Well here we are, just completing the final leg of our North Island tour with Magic. We added a Coromandel pass to our trip and that's what we have just been exploring for the past week. The Coromandel is a small strip just to the wast of Auckand, near the top of NZ. Its known for its beaches and as a haven for the rich during the holidays!

We had to transfer to a smaller shuttle bus for the journey to Whitianga, our main stop in the Coromandel. The bus took us on a journey through several places along the way, which constitute the main sites of the southern part of the region. We walked up a small mountain (whose name we cannot recall) to have an exquisite view of the surrounding areas, the rich mans area with it's own air strip, the coastal regions and the lush greenery down below.

We also paid a visit to the famous Hot Water Beach. This beach has hot water! (i bet you couldn't guess!) You need a little spade and for a couple of hours between low tide you dig yourself a pool and hot water seeps up through the sand for you to lie in. Unfortunately on the day we went it was a bit chilly and there was no space in the area that had hot water for us to dig in, so we had to jump into other peoples pools to dip our feet!!! Saved us the hard work though! Although we did not really have much time to enjoy it!

Our next stop was Cathedral Cove. This is a beautiful area of beach with an amazing rock formation as the sea had eroded the rock to form a 'cathedral' you walk through. Its absolutely amazing to see, and thankfully it had warmed up a bit so was much more picturesque than it would have been on a cloudy day! Even the 30 minute walk down to the beach was beautiful, but hard to walk back up!

Our arrival in Whitianga was a bit later than expected and after a long days travelling we relished our beds! However the next day we were up again and strolling round to see all it had to offer. We were a bit dissapointed that we had been taken to all the sites on our way up, as it meant that we had little to do in terms of days exploring. We decided that we weren't too bothered after we realised that we were at least an hour away from everything we had been to, and with no transport it would have been hard to find our own way without paying a lot of money!

Whitianga is a quiet town, mainly used as a holiday residence for the well off, although we didnt see many people about in reality. One of the best things we did was bone carving. We each made our own necklace with a bone pendant. Its sooooo hard to do! It took us about 3 hours to shape, contour, file and buff our little pieces of bone to the satisfaction of our tutor Claudia! We could have started from scratch with a huge piece of bone, but we decided that was too difficult for us none-artistic folk, so we had a pre designed, precut shape instead! It was really rewarding to make it ourselves though, and no matter how rough they look we were extremely proud of ourselves!

After 3 days in Whitianga we headed back down south to the city of Thames - named after Captain Cook saw the local river and decided it reminded him of the Thames in London. This is another one of those places that we are told not to go to, and once again we loved it. Although we didnt do much in terms of activities everything about the place was so friendly and beautiful we could have happily stayed for a long while! We did go for a bike ride around the town and up to the War memorial, which is situated up the steepest hill we have ever had the misfortune to try and haul our bikes up! It was a spectacular view though, and the ride back down was much quicker than the trek up!

The Coromandel is a really interesting place to visit. The beaches are supposedly amazing, although we did not really have the weather for them, but the towns themselves are beautiful and the people and atmoshere make them excellent places to be, for a long or short trip. I have to say that the highlights must be Cathedral Cove and bone carving - a must for everyone!