Traveling Ninja Notes: Coromandel Peninsula Part 1

Last year, Troway and I travelled to Lake Taupo for New Year’s. This year, we decided to do the Coromandel Peninsula. Since we both had extra time off work this year, it was easier to plan a trip that took us a bit further away.

We saw and did quite a lot in the week we were gone, but at the same time it was also a nice chance to catch up on rest and enjoy being away from the normal busy-ness that is everyday life. So I do not have as many photos from this trip as from some, but I do have some fun adventures to share.

Important things first, we found some delightful restaurants, including one that automatically makes dairy free pizzas (definitely going there again haha). One of our other favorites was called “The Bistro” and was a rustic country place that served delicious food in a lovely setting. It was essentially a pole barn with roll-up walls that was out in the woods across the street from a waterfall. They could also do dairy free pizza, and had an incredibly delicious brownie on the menu J But the winner for the coolest place we ate on this trip was a delightful little place we happened on in Paeroa called “Cloud 9.” It is a pancake and ice cream parlor. Most of their pancakes come with a scoop of ice cream, and all of their pancakes are HUGE and incredibly filling. I had two and barely made it through that.

Now for the real adventures: I tend to feel as if I have developed a fairly decent sense of direction after the amount of traveling I have done (and after my parents taught me to read a real paper map!). However, our first night there, I failed at this and got completely lost down a bush track when in search of a waterfall. Owharoa falls was said to be a mere 5 minute walk from where we were staying the night. I confirmed this shortly after we checked in and it seemed easy to find. So after letting the drive wear off, we thought we would head down to take a look. Since it is a 3-tier waterfall, we thought it would be a lovely way to start the trip. I am sure it would have been if we really had found it in 5 minutes. However…. Yours truly decided to brave the rain armed with nothing but her umbrella and the conviction that she could in fact find where she wanted to go. An hour later, I had gone down the road, crossed the Hauraki Rail Trail bike track, and headed down what appeared to be a path to the waterfall. I was a bit hesitant since it was somewhat overgrown (not normal for most tracks in NZ, in my experience at least) but decided that since it was in the direction of the waterfalls maybe it was just not popular with the locals. I know it was in the direction of the waterfalls because we had seen the very top of the falls from the road. However, after getting completely drenched and slowly stumbling our way through, we found that the track went straight PAST the falls with no view whatsoever. I was hungry and it had been a long drive so being rained on definitely did not make me un-cranky so we decided we would head back and get ready for dinner (which was at the afore mentioned Bistro and completely got rid of my crankiness!). as we emerged out of the bush back on to the road, the first thing we saw was a track leading from the road down to the falls. We had missed it before because there was no sign and several cars were parked blocking the view to the track. Needless to say I felt a bit silly, but I did finally get my pretty picture of the waterfall J

The bottom tier, which can be viewed via a track
that is right off the road, very quick and easy
to find for the savvy traveler.

The middle tier. We did not manage to find the top tier.

The following morning we biked partway down the Hauraki Rail Trail. Someday I might be adventurous and try to do all of it. For this time though, we explored the Victoria Stamper Battery and rode through a 1 kilometre long rail tunnel!