Coromandel and its
beaches were our next goal. We followed the Highway all the way up
north, through Thames (for us it was just another town – not really
interesting), along the shore with some stunning lookouts on the way,
to Coromandel town, where we had a little stop for an iced coffee and
a power plug to load cameras and laptop.
From there the
roads got smaller and worse, until we got the sealed road behind us
and watched the sun sink below the ocean and the moon rise over the
green hills and gnarly trees of Coromandel's far North. The gravel
roads up there are a bit scary at night, because they are literally
right next to the sea, and quite high above it in parts, so if you
look out and down from your window, sometimes all you see are the
waves crushing against the rocks. But the views make up for the
driving. After about an hours worth of gravel, we reached the first
of three DOC camp sites and gratefully took the chance to fall into
bed.
The next day
greeted us with even more sunshine. We had a breakfast next to the
sea and then kept driving along the only road up there. It continues
along rocky coast, with some sandy beaches in between and always in
viewing distance of the great deep Blue. It really has a fascinating
color in places – shades from deep dark blue like a nights sky to
bright turquoise right out of a Caribbean postcard.
Driving along the
northern edge of the peninsula, we could see Little and Great Barrier
Island not too far away. After these stunning views, the road turns
inland shortly, before having its final stop at a beach camp site, a
nice base for the three hours walk to the next road on the other side
of the peninsula.
Doing one-way
walks doesn't really make sense with our car though, so we enjoyed
the view and turned around again to follow the long gravel road back
towards the Coromandel east coast.
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