Coromandel Peninsular
A day´s walk in the Kauaeranga Kauri trail saw us get wet (yet again!) and miss out on the views from the top of the pinnacles! The walk was, however, interesting, on old kauri logging trails and past a damn which they used to float the massive kauri trees down.
The following day we hired a 4×4 and headed out around the peninsular. We visited some beautiful beaches at Haihai and Catedral Cove.
The day ended with us digging a hole on a beach and sitting in it (we felt quite silly walking down the beach with a spade to begin with!)…the beach is called Hot Water Beach – for a reason! At low tide a hot spring runs into the sea & you can dig down and sit in it – along with hundreds of others!
The following day saw us fit in our New Zealand extreme sport (couldn´t come to the country without doing something stupid!)
The Sleeping God canyon…so we headed back up the Kauaeranga Valley (in the sun this time so qe got to admire some of the views). After a quick test of the abseil equipment, we hit our first waterfall – 30m down into a dark pool. This was followed by a 70m wall covered by a curtain of water that crashes into another rock pool and lunch – very welcome.
A slide was next (along with a bruised backside!) to the next pool. Nick jumped (10m), but the guide said he´d “prefer it if I abseiled” – so I did. Two more waterfalls (12 and 30m one of them a flying fox – much easier than abseiling) we were standing on a kauri log jammed in a narrow pool, located at the top of a 50m waterfall. There was so much water running down this one that we had to pull a tricksey manouver to side-slip the main fall of the water. The last waterfall was a half abseil half flying fox (the rope ran out on the abseil & you just had to let go…the day left us wet, minus a bit of skin on our hands & tired. Not exactly fun but certainly challenging.
Tags: Coromandel, New Zealand, Thames, Travel, Trek
Jenni
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