Onwards to the Coromandel!

After experiencing the "Far North" (I still think it's funny that they say "Far North" even though their country is so far south, but I digress), we headed to the Coromandel Peninsula. There was great scenery and some fun beaches along the way. We stopped at one and played in the waves for an hour or so. I was pretty exhausted by the end of it because the waves were so big. One of the highlights of the Cormandel is supposed to be Hot Water Beach. Basically around low tide, you dig a hole and wait for it to fill with water that ranges from 110-120 degrees. I'm really not sure why it happens since I didn't read the guide book very well. And while we're on the topic of the guide book...if you don't read it, you end up looking like this...
Yep, I thought the hot water event happened at high tide...so we got there just in time for the peak of high tide. We even got a little tide booklet earlier in the day so we would know how to time our day. Too bad the event happens at LOW tide. Doh! Experiencing thermal water on the beach would've been pretty cool, but we'd get some natural hot water of our own later.

Since the hot water was a bust, we decided to take some cheesy tourist pictures. Look, Mom, he's holding the island!!!
Not too bad considering that I was working with a black screen on the camera :p

While driving around the penninsula, we made a pit stop to check out some of the huge kauri trees in the area. These are the same trees that are currently being "mined" further north. There are still a few living ones in the area and luckily some were only a 10 minute walk from the main highway.
There was also a pretty impressive waterfall just of the highway...so we stopped to check it out. After a quick walk through a fern / Jurrasic Park like forest we arrived at the falls...


After completing this post I just realized we saw all this in 24 hours. Pretty crazy, huh? New Zealand may not have huge museums and ancient alleyways like Europe, but nature can be a DAMN good competitor!!

:) Ryan