The Great Kiwi Road Trip Day 4-7: Cambridge-Cook Beach

​Our journey into the Coromandel was one of the last remaining places I HAD, to see in New Zealand before leaving. It began with mixed emotions, ranging from the high of a reunion with our NZ family,  but the first night culminated with my being peed on in the Purangi Winery Restaurant just outside Whitianga, this by a drunken hippy who tried to pee past me from behind at the urinal, but missed. Gross! But I was not about to start a bar-fight with a coked out stoner in front of my kids on Christmas Eve-Eve. Moving past this, it was raining for the first time on our trip, and this wouldn’t let up for the first two days we were there, major bummer, but at least we were with the  May -Hargreaves clan for our second Christmas in a row!
 We remained housebound due to weather for Christmas Eve aside from a wet trip to Whitianga for essentials, and a brief snorkelling outing  for Richard and I. We had hoped for stingrays or something, given that we were already soaked anyway, but no go in the murky water. So TV, movies, drinks and socialising: good times were still had.

Cathedral Cove was the next spot home to one of New Zealand’s most beautiful beaches. It is secluded (but still touristy) and has picturesque island cliffs 100m off of the shore, which is itself buffeted by cliff faces and caves. The pictures really don’t do the place justice, if you come to New Zealand this place is a must see. I feel like it would have been a good pirate base back in the day. After 6 days of travel, it is nice to finally get some sightseeing in.
We had a great warm Christmas for the third year in a row, and for the second in a row with our NZ family Jenny, Richard, and Peter, without whom the Southern hemisphere would not be the same at this time of year. We hope you all have had an amazing Christmas, we are all happy healthy and having a blast, until next time! Up next the Northland!