By: Blonde Two
I know that I live in Devon and that we have lots and lots of lovely beaches but it is always exciting to dip your toes into a sea that is not yours, into a sea that smells different, into another man’s ocean. I managed to dip my jeans in as well but enjoyed the experience nonetheless.
The Coromandel Peninsula is separated from the rest of the North Island of New Zealand by the Firth of Thames and although it can be seen from Auckland on a clear day, it is a bit of a drive around to Thames (not the London river) and up over the Coromandel Range (lots of very volcanic looking hills covered in temperate rain forest). It is a drive, however, that is worth doing – the scenery on the way over is like nothing else I have ever seen and when you reach the Pacific coast, the beaches take your breath away.
The unusual hill and island shapes here can be explained by the complicated geology. I am a bit too Blonde to understand it all but know that it includes some mountain folding (clever stuff) when the ranges were originally created and two separate volcano (hot stuff) sessions.
We are staying at Hahei (Har-Hey) for a couple of nights and I can see the Pacific out of my bedroom window. This is almost as exciting as being able to see Dartmoor out of my bedroom window at home. The great thing about coming to New Zealand in the winter is that there are even less people around than usual. We went for a paddle/read/snooze on the beach this afternoon and saw a grand total of four other people. Interestingly though, we did spot two cheeky yellow Jelly Babies canoodling on the rocks!
sounds like you are having a wonderful time. The ‘other ocean’ I tend to visit also has very different scenery & I love dipping my toes as it is so clear & warm. Sadly not this year 🙁
Having dipped my toes in your ‘other ocean’ myself, I can tell you that this one is much colder although probably not too bad compared to Torbay!
Beautiful pics! Looks amazing. Funnily enough I took exactly the same pic of my feet while paddling in the good old English Channel at Bantham a couple of days ago – I was more sensibly wearing shorts though! While everyone else was out having fun surfing which I am banned from doing until next summer, it was lovely just to get the feet wet – well I got a bit wetter than intended – didn’t notice the tide filling in behind me while stood of my sandbank – hubby zoomed in and advised me to head back to the main beach – more of a wade than a paddle and even the shorts got wet!!!!
Glad to see those yellow JBs still causing trouble in NZ!!!!