Coromandel Peninsula

With sim cards for our phones and a car, we were ready to take on the rest of New Zealand! From Auckland, Kyle and I headed to the Coromandel Peninsula. We had no idea what we were in for - incredible views, insane roads and remoteness :)

We drove to Thames where we finished off the vehicle ownership transfer and, incidentally, opened up a bank account.  Then we travelled north towards Port Jackson on the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula.  The road from the town of Coromandel to Port Jackson was a narrow, gravel road that was right along the coast.  The drive was absolutely stunning. The photos below are just a sample of the drive. (As a side note, Snow White really pulled through for us.) 

We arrived at Port Jackson to find a DOC (Department of Conservation) campground which was perfect. The campground was right next to the beach so we set up our tent, enjoyed the views and walked along the beach. 

The only thing that we didn`t exactly anticipate was that Port Jackson consisted of, basically, a DOC campground and nothing else.  We had granola bars, apples, almonds, peanuts, coke, and a few Doritos along with 3 bottles of water.  (The water supply at the campground needed to be boiled before drinking.)  Oops!  Dinner of champions (which also turned out to be our breakfast and lunch of champions).  After a rousing game of Dutch Blitz inside our tent, we packed it in for the night.

The next day we decided to trail run a hike from Fletcher Bay to Stony Bay and back again.  It was estimated to be about 8K each way so 16K round trip.  This was absolultely gorgeous - see photos. And there was definitely some intense inclines and declines.  I was absolutely spent by the time we reached Stony Bay. (Kyle was in much better shape than me.)  We decided to take the mountain biking trail back, rather than the coastal walkwayto make it a loop rather than an out and back.  We both agreed that the coastal walkway was nicer.  We definitely hiked the entire way back rather than running!!  Eventually, we made it back to the car where we chugged back what fluid (coke) we had in the car.

After that, we headed back to the town of Coromandel where we spent the night at a Holiday Park which is where camping meets RVs and motel-like rooms.