Whitianga - Waihi Beach
Trip Start
Nov 04, 2007
1
16
32
Trip End
Dec 06, 2007
Waihi Beach,
New Zealand
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The day started off innocently enough, with a rush to get to our tour and empty our hotel waste before everyone else. Unfortunately we didn't win that race, getting stuck behind two other vehicles. At twenty minutes a van, we couldn't wait - our unbooked tour started at 10am so we couldn't wait another hour. So we departed with sluicing liquids and hoped for another opportunity.
We pulled into the information centre to book for the tour, only to discover that our favoured operator had retired and sold his boat elsewhere only one month ago. There would be no Blue Boat Tour to Cathedral Cove for us. But never fear, we could take a rubber dinghy at 10:30am instead. Not to be deterred, we accepted this kind offer at $20 more
Cathedral Cave
. Beggars can't be choosers.So we arrived at 10:30am at the Wharf, to discover we were the only people who bothered to turn up for the tour. Three people had made an internet booking, but were no shows. A private tour just for us!
Out on the water it was cool, some would say cold, yet others icy. But we didn't care. We were seeing the Coromandel geological formations and oceanographic sights from the best perspective. We saw caves, islands, lava tubes, and it was fast and fun.
Back at Whitianga, we had no time to waste getting around the rest of the Coromandel so we could make the Wellington ferry by Friday. Before we could leave town, we received a phone call from the bank. Whenever you get a call from the bank, you listen. We quickly pulled the hotel over to take the call, but were too hasty, catching the movable part of the hotel on a pole in a parking lot. To speak plainly, we got the wheel arch caught on top of a pole. Bummer. But good for the maintenance of high adrenaline levels. So much for getting around the Coromandel quickly. And also how ironic - the number of warnings we'd received about being careful around the windy roads of the Coromandel and we came unstuck in a parking lot that could have been anywhere.
But not to be deterred (travel insurance helps) we were only delayed long enough to duct tape up the side (about an hour including the purchase) and off again we went.
We stopped for lunch at 3pm at Tairua, and had some lovely fish and chips overlooking the harbour. Not much else to be said for that, except that of course it was action packed lunch with seagulls on the attack! We felt like we were in The Birds, except the seagulls weren't trying to kill us
Self portrait on the boat
.We paid lip service to Whangamata (unfortunately - it looks like a nice place to visit (maybe even live there (who knows (how many parenthesis am I up to?)))) and arrived at Waihi at around 5pm. All told, it was an exciting journey around the Coromandel.
In Waihi, we decided to have a swim in the pool and spa, and they even have a kids' room with plastic play equipment that would put St John's Playtime to shame (but they don't have the personality here).
Finally, we had our first free BBQ, enjoying a slab of meat and vegetables. And all this using facilities opened by Helen Clarke on 22 September 2007. Nice and spiffy.
