Sunday 12th October – Tauranga to Hahei
So we left Tauranga and the lovely eccentric landlady in her flat-cap and headed towards Hahei. En route we stopped in Waihi, which was a bit more pleasant earlier in the day than the previous day, and I bought a red and white polka dot scarf to match my shoes!
We headed to “hot water beach” which is renowned as a place where you can dig your own spa pool on the beach. Apparently there are two hot springs which feed the beach two hours either side of low tide. Evidently we weren´t there at the right time as, having dug a big hole (admittedly I didn´t do much digging), all that was apparent was cold water. The beach was quite nice anyway though. After a little walk we headed for a campground which I had actually phoned and booked, shock horror!
Having checked in, we walked down to the beach, which was stunning, and then pottered into town. We drove to Whitianga but I was disappointed about the lack of pub quizzes on offer so we headed for Coromandel. The area we were in is called the Coromandel penninsular and as we headed to Coromandel town I realised why people had raved about the area. The penninsular is truly spectacular with jagged edges, beautiful coastal views and hills and mountains galore. On the way to Coromandel there was the most amazing sunset with beautiful colours lighting up both the sea and the mountains.
When we arrived in Coromandel it was around eight o´clock and I was somewhat surprised to see several casualties being led away from the pub. This didn´t deter us and we went in to be greeted by a live band. Unfortunately the band were just finishing and the highlight then became the fishing channel. There was a group of blokes reeling in a Marlin (which is huge, like a large shark) and then, as I complained that it was too big and writhing round in pain, suddenly it was only half the fish on the line. Apparently not only had it been struggling with a giant hook in its mouth for hours on end, but it had then been chomped in half by a shark. That Marlin must have done something seriously bad to earn that kind of fate! Other than the unlucky half Marlin there was also an extremely coarse woman for entertainment who seemed to like shouting at people, young children, the television and other inanimate objects in the pub. After the one drink we headed back to the campground.