The Coromandel

The Cathedral at the Cove
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We are in Whitianga for Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach.  We will not be distracted, we will not be stopped, we will not be delayed.  We are now, for some reason, racing against the clock and must complete these tasks in 2 days and start the journey home.  Don't ask, Mark's internal clock is running and he is becoming manic about going back.  So here we are at On the Beach Backpackers, taking the last room available, stowing our food in the kitchen and meeting some of the other travelers.  Among them is Anna, a nurse from Germany, who is spending her 6 week vacation traveling in New Zealand.  She would love to see Cathedral Cove and by god so would we.

Another Big Rock at Cathedral Cove That Might Have a Name
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After our walk to Cathedral Cove, we headed back to our accommodation to enjoy an uninspired (we were cooking on the road in someone else's kitchen in a world best suited to endless nights of spaghetti), but some of the best conversation of the trip.  We spent several hours talking with friendly visitors from Denmark and Germany. All were single women traveling on their own who had done lots of traveling and shared some of their most interesting experiences with us.

We will not be distracted, we will not be stopped, we will not be delayed.

A lovely Danish woman talked about her trips to Oz (working with dolphins in a reserve on the west coast), enjoying Sweden in summer, and praising the beauty of the South Island of New Zealand.  The young German woman who had completed her month long tour on the North Island and would be meeting up with her boyfriend on the South Island (or maybe not if his attitude didn't improve).  And the nurse who was spending those 6 weeks that Europeans get making New Zealand her trip project after watching a show on German TV from Oz call McLeod's Daughters.  Now this show is about the Australian Outback, but somehow it inspired her to visit New Zealand.

On our final morning in the Corromandel we decided to take a run at Hot Water Beach and using our special purpose shovel, Mark exhausted himself at dawn trying to create our own spa on the beach, Anna and I burned our feet finding the actual hot water, and I ended up splashing around in the ocean there at dawn. Access to the beach at low tide is supposed to be fairly easy, but because of the big storm coming in the beach could be accessed by climbing over some big slippery rocks or by running around the big slippery rocks when the waves were out.  So which one did I choose?  Why to run around the rocks of course, but on the off chance I did get caught by a wave, I removed my dry clothing (yes I was wearing a swimsuit underneath) and held these and my towel high above my head as I crept around the big rock.  And of course the only big wave to hit the beach (like 8 feet high) hit at the exact moment I stepped into the water.  Now I was completely sodden with about 40 pounds of wet stuff to carry. But the water was warm, I didn't have too much sand in my suit and we enjoyed a lovely coffee at the Hot Water Beach cafe before heading back to our hostel.