Samstag, 15. Januar 2011

Miranda Hot Springs, Coromandel Peninsula

We continued south entering the Waipoua Forest, one of the last places where the huge kauri trees grow. We visited the Tane Mahuta (Lord of the forest) which is with 51.5m the tallest of the remaining kauri and Te Matua Ngahere (Father of the forest) which has a girth of 16.4m. Both huge trees and very impressive to look at.
Te Matua Ngahere
But also the 4 sisters were an amazing site...

Where is Oli at the four Sisters? (He is there!)
The kauri trees once covered most of the Northland but were reduced by the white who used the timber for the british fleet. Today only 90 km2 remain from the originally 12'000 km2 kauri forest...

We continued our way south and reached after enjoying the rush hour around Auckland Miranda Hot Springs. Our caravan park has its own hot spring and we enjoyed a swim in the 37.5°C warm water. (even Oli stayed over an hour in the water!)


The next day we drove around the Coromandel Peninsula. Most of the time the road follows the coast and we had some amazing views over the rocky sea, the beautiful beaches of the Peninsula and its hilly landscape.




We made a stop at Coromandel and bought smoked salmon for lunch. It was delicious!

In the afternoon we went to Cathedral Cove. A 30 minutes way took us down to the "Cathedral" and we were amazed by the force of the sea.


We risked the way through the arch (which can collapse anytime)...


... and reached finally the beautiful cove.



We than drove to our goal the Bay of Plenty where most of New Zealands kiwis grow.

(Our caravanpark had again a pool with hot spring water :-) )

2 Kommentare:

Carmen hat gesagt…

Hey guys! New Zealand looks just awesome! I think I'd love it very much :)
You were very lucky that the Cove didn't collapse while you were in there ;) That was veeeeeeeery brave of you :P

Enjoy the land of the kiwis, I'm still stuck at home and Chris left me for two weeks. He's gone snowboarding. Again. :P

See ya soon ;)

Schwöschterli hat gesagt…

B-E-A-utiful! The landscape really looks as wonderful as in the movies. I quite envy you! Wish I were there as well!
In Zurich the sun fights the mist, looks like it's winning, too. This afternoon we are creating our "heroes" for DSA. I'm really looking forward to it. I already know what I would like to be: a hunter(ess). They know their way around in the wild, I'd like that. And I could get a dog, too!

Carmen, if you're lonely, you can come visit sometimes! That would be nice! Tomorrow afternoon Urli is looking after Anina. You could join her.