Coromandel

Jo at Cathedral Cove

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Campervantastic!  After nearly 8 weeks of travellling we have finally got our campervan and we love it.  The van is really luxurious as it has a toilet, shower, microwave, fridge and hob.  It looks really long but is quite easy to drive, as it is just like a long car, except your high up above other drivers, which is great for short people like me (Nic)!

We headed straight up towards Coromandel as soon as we got the van.  It was a very pretty drive along the coast.  Jo had to drive all the winding roads which she loved.  We stayed in our first top 10 campsite and it was very cosy.

We woke up early, as it's difficult to stay asleep in the van when it is light outside.  We drove across to the hot water beach at Hahei.  We were there too early as the tide was in so we went off to see cathedral cove.  Suspecting it was an easy stroll down towards the beach we set off from the top of the hill.  We were sadly mistaken, as the track to us up and down about 4 slopes, so by the end we were knackered!  The rocks that had formed on the beach were very impressive and we spent time attempting to take lots of arty shots.

Headed back to the hot water beach and arrived just before the tide had come back in.  THere were people sitting in bigs holes in the sand, which when we looked were filled with very hot water like baths.  You only had to dig down a little to tap into this natural hot water flowing below the sands surface.  We didn't dig our own pool we jumped into someone else's.  It was just like having a bath on the beach!

We then had a long drive to Waihi beach which we thought would be quite pleasant, but as it was nearly six, it got dark quickly and the journey along lots of winding roads was quite tricky.  Jo did all the driving and was shattered when we arrived at our next campsite.