Opoutere and the Coromandel Peninsula

One of the places Hilary actually has a specific memory of from her previous travels in NZ is Opoutere, on the east coast of the Coromandel. So we drove there to visit the YHA Opoutere hostel, where we got a parking spot for a couple of days. Opoutere is situated on a bay with a river coming in, and the hostel is near both. Very pretty. On our way across we stopped in Thames (on the west side of the peninsula) and picked up some local catch fresh fish for dinner. Yum!

In Opoutere we took the kayaks (free!) out on the river one day, through the mangroves in the bay and over the shallows (sometimes too shallow, with more pushing than paddling). We rode the tide in and paddled among the mangrove and pohutukawa trees. The river got less exciting when the surface got gummed up with pollen and we couldn't see into the water anymore. We turned around at a low bridge and rode the tide out back into the bay. It was really windy and pushing us back to shore despite the running tide, so we turned around after a bit and came back in.

Later that day, right before low tide, we took a trip out to the sand flats at the end of the estuary to go hunting for shellfish. There is a bird sanctuary on the sandspit at the edge of the bay, so we had lots of company looking for things to eat. Lucky for us, the 15-month ban on shellfish collecting in the area was lifted the day before, and there were tons of cockles to be had. We didn't find any pipis though, other than dead ones; we figure the algae bloom that caused the ban might have taken them all out. We collected almost the daily limit of cockles to add to our dinner.

The cockles were great eating. 100% opened when we steamed them, and they were very fresh and salty tasting. No sand or grit at all, just delicious. Another couple had gone snorkeling for green-lipped mussels in the high-current area between the bay and the ocean. They collected the biggest mussels we've ever seen, quite beautiful. We were jealous, but after eating our cockles decided that we had a great meal too.

The next day we took a trip up the coast to Hahei. We took a short walk to Gemstone Bay, where there is a snorkeling trail. This time we arrived about half-way between the tides, and even at low tide there would be plenty of water here. The trail was ok, mostly fish and not a lot of coral/anemones or things like that. Cold water too, brr. Upon returning to Hahei we decided to snorkel some more near some rocks just off the very beautiful beach. Here we found more interesting stuff to look at, including crazy orange coral, crabs, urchins and a bunch of camouflaged fish among the rocks. The water was a bit colder here though, and we headed down to Hot Water Beach just down the road.

At Hot Water Beach a bit of lava is just underground and at low tide you can dig yourself a spa pool in the sand. They're not kidding about the hot water either, our first attempt got us a pool that was burning hot, even after the addition of much sea water, and we were forced to abandon it. Folks walked by and inspected it after we left and they all jumped back, the water was so hot. You could even see bubbles coming up through the sand. Our next hole was much better, though still very hot it was not scalding. We left the side toward the ocean open so that the waves washed in some cool water. It was a fun experience, though crowded and sulfury.

We liked the Coromandel. If we have time at the end of the trip, we might come back for more shellfish. Maybe then we'll go get ourselves some mussels too.