Since New Zealand is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, they celebrate the Queen's Birthday each year. Queen Elizabeth's birthday is the 21st of April, but New Zealand celebrates her birthday with a 3 day weekend the first weekend of June.
Rod and I decided to take another trip to the Coromandel and take advantage of the nice weather, as winter would be on its way shortly.
We had heard about a new hut up that way, just opened in 2010 (which is like BRAND SPANKIN' new, by hut standards). There are numerous ways to get to the Crosbies Hut. We did our research and decided to go the least muddy way, from Te Puru Creek Road. We did have to get our feet wet a few times, but at least the mud was minimal, compared to the other ways our hutmates told us about later that evening!
(I'm guessing this may be Te Puru Creek)
It was a lot of uphill through the forests, but occasionally you caught a glimpse down to the water known as the "Firth of Thames".
("Firth" is just a fancy Scottish word for "narrow inlet of the sea", in case you were wondering like me)
Ta-dah! The hut. Took us about 4 or 5 hours to get here, I think.
Pretty flash and modern for a hut!
The views were great!
The sky at sunset was gorgeous as well.
We had a great group of hutmates, played cards and shared chocolate and lots of laughs. Rod wowed them all with his molten chocolate hut cake for dessert. YUM!
The next morning we took a slightly different route down. Here we are taking a break before the long, steep descent.
We reunited with Smokey, took our muddy boots off and headed up the western coast of the Coromandel Peninsula, on our way to the actual town of Coromandel.
What a gorgeous afternoon!
What a gorgeous afternoon!
To celebrate the Queen's Birthday, we dined on Coromandel's finest from the Coromandel Smoking Company. Smoked tuna (in the back), and three different flavours of Smoked Mussels. Yum!
(Happy Birthday Queen Elizabeth....Happy Birthday to You!)
Tried some of the local brew too from Coromandel Brewing Company--- unfortunately not that great.
After the tramp, the seafood/beer, and then a hearty Thai dinner, we slept well!
The next day we headed east across the Northern part of the Peninsula. First stop was Whangapoua Beach.
Next up was a little walk to one of Coromandel's best kept secrets-- New Chums Beach.
In 2006, it was voted one of the top 20 beaches in the world! It was quite spectacular... mostly because it was uninhabited by people, houses, businesses, etc. Just the beauty of the beach.
And the beautiful birdies fanning their wings to dry!
It was great to explore some more awesome parts of the Coromandel Peninsula- truly one of the most beautiful parts of New Zealand.
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