New Zealand’s Coromandel Peninsula is one of its most stunning areas, with gorgeous white sand beaches encircling native bush. It’s very popular with Kiwis, particularly in the summer, but a little less prominent on the tourist radar. After New Years in the Bay of Islands, we headed down to Mount Maunganui and Coromandel for a few days of sun and relaxation – here’s our favourite spots! And don’t forget to check out my top tips for exploring New Zealand at the end of the post.
Mount Maunganui
Our first stop for a few nights was the beautiful retreat of Mount Maunganui. Affectionately known simply as The Mount by northern Kiwis, the cone of Mauao gives great views over the coast. We stayed at the Seagulls Guesthouse (for the name alone) which was the perfect no-frills setup for our plan of beaching, reading and relaxing. Located next to the city of Tauranga, the Mount is not actually part of the Coromandel Peninsula but is an excellent accompaniment to your trip there!
The Mount has a gorgeous long white-sand beach stretching from Mauao in the north, past the surf club, and down along the coast. The northern part in front of the club has the bonus of the surf lifesavers on patrol in summer, and can be more sheltered if the surf is pumping. Down the rest of the beach, you’ll need to keep an eye out for rips and surfers, but it’s generally safe to swim. Just make sure you bring along a sun shade as there’s no trees along the beach and it gets hot!
Looking up at the surf club and Mauao
If you’ve had your fill of salt and sand, don’t miss heading up Mauao for those epic views. In summer, this is definitely best done early or late in the day as there are a lot of steps and trust me, it gets very hot, very quickly! There are a few tracks up and back, depending on how steeply you want to ascend – I went the main track and it took me about 30 minutes. Be warned that you do need a fair level of fitness, it’s a 232m ascent up all those steps!
Face the colour of my top – but loving the view!
We were pleasantly surprised with all the awesome eats in the Mount – particularly the epic brunches. Tay Street Café and Mixture Eatery were both humming, with good reason – the iced coffees were flowing and the food was delicious. We can also highly recommend the fish and chips from Shellrock Takeaways, which we enjoyed on the beach while saving our chips from rapacious gulls.
You could spend a day or a week here, depending on how long you have to relax. If you don’t have a car, there are coaches or planes from Auckland to nearby Tauranga, and then local buses or taxis will take you over to the Mount.
Tairua
Pauanui on the left, Tairua on the right, from the Mount Paku summit
The winding roads of the Peninsula mean that, if you want to see a few spots, you’ve got to be prepared for a bit of driving time. We decided to base ourselves in Tairua to help with this, as we could check out a few different spots from there. Tairua is just over the estuary from the extremely popular Pauanui. Home to many an Aucklander’s bach (Kiwi-speak for holiday home, big or small), Pauanui is beautiful but pricey. In Tairua, by contrast, you can get to all the same beaches, with much cheaper accommodation.
New Zealand health and safety regulation relying heavily on common sense
Our motel host raved about the view from nearby Mount Paku – and he wasn’t wrong! A bit easier than Mauao, you can drive part-way up and then tackle the stairs from there, or make your way up from sea-level. Given the heat, we chose the easier option, and still got the amazing reward of these epic vistas over Tairua, Pauanui and the beautiful islands ringing the horizon.
Whangamata
On our way up to Tairua from the Mount, we stopped in at beautiful Whangamata for an afternoon of body-surfing and relaxing. A popular New Year’s spot, a few days later it was very chill and we had no problem finding a spot to park or to lounge on the beach. If you’re starving after a big day of water-related activities, make sure you check out Soul Burger. They had a huge range of tasty burgers and, while we over-ordered with the fries, we didn’t regret it!
Hahei and Cathedral Cove
Beautiful Hahei beach
While we didn’t have time to do Hahei justice on this trip, if you’re driving around the Coromandel for the first time then this beautiful beach is a must-visit. It does get extraordinarily popular in summer, so I would recommend visiting either at the start or the end of the day. That will be the best time to make the short hike to Cathedral Cove, an instagrammer’s dream. If you’re not so fussed on that, you can appreciate Hahei at the beach without fighting through the crowds!
A well-timed Cathedral Cove visit
Hot Water Beach
Peaceful Hot Water Beach at the northern end… but can you spot the crowds?!
Hot Water Beach is a bit of a phenomenon, a surf beach where hot springs bubble under the sand and you can dig yourself your own natural spa. You have to time it quite carefully though, and you’ll be sharing with a lot of people all trying to do the same! Controversially, Joe and I decided that Hot Water Beach is over-rated… we found it frustratingly hard to find a spring, and it was so packed with people we didn’t enjoy the experience at all. I think this is one to visit with a local if you can, and ideally the tides would align in your favour so that it wasn’t at peak visitor time!
A classic instagram-vs-reality!
Whangapoua
Whangapoua beach
One of my favourite spots in the whole Coromandel, Whangapoua is a bit of a long drive to get to, but totally worth the effort. Relatively undeveloped, it has a beautiful beach of its own. Even better, a short walk over the northern headland takes you to hidden New Chums beach, which is undeveloped and utterly gorgeous.
New Chums via Flickr
Top Tips
- It’s pretty tough to visit the Coromandel without a car, although you can join small group tours, or take the ferry down from Auckland. As always, I don’t advise hitch-hiking, and in the Coromandel you could end up waiting in some pretty remote spots if you try! When you’re driving, take it easy on these windy roads. And if you’re holding up traffic looking at those gorgeous vistas, please pull over where you can. Another tip – learnt the hard way – is to make sure you fill up with petrol in the main towns… we coasted into Hahei on empty and it was extremely stressful!
- Travelling around New Zealand isn’t known for being cheap but you can help your costs by self-catering. Although groceries are still expensive, try shopping at local “fruit and veg” stores, or the bulk buy supermarkets. Also keep an eye out (and some gold coins around!) for road-side fruit and vegetable stalls, often used just to offload from people’s own gardens and all the more delicious for being produced in small quantities.
- Unless you’re visiting in the depths of winter, please please please be aware of how quickly the NZ sun can burn you. It only takes a few minutes to fry in the height of summer, and not much longer for much of the rest of the year! There is a massive great hole in the ozone layer above NZ and Australia which means you need to keep sunblocking, shade-seeking and covering if you’re out and about on a sunny day.
- Our beautiful bush walks are one of NZ’s greatest attractions, but be sensible. Conditions change quickly, particularly in the mountains, and even on a relatively short day walk you should be prepared. Just because there’s no animals that can kill you, doesn’t mean the weather won’t! Taking a couple of extra layers and some rain protection could make the difference between an epic experience and a day to forget.
- Kiwis (the people and the birds!) are one of the country’s treasures. Travelling around the country since my return from the UK, I am often reminded how friendly and helpful people can be. Kiwis appreciate how far you’ve come. They love to rave about their local area and will go out of their way to help make a visitor’s experience extra special. If you’re lost, or just want to know where the best local pub is – make sure you just ask!
Have you visited Mount Maunganui and the Coromandel? What did you think?
Check out more of my New Zealand adventures here!
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