches in the world. It was hard to believe that something like that actually existed, and it was another place that must have been absolutely amazing to the first person to discover this oddity.

I spent 15 minutes relaxing my feet in the makeshift hot tub before the tides were up to my shins, and I decided it was time to move on. Having heard many minutes of the accolades of the beach's art gallery from the talkative Kiwi woman, I decided that I should stop in and at least she what she was talking about. The gallery featured some interesting pieces of jewelry, glass, drawings and table decorations, all in a unique but distinctly NZ style. My next stop up the road was the small town of Whitianga, where I found a cheap Chinese takeaway restaurant for some tasty fried noodles and beef before heading up the coast to look for a place to stay for the night. I found a motorcamp in town, but it was one of my last nights in Willy before being back in Auckland, so I was hoping to find a nice, secluded place along the coast somewhere as a fitting ending to my trip.