The Coromandel Peninsula is located to the east of Auckland, across the Hauraki Gulf. It's a popular weekend destination with Aucklanders, for its rugged beauty and its proximity. We were naturally interested in seeing what all the fuss was about. The largest city in the Coromandel is Thames, located at the western base of the peninsula, and this was to be our first destination. From Rotorua we headed mostly north but a little east to get to the coastline. There was some rain on the way, and the countryside was very very green.


Eventually we passed through a town with the unfortunate name of Te Puke, which actually means "the hill" in Maori. It also represents what you might do if you don’t like kiwifruit, as the town seems to be the world capital of this hairy brown delicacy.

The road reached the east coast at Tauranga, which has an extensive harbor.

We continued north and a little west and hung a left at Waihi. This took us through the scenic Karangahake Gorge, eventually dropping us into the town of Paeroa, where we stopped for lunch.

Paeroa, you might recall, is the "P" in the iconic L&P soft drink ("World Famous in New Zealand"), and just so you don't forget, a giant L&P bottle greets you as you enter the town, and L&P banners (apparently celebrating the soft drink's 100th birthday) flutter from light poles on both sides of the main street.

There was a lot of road work happening on this particular day, but we managed to find parking. We selected the Lazy Fish Café for our meal, and the food was quite good, especially their pumpkin bisque. But when we asked for an L&P, they didn't have any. Probably the only such place in town.

Paeroa is also something of a crossroads, as a driver can select highways heading west toward Auckland, east toward Tauranga, south toward Matamata (scene of the hobbit shire in Lord of the Rings), or north, toward Thames and the Coromandel Peninsula, which was our destination. We took the Thames highway and reached the town without incident, eventually pulling into our motel, the Coastal Motor Lodge, just north of downtown.


We checked in and eventually found some dinner in town. Then we rested up for our expected exertions of the following day. We'd allocated just one day to explore the peninsula, and our plan was to start with its west coast.