Easter in Coromandel

Our Easter morning started with waking up, trying to stay asleep for a little bit, and then begrudgingly getting out of bed at the way-too-early hour of 7:45. We managed to keep our eyes open until 10:30 the night before so we got a pretty good head start on our jet lag prevention. Next I thought we could get some liquid energy at the hole in the wall coffee shop under our hotel… but they weren’t open that early because it was Easter so we settled for some latte’s at the hotel shop. We then began walking down Queen street and eventually Todd called me and we used some serious map-fu to plan a meet up at Queen and Customs. Todd had scoped out a brunch place to go to near the Sky Tower so he made the fearless decision to walk to the harbor to see if there were any places better. There definitely were! I got some delicious french toast with blueberries, candied walnuts and compote or something. The maple syrup that came with them was 100% just like log cabin so I left it in its little pitcher. Not nearly as good as straight from the evaporator tap. One interesting thing I learned is that in New Zealand you just go up to the counter to pay, the server doesn’t come, mostly because you don’t need to tip there!

Next we went back to the hotel, on the way I had a little encounter with an unsavory something unbeknownst to me, and got ready to drive to the Coromandel peninsula where I am writing this post from. We checked into our lodge/AirBnB and met our host Sheryl. I’m pretty sure this is her house that she lives in and rents out if someone is willing to pay for it. And boy is it a really nice house! Amazing panoramic view, really close to the attractions and super comfy (except for the futon, don’t sit on the futon). We got situated here and then drove off to Cathedral Cove. Todd said this was a shoe hike, but it ended at a beach, so I packed my shoes in my backpack along with all other possible beach items I would need. The hike itself was very well groomed (including a paved path) but did involve a fair amount of up and down for what us flat-landers are used to.

Cathedral cove itself was spectacular! I can definitely see how they managed to access Narnia from here. It was hard to snag a picture without any people in it, although I tried. I did manage to blind Adela one too many times with my fill-flash tactic though, whoops. Predictably the hike back up from the cove was not as fun as the hike to the cove, but we did only pass one ambulance crew going to rescue someone. Katy says the ambulance crews are all part of a semi-non-profit entity St Johns that gets a good chunk of its money from donations. Pretty cool. When we got back to the AirBnB Todd googled how to cook a leg of lamb so that we could have a legit easter dinner. It turned out pretty darn tasty! Adela and I brought Todd and Katy some new games to thank them for hosting us and we played a round of Unearth. Around the end of the game the jet lag hit me and my energy level went from about 80% to 0% so I was only able to dye one half of one egg.

I only woke up about fifty times throughout the night and managed to not find the door a few times. Overall not the best night sleep to wake up and need to find the forty one eggs hidden throughout the three rooms of the AirBnb. We managed to find all but one. It’s still hidden somewhere, Todd and Katy don’t know where they put it. After breakfast it was still a little rainy so we decided to play another game of Unearth and then see how we felt. At this point it was still rainy so Todd and Katy passed to buck to us and we decided that we would be willing to see New Zealand in the rain. We packed all of our stuff in our backpacks (this time I also brought a jacket AND a rain jacket) and headed off to Shakespear’s Cliff – a lookout our host told us about. The lookout provided a very pretty view of Cook’s Beach and Lonely Bay. After snagging a few picture we began the descent to Lonely Bay, which our host told us we also needed to check out. We were pretty glad we listened to her!

Todd and I climbed into the privacy/scary/hidden cave that was only accessible because the tide was going out. From inside the little cave we then climbed out over a tree onto some eroded rock ledges. Some other people visiting decided to follow us and they had the benefit of not wearing shoes so they could just get them wet. Todd and I made the executive decision then to change into our bathing suits in the privacy cave and go swimming in the ocean. Despite the fact that it is the beginning of fall the water was actually very pleasant! After fifteen or twenty minutes and only two cuts on hidden rocks we called it at this beach and made our way back. We had driven past the Mercury Bay winery  earlier so we decided to stop there for some wine and pizza. Adela and I split a flight of four of their wines and afterwards I got one of the sparkling wines and she got one of the Pinot Rose’s – both of which were pretty darn good. The rose wasn’t nearly as sweet as we were expecting. We quickly wolfed down the pizza after it came and made our escape so that we could make it to hot water beach before peak low tide.

After we all changed into our bathing suits we hopped into the car to go to the Hot Water Beach. Adela sat up front this time and she said it was better because she didn’t think we were going to crash into all of the driverless cars on the wrong side of the road (it takes a while to get used to driving on the left! Especially turning right, it’s real weird). When we got to Hot Water beach I really had no idea what to expect – it’s where some geothermal springs come up right next to the ocean. We started digging our hole in one area but encountered only mildly lukewarm water, so we shifted over to a different area. Here we started digging a hole downstream from some people and had a pretty warm bath water temperature. In search of something better Todd and I dug a hole closer to the hot water source. It was too hot, I burnt my toes. So Todd found an even better spot, we had a direct line to the source of the water but it was far enough away that we didn’t cook like lobsters. Todd spent most of the time digging and making our pool of hot water glorious. Mostly by cutting off everyone else’s access to the Source. That was the Hot Water side – the regular beach was also fantastic! Since the tide was low the waves actually broke pretty far out, which meant you could wade into the ocean without fear of getting shmushed by a random wave cresting over your head.

Next we headed back to the AirBnb and deviled some eggs, showered, wrote in this blog, and played some games!