Hey everyone! Lauren here to tell you about our experience with Hot Water Beach and hiking on the Coromandel Peninsula on the north island of New Zealand!
The Drive from Auckland to the Coromandel
We woke up around 8am to get ready and have some more community breakfast at the Fat Cat Backpackers Hostel in Auckland. After packing up our rental car, we were on the road towards a town called Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula.
Heading out of Auckland, the landscape was predominately rolling green hills and farmland. As we neared the Coromandel, the surroundings became steadily more mountainous with tree covered peaks! The drive was supposed to took us about 2.5-3 hours, and Gerrod insisted we listen to the Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack the entire drive.
Arrival at our Hostel
When we arrived in Whitianga, we headed to our hostel, Cats Pyjamas. There was no one at the front desk, and we had to ring the “help” button several times before anyone came out to check us in. After we were checked in and paid, we were showed to our room which was a mixed gender, 6 bed dorm.
Hot Water Beach
After we dropped off our things in our dorm room, we rushed off to Hot Water Beach. Hot Water Beach is named because two hours on either side of low tide, hot thermal water seeps up and you can dig your very own “hot tub” in the sand! I had looked at the tide schedule, and low tide had just passed, so we figured we had two hours to enjoy the beach!
The drive took us about 30-40 minutes, and we found the parking situation to be crazy! All of the lots closer to the beach were full, so we ended up parking in a pay and display lot which charged 4 NZD for 2hr parking. The lot was about a 10-15 minutes walk from the beach. We changed into our swimsuits in the car to speed things up headed off toward the beach.
There were rentable shovels at a shop right near the beach, but Gerrod and I decided we would just go check it out and determine if we needed to rent a shovel later. There was a rock just off shore that most people seemed to be gathered around, and we figured that is where the “good spot” was.
We ended up finding a half dug, abandoned hole and claimed it as our own. We started digging with our hands, and then after realizing it would take forever asked to borrow some shovels from a family next to us who were clearly done with their own hole. Our pit ended up being filled with lukewarm water. We could feel the hot water if we reached down into the sand, but no matter how deep we dig it seemed like our hole was collapsing in on itself before we reached the hot water!
Gerrod and I kind of gave up on our hole and accepted the lukewarm water, when I recognized the couple next to us! They were behind us in line at the Tahiti International Airport!!! After chatting with them for awhile, they decided to leave and offered us their super hot watered hole. Their hole was much hotter than ours, so Gerrod and I soaked and enjoyed the hot thermal water. Low tide was over, and the water was slowly getting closer to the sand pits people dug on the beach.
We stayed in our new hole until the tide washed it away. After our hole was destroyed, we took a dip in the ocean to wash off the sand that had gathered in our swimsuit bottoms. I somehow could not rinse all of the sand out of my butt! We ended up rinsing the rest off at showers near the beach before heading back to the hostel!
Kauaeranga Kauri Trail (Pinnacles Walk)
The next day we woke up after 8am for breakfast and to get ready for our day. We had asked some of the other travelers staying at the hostel for suggestions for a hike since the one I read about was VERY far away, and they told us about the pinnacles walk. After doing a bit of research online, I noticed there were several different routes to take, and that many people hike to the pinnacles as part of a multi-day hike.
We decided to go to the Kauaeranga Visitor Center to get better information and talk to a park ranger/volunteer. So we headed out in our trusty rental car to the Coromandel Forest Park in the Kauaeranga Valley. When we finally made it to the visitor’s center, they suggested we take the Webb Creek Track to the pinnacles, provided us with a map, and showed us where to park!
After parking our car, we got ready and began our hike. Similar to the Mercer Bay Loop and Kitekite Falls trails I talked about in our last post, there was a shoe washing station to prevent the spread of the kauri dieback disease in New Zealand’s forests.
After cleaning our shoes, we headed along the trail. The trail was mostly through the woods, and was very steep! Eventually, we came upon a ridge line where we could see the pinnacles in the distance! We continued on past a turn-off for the Pinnacles Hut, and headed up a bunch of stairs.
Eventually, we came to a ridge close to the end of the trail with a GORGEOUS viewpoint of the surrounding valley. After taking a few photos, we headed to a ladder leading toward the top of the pinnacles. There were several metal ladders and rungs in the rocks which lead to the end platform. The views were incredible, and we could even see the ocean in the distance! Gerrod and I enjoyed a granola bar lunch while enjoying the beautiful landscape before heading back down to our car.
The Pinnacles Walk is one of my favorite hikes we did in New Zealand! I wish we had more time to explore some of the other trails in the Kauaeranga Valley and dig a better hole at Hot Water Beach.
Until next time!
Lauren (and Gerrod)
