Coromandel Peninsula

So, I arranged to work for my accommodation at a hostel, named Sunkist, in Thames. I was to work 4 hours a day for 5 days and then get 2 days off. The position was for painting, however I did a lot of cleaning. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best place to work. The owner's have been trying to sell the place and are just completely done with it all. And their misery affects everyone there. Sad really. The hostel itself was nice at least. I was there for a total of 10 days.
Thames is a small mining town along the coast at the mouth of the Coromandel Peninsula. There is one main street with shops for 2 km and the rest is residential. The beach is a bird sanctuary with mangroves all along the shore. I was wondering why no one walked along the beach, so I thought I'd try it. I found a clearing and as soon as my foot hit the muddy surface, I almost lost my boot! Ah, now that's why! You'll fall flat on your face trying to walk through that mud. Hence the cement pathway that follows the shoreline for 5 km. Ha ha ha. Yup, I'm a quick one, lol.
I did go on a killer of a hike on one of my days off. A girl named Miriam (yup, you guessed it, she's from Germany) accompanied me to the Kauaeranga valley to hike up to a summit called the Pinnacles. It was 3 hours and 20 minutes to the top, and it was stairs almost the entire way! I thought I was going to die! I tell you, steps are way harder than a steep slope! I couldn't believe I made it. But what a lovely view! So worth the effort.
There was nice foliage the whole way up, and we crossed the river a couple times. A hut was located near the summit for people to camp in. There were beds with mattresses, stove tops and sinks with running water (not for drinking though) and outhouses. You bring in the rest, including cookware. What a great place. We were planning to stay there a night, but it was all booked up with school kids learning survival stuff.
The last set of stairs from the hut to the pinnacle summit took 45 mins (as I was so tired, but still made it 5 mins before the estimated time, yessss!) and they were a killer! After them, you had to climb up the slippery rocks to the viewing platform. Was it ever windy up there! Cold too.
On the way back down to the car park, we took a different trail. It was called Billygoat trail. Not as many stairs, but that was a good thing as my legs were jelly and having the shakes. What I like to call as "Elvis leg." The trail was steep in places and a bit slippery, but we managed just fine. Much easier coming down. Saw a little waterfall and some old train tracks from when they used to log the Kauri trees back in the day.
My other day off I hired a car to drive up the coast to Coromandel town. Such a gorgeous drive! Very narrow, and twisty but I drove slowly with my music blaring so I didn't mind one bit. It was neat how in places along the highway the trees would grow over the road, forming a "tunnel." The highway had a limit of 100 km/hr, but I have no idea how anyone can go that fast. So narrow with the steep cliff edge on one side and the steep coastal drop off on the other, with winding and twisting and more winding! My top speed was 70, lol.
The town itself was very small. Took me 5 minutes to walk from one end to the other. So, I decided to keep driving and went to Whangapoua. At the end of the town was a long beach with so many different shells. So pretty. I climbed along the boulders and followed a short path to another beach called New Chums Beach. I had it all to myself. After that, I headed back to the hostel for a few more days work.
Thursday was my last day working at Sunkist, so Friday I rented a car for the day again. This time, I drove to the east side of the coast to Hot Water Beach. I rented a shovel and walked out to where the rocks and warning signs were and dug myself a shallow hole. The hot spring seeped through the sand to fill the hole. It was super hot! Glad the tide was at maximum low and was now starting to come back in. With the occasional wave mixing in with the spring water, it was like a pool. So nice. I spent 3 hours there, chatting with a Korean lady named Su. We just chatted about life. She seemed a bit down and lonely and asked if I wanted to travel with her for a while. I thought, why not! Should be fun! We arranged that she'd meet me back in Thames the next morning at 10:30 am, as I was staying there one more night (only at the other hostel, Gateway Backpackers. And it was fabulous!)
After Hot Water Beach, I drove to Cathedral Cove in Hahei. Trail was about 45 minutes with a few other stops along the way to see other bays. Once at the cove, I met up with two boys that were staying at Sunkist a couple nights back so we chatted for a couple hours enjoying the beach. The sun started to tell us it was time to leave, so headed back to cars and called it a day. I drove back to Thames for my final night.
Once I was all settled in, one of my bunk mates, Debbie from England, thought we should head to the pub to watch the rugby game. It was The All Blacks first game, so we thought it would be good to see the locals enjoy themselves. But with Thames being such a small town, the pub was pretty quiet. Just a few of us. That's alright, at least we got $2 beers till the first point scored and free potato skins! Now off to bed with hopes of some new adventures with Su!