New Year eve@Thames to Auckland

The wave musical of Thames~~ If you see what I mean... It's there, right there, on the left! Right?!

We are making our way back to Auckland already??! Another 90minutes drive and we get to see the most populated city of NZ.. Again..We want to celebrate New Year in Auckland, with Pete's relatives..

 Pie time @ Thames

A detour from our route to this farm cafe (unfortunately, we can't remember the name of this cafe), which we were attracted to cause they are serving Lala Coffee, a roastery in the Coromandel Peninsular here. I'd really like to get a taste of this boutique roaster's coffee.. Good thing they are selling Lala coffee beans in bags too, I can get some home now! We saw many cafes serving Lala in the peninsular.. Quite renowned around here.. It's quite good with a strong body.. 

LaLaLaLa~~

Lovely birds in this cafe/farm...

After the coffee time, we drove straight back to Pete's Uncle's house, yay, free stay there for few nights =)

 That huge yellow light at the center is not from spotlight but it is a REAL full moon....  Beautiful~~ It's New Year Eve, and we are in Auckland to countdown..

Sky Tower Fireworks @ Happy New Year 2013!!

Enjoying our first NEW YEAR eve in the most southern country we've been to =) This picture is the best of the fireworks to be honest and we are lucky to capture this! Hehe... And it's so windy, lucky they didn't cancel the fireworks!

Certainly the most crowded place in NZ ever!

Coromandel to Tapu Camp

A relaxing Sunday after yesterday's intense activities :) it was raining anyway, so lucky to have gone to Cathderal Cove yesterday and not today!

We went to the Coroglen farmers market on the way to Coromandel, which they open only on Sundays, rain or shine! Think the opening hours is 9am till 1pm. Some stalls selling yummy breakfast goodies like waffles, scones and coffee! And also organic fruit and veggies, free range pork, venison, salami, cheese, free range eggs, chutneys and jams and even theurapetic massage!

Coromandel Town

Reaching the little town of Coromandel. We were attracted to have some fish and chips and pies for lunch. So we head on to Coro Pies***** (MUST TRY :D), which is quite hidden from the main street but they have signage by the road. We tried their steak, bacon and oyster pie $4 which is absolutely yummy! They have also mussel pie and smoked fish pie which seems interesting. Coromandel peninsula is famous for their oysters, mussels and scallops! So the Coro Pies source their seafood fresh from farmers!

We also had Fish and chips at Coromandel Takeaways, really fresh too and yummy! 2 piece fish of the day for $5 and chips $3...

Walking around the main street, there are few art and crafts shop which helped us digest the chips a little. After some itinerary planning, we just decided to relax at Umu cafe, with a cappuccino $4.50 and berry cheesecake $6.50. There are few other nice cafes around the main sreet too like Chai Tea house. The food at Umu looks really good, but cheesecake is quite average.

A: No wonder the face is getting chubbier...

So many oysters!!

Some waterfall around Coromandel.. :D

LOVE the Summer RATA tree...

Beautiful coastline

Stayed the night at Tapu Camp, $30 non power site, beach or it is actually river front site. Hehe. 50cents for hot shower.

Cathedral Coves - Narnia movie scene

Hahei Beach

We woke up to a sunny morning! Such perfect weather for the famous Cathedral Cove at Coromandel Peninsula. We reach the Cathedral Cove carpark around 9.45am and it is full occupied already! So had to park our van at Hahei beach carpark and walk to the cove which takes extra half an hour to reach Cathedral carpark, then to Cathedal cove will take about 45min. There's a shuttle bus operating from carpark at Hahei town to the CCove carpark, from 9.45am till 5.30pm. Not sure how much they charge though. Anyway the extra half an hour walk is not too exhausting! And the view is really worth it too :)

On our way to Cathedral Cove, very beautiful coastline along the way.. Looking back down at Hahei Beach...

There we are, the Cathedral Cove, filming location for the movie, Narnia. It is so breathtaking!

A huge cliff arch, or 'tunnel' lead us to the cove with a majestic bluff rising from the sea. The colours of the sea is so nice, captured from the arch. Sooo many people here, with all sorts of activities, kayaking, swimming, snorkeling, jumping, sun bathing, boogie boarding, boating etc etc. Though jam packed with people, (well its summer!) we still manage to find a nice spot for our picnic after swimming in the cold sea water. So NICE!

Cathedral Cove, totally one of NZ best beach!

Gemstone Bay

On the same walking track to CCove, we stop by Gemstone Bay on the way back to do some snorkeling since we hired snorkel mask from Seabreeze for free =) it was low tide then, making access into water a bit more difficult as there are many rocks. But still alright to go in, not dangerous. But it was quite windy and the water is murky. Did not have good visibility, just saw few fishes and heaps of sea grass. lol.

We stayed at Seabreeze holiday park at Whenukite again, since we had to return our snorkel gear and boogie board(which we did not use, too exhausting for third water activity...) it must be a really good caravan park since we stayed for two nights! Hehe. They provide free hire of spades (for digging the hot pools at Hot Water beach), boogie boards, snorkel gears and board games. The park is about 9 km from Hot water beach, but it is $7-$10 cheaper than the caravan parks in Hahei and hot water beach + the free things they provide made us stayed two nights!

Hot Water Beach, amazed!

Breakfast of the day =)

Tairua

We arrived at the famous Hot Water Beach... Erm... Is the sea water hot? 

No! Walk further from the carpark and follow the crowd.. Remember to bring a spade!

Hot water beach

Here we are!! It is such a sight, so many people standing at the beach. Really an amazing  beach, 2 hours before and after low tide, we can dig up a pool on the beach to dip in the hot springs! We hired a spade from the holiday park, and join in the fun. But looking for a right spot is so hard! So many people had already occupied the area, some dugged pools are vacant, but clearly because its too hot! We tried digging near the beach, but the water is cold. Luckily the guys at the pool behind us build a 'gutter' to allow hot water to flow to our pool cause theirs is too hot!

Finally after all the hard work of digging the pool we get to soak in the hot spring!

It was really nice soaking in the hot springs... Watching people and the big waves. Once in a while, a really BIG wave come in and splash on the pools closest to the wave, clearing all the defense walls dug up earlier! Hoho poor them... Lucky us, our pool is further in..

The soaking definitely leads to an appetitite for snacks!! Cookie Monster time!

We had checked in earlier at Seabreeze holiday park at Whenukite. Since it's summer, many caravan parks are fully booked! But this is a good choice to stay actually, as it's not too far from the main attractions (Hot water beach, Cathedral Cove), but not the nearest, thus cheaper and many free stuff for hire like spades, snorkel gear, boogie boards etc..