Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand

The first stop I wanted to make when visiting New Zealand’s North Island on my road trip is Coromandel. To be honest, when I was it was off season and its a coastal town.

The town is nothing much to see, its small so is all towns we’ve seen in the North (from what Ive seen). 2 nights is more than enough for the area and especially to see The Cathedral Cove and spend time at Cove beach.

To reach the Cathedral Cove you could either park at the beach and hike up, or, reach up and hike down which I think is a better option. The hike is really nice!

Coromandel is a coastal town on the Coromandel Peninsula of New Zealand’s North Island. It’s known for the Driving Creek Railway, a narrow-gauge train ride through mountain forests, past pottery sculptures.

Another thing to do/see in Coromandel is the hot springs/geo thermal spa/Hot Water Beach!

Checkout The Pinnacles, if you’d like a bit of an intermediate hike,
3 hrs one way to the hut plus 40min to the sumitt.

Explore the Otahu Estuary in the South end of Whangamata beach, on a SUP or Kayak. I also read but haven’t seen about The Waitawheta Tramway which was constructed between 1896 and 1910 to transport Kauri logs out of the Waitawheta Valley.

Explore Whangamata area.

Hauraki Cycle Trail

After coromandel, we hit the road to Rotorua! Driving on the right side was pretty interesting and confusing at first, and especially here in Coromandel! Too many turns and twists up the mountain with some unpaved roads.. It was a good learning experience though!

Enjoy the trip!

Fatima