We decided to travel up to the Coromandel peninsula, which is East of Auckland. The area is sub tropical, which much of the area being hilly and forested. What it is most famous for is it beaches.
We stayed in a little town called Tairua and toured from there. Many of the beaches are the white sand, blue sea and palm lined locations that you would see on any tropical island. The area reminded us a lot of the Hawaiian landscapes we had been travelling through only a few weeks earlier.
When we were travelling from Coromandel town we decided to take the infamous 309 route. This is an unsealed road (basically a dirt track) that is going over steep mountains, deep forests and many hair pin bends. It had a few surprises on the way like the Waiau Falls.
The other excitement for me were the free range pigs all over what can be loosely described as a farm. These really were free range pigs, as there were no enclosures or fences and they wandered wherever they liked.
The Coromandel area would have been part of an active volcanic area at one point. There is still residual geo-thermal activity continuing in places like Hot Water Beach. It’s name comes from the hot water that sits below the sands. At low tide, it’s possible to dig a hole in the sand that fills with thermally heated waters, creating your own personal spa. Some of the spots were so hot, they would scald the skin, so you had to be careful where you dug.
From here we travelled to the geo-thermal hotspots of New Zealand, Taupo & Rotorura. On the way we stopped at Matamata, best known as the location for the the set of MiddleShire and Hobbiton for Lord of the Rings. We only had a taste of it as we travelled through, as we could not visit the actual set. The pictures below are of the tourist information centre in the town, which has been modelled on the hobbits houses.
Little man was feeling a little shy during the last few days, but he’ll be back again soon.
The Nomad Adviser 