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!

Anatoki Salmon Farm, Totaranui Beach

Te Waikoropupu Springs / Pupu Springs*****

Largest freshwater springs in New Zealand, the largest cold water springs in the Southern Hemisphere, and contain some of the clearest water ever measured.

In 1993, The National Institute for Water and Atmosphere (NIWA) carried out optical measurements under water and found that the visibility was 63 metres. This is very close to optically pure water, with clearer water found only beneath Antarctica’s near-frozen Weddell Sea. The water clarity is a result of natural filtering prior to the water’s emergence at Te Waikoropupū Springs.

OMG, it's so clear, can see the bottom of the spring clearly!

 Manuka tree

Anatoki Salmon Fishing farm*** @ Takaka

Time for some action!!

It's quite easy to catch one, haha, with thousands of salmons swimming in this pond.. The farm provides the fishing gear and briefed us on the techniques. About 5-10 minutes later Peter got one on the bait! Of course, with only 2 stomachs, we only get to fish one salmon =.= 

The fish is priced at $19 per kg, ours weighed 1.68kg. We ordered part of our fish to be made sashimi, then rest fillet and packed the head and tail too! p/s westerners does not eat heads/tails of fish which is such a waste!

Very fresh sashimi! But the flesh is too springy, cause the fishes here are so active! We like our sashimi with good lines of fatty omega really instead of the springy type.. Hehe.. We also brought our own wasabi cause they don't provide wasabi I think..

Totaranui Beach @ Golden Bay*****

Really matched Golden Bay, with the golden sand.. So warm and relaxing.. Though the journey of getting into this beach is not easy for a normal car/van. The roads are badly damaged and very narrow..

Love the colour =)

Our dinner of salmon fillet with mix berries sauce, mash potato with wild thyme and salad

Cape Farewell, Wharariki Beach, Farewell Split

Golden Bay 

Pillar Point track to lighthouse, 1 hr return

The lighthouse not much to see, but its a good view from the top as we can see the Farewell Spit. Not very clear picture and the strong winds around this area blows these sand dunes...

Cape Farewell***** 10min walk to this most northernmost point of NZ south island. Loving summer @ NZ!! Finally we get many sunny days..

 Bye Bye Cape Farewell~~

Wharariki Beach***** 20min walk one way, but it feels more than that because during the last bit the track goes along the sand dune and with the wind so strong, it takes more effort to finally reach the beach. The beach is absolutely beautiful.

Rocks with arches formed through the erosion process of thousands of years make the view even better!

And a surprise awaits us, walking further south of the beach we saw a seal cub playing in the pools of water. So adorable, with its big shiny eyes, with curiosity it swim towards Angie and wanted to sniff her hand! Angie afraid it might bite so retract her hand a little.

Then the cub just got scared by her gesture and swam awaay.... Aaahhh... Don't go yet..

Coffee break again~~

The wind and sea together eroded the sand dunes and helped shaped this Farewell Spit. There is a 2.5 hours walk around the spit and we tried to walk, eventually we can't find the track to outer beach, return on the same route.

Farewell Spit, the shape of a Kiwi! So amazing..

We thought yesterday's 26km Abel Tasman was tired enough for our legs but today walking on the sand dunes after sand dunes is so damn exhausting! With the wind against us. Gosh, what a day but the view at Cape Farewell and Wharariki beach is well worth it! We eventually comfort ourselves with a sweet treat of Choc Fondue! With the mixed berries 'picked' from the orchard at Blenheim, here's how it looks!

P&A special Chocolate fondue (melted Whittakers 5 roll refined creamy milk chocolate) with marshmallow, summer berries (cherries, boysenberries, rasberries) and kiwiana's kiwi fruit. Yummy!!!!!!

Free camp at Waitapu bridge, Takaka near turnoff to Pupu springs