Road Trip in North Island - Day 5

27 December 2017

I got my laundry done at a near by laundromart before heading down south. It would be a long day in the car as I was driving all the way to Coromandel. I started early so that I could visit a couple of places in Coromandel before calling it a day. The drive from Paihia to Whangarei was stunning. There was bit of congestion closer to Auckland was mostly on the State Highway. SH2 towards Coromandel was mostly long stretches of roads, where I could blindly drive without needing to apply breaks for very long stretches. I sat back and stretched myself as I drove and listened to music on my iPod, driving on long straight roads can be boring but a good idea to stretch. The last bit of the roads were windy and kept me on my toes, as always I enjoyed driving this bit.

I had some kichdi packed for lunch from yesterday’s night. I pulled over at a nice lookout point for lunch and a good stretch. It was around 5:30 pm when I reached Coromandel. With long day light, there was still lot of sun and I drove towards Cathedral Cove and Hot water beach. Both the beaches are on the eastern coast and not too far away from each other. From my research, I was told that these places will be very busy, and the hot water beaches has a narrow window of time during which only you can enjoy the hot pools. I dint want to miss Cathedral Cove, so drove there first, and looking at the time I dint have time to visit both the beaches the same day. 

Parking for Cathedral Cove was almost a couple of kilometres away but I tried my luck to find one at the smaller parking lot and drove all the way to the top and to my surprise there was one last parking space available. Life is made so easy for you. The view was stunning from here, the walk to the beach down there to the cove was about 40 mins walk. It was an extremely hot day, but the walk was inside the bush which made it easy. There were heaps of people all along the walk and by the time I reached the cove the sky was dark navy blue sky the sun stayed on the opposite side of the beach. The water was cold with high tides. 

I dint have any idea where I was staying for the night. All I knew was that there are 4 campsites on the northern tip of Coromandel Peninsula and I wanted to stay in one of those. I also knew that they need prior booking as it was a busy time. These thoughts occupied me as I was returning to the car. I waited until I reached the car to find out how far these campsite were. It was easily couple of hours drive to any of these campsites, thanks to the windy roads. Also there was some uncertainty on the availability, so I rang the i-site to find out. No answer. I was slightly disappointed and searched for other campsites down south closer to where I was. Broken Hills campsite was 47 mins drive from Cathedral Cove, I was not very convinced but there wasn’t any option left. 

I drove south west, pretty much the same way I had come. After a point I had to turn right into Puketi Valley, one of the finest and most pristine places on this trip. It was gravel road with beautiful landscape in all directions. The tall mountains on the far end of the east, the rivers, the bridges, the farms, everything on the way convinced me that it was not a very idea coming here. At some stage, it almost felt like I was lost and wouldn’t make to the camp before dark. I could recall a similar ride to Turtuk few years back. I finally made it to the camp around 8:30 PM and there was still daylight at the camp as it was on the western side of the peninsula. Before I could pitch my tent and settle in, I found myself staring at the tall mountain and realised that I always dreamt of staying in a place like this, in a forest amidst mountains. At this point, once again, I was left dumbstruck at the way the nature understands every small dreams and fulfils them for you. I was filled with gratefulness.

Broken Hills campsite

There were not too many people at the camp. I cooked my dinner and made some warm milk before I hooked onto the books inside my tent. After staying in a busy city, a long and adventurous drive, a long walk up and down the cove, this was the best thing that could happen to me. I felt so peaceful sleeping in the tent that night.