New Zealand Road Trip: Coromandel & Raglan Return

At this point in the trip, after Hobbiton, we were winding down and didn’t have much of agenda for the last couple of days. We decided to voyage up to the Coromandel Peninsula to check out the hot water beach.

It was about a two hour drive from Matamata, and unfortunately we ended up being a little disappointed. You’re supposed to be able to dig into the beach and reveal little hot water pools, but at least at the time we went, the one small spot of beach with hot water underneath was quite crowded. There were a few groups enjoying their hot tubs—and you could see steam coming over—but there were many other groups digging to no avail. We tried our best at digging, digging, and digging, but ultimately there was no hot tub for us!

We didn’t have a set agenda for where to go next, so we decided to head back toward Raglan and try again for surfing Manu Bay. But first, we stopped overnight at a pretty epic camp spot and our best sunset of the trip:

We fared a little better at Ranglan for attempt number two. Bryan got some waves. I tried the point break and kind of caught a wave, but quickly fell off. Oh well, at least I tried, I guess. Then it was sadly already time to pack up the boards in preparation for the flight.

We had our last dinner and breakfast in the van to clear the fridge, then headed north to Auckland—the last stop for me.