John's Photo Gallery

The Coromandel - February 16 to 21, 2007

The Coromadel is a peninsula at the north side of the North Island, a little east of Auckland. It is only a short drive from Rotorua but it is geographically completely different. It consists of rolling hills with a central mountain range and is a very green area with beautiful beaches. We stayed at the Shortland Court motel in the town of Thames which is just a few kilometres onto the Coromandel Peninsula. It was the only place we could find that had high speed Internet, but the location turned out to be ideal for our needs.

We played golf twice at the Thames Golf Course (but didn't take any pictures) drove around extensively, and did a bunch of siteseeing including visiting the Hot Water Beach and going on a boat trip on the Hahei Explorer to Cathedral Cove. The Hot Water Beach is a very interesing area where underground hot springs send extremely hot water up into the sand. Tourists collect the hot water in little pools and sit in it. The water is nearly boiling so if you get it in undiluted form, it can give you a good burn. The Hahei Explorer was a different way to see things--unfortunately the driver was a rookie and didn't stop in very good places for picture taking.

The shoreline Fisherman on the coastal drive
Rolling hills as we drive around the peninsula John in a restaurant in Coromandel Town
Sharon outside the same restaurant Hillside and view across the sea
The main beach near Hot Water Beach Hot Water Beach
Sharon on the Hot Water Beach John in the water opposite Hot Water Beach
Hahei Explorer Rocks on the trip
Cave entrance on the trip Colours inside the cave
Coming back out of the cave Hills along the edge of the water
Birds on the rocks fishing Going through the opening
Coming out the other side Cathedral Cove
Cathedral Cove Cathedral Cove

Next stop: The Bay of Islands