Cathedral Cove, New Zealand
Jet lag had us raring to go at 6:30am this morning. We departed our hotel in Auckland early, leaving the city for quaint farmland, rolling hills, and tons of sheep. We drove northeast, skipping across the water to the Coromandel Peninsula, in search of the famous Cathedral Cove.
It took us about two and a half hours to drive to Whitianga (pronounced fit-ianga), the location of our “apartment” for the night–basically a little BNB on the east coast. Because our room wasn’t quite ready, we decided to grab a quick lunch at Jandal’s, a cafe that served us couscous, iced coffee, and a persimmon “yo yo” (shortbread cookie).
After lunch, we jumped in the car and drove 30 minutes south to Hahei Beach, the jumping-off point for the hike down to Cathedral Cove. Cathedral Cove is a naturally formed archway in the middle of a beautiful stretch of the Pacific coast. In Maori (the language of the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand,) Cathedral Cove is known as Te Whanganui-A-Hei. Matt and I have been lusting after this particular adventure for years, because it’s one of those iconic “NZ must-do” sights.
After paying $10NZD to park in someone’s front yard (think: paying to park in your friend’s lot on game day), we found the trail head at the top of a cliff, and started climbing down.
The climb felt like something out of Jurassic Park. Matt and I kept looking at each other, asking “is this real??”
We were surrounded by a true jungle, misty with the low-hanging clouds off the Pacific, saturated with the bright green of ferns and palm trees, the crimson red of pohutukawa trees, the lush purple of lupins, and stunning glimpses of the azure blue ocean below. At every turn we expected to encounter a dinosaur.
After a 45-minute walk, we reached the beach below, which opened up into a beautiful bay where massive, 100-ft tall rocks sat in the middle of the surf. They looked like they’d been flung there by giants. After waiting years to see this, we finally walked under the archways of Cathedral Cove and took a million pictures of the pink and orange rock face and the sapphire waters it opened to.
We were doubly excited because we knew that parts of Narnia were filmed at this spot–think the moment when the Pevensie kids took their first steps back into Narnia. I cannot say it enough–this whole day felt like stepping into another world. I’ve never seen anything like it on this planet before.
After exploring the natural caves under the arches, wading in the cold water, and taking a million more pictures, we began our arduous climb back up, stopping twice to take a detour down to two other bays–Stingray Bay and Gemstone Bay.
These areas were more remote parts of the hike, so there were no tourists at all when we climbed down to these stretches of beach.
On our hike back, we were so moved by what we saw that we talked about how traveling affects us as humans.
We agreed that it makes us feel closer to God–it’s like God has created all this wonder and beauty in the world, and it’s such a gift to be able to experience this. Traveling and seeing what we saw makes us feel so close to God’s own hand and helps us understand the sacredness of his creation.
At the end of our hike, we were famished, so we grabbed a bite to eat at a food truck that served us a pineapple and onion grilled cheese and special NZ lemonade. Then, we drove to Hot Water Beach, about 10 minutes down the coast. Hot Water Beach is known for (can you guess??) its hotwater pools, formed by digging deep holes in the sand. Once you’ve dug deep enough, hot water from carbon dioxide in the earth bubbles up and you can relax in the water.
Although they were selling spades for digging by the beach, we decided to forgo the shovels and we dug a hole with our own hands. It was a super shallow hole, but we reached the water in less than 10 minutes!
After, we went to an art gallery right on the beach and bought a piece of art from a NZ artist. That afternoon, we drove back north to Whitianga and formally checked in: our sweet “apartment” overlooks the ocean and harbor.
And probably the most magical part of our trip happened at dinner. We were sitting in the restaurant and I was staring out the window at the harbor in front of us. All of a sudden, I saw a spray of water erupt from the sea, and then a huge black fin popped up and over into the waves. I grabbed Matt, whispered, “whale!” and rushed outside to the beach without further explanation. And it WAS a whale. I could immediately tell by the dorsal fin, which was enormous and a darker black than dolphins. The real treat, however, was when I saw the whale surface again, and noticed a huge white patch covering her eye–she was an orca whale!!! And two babies accompanied her on her frolic in the bay. One of the restaurant patrons followed me out to the beach and we talked for a while about the babies, and after Matt paid, he joined us, laughing as he relayed the story of how the restaurant patrons were asking him over and over again why I had left so abruptly. We watched the whales swim for about half an hour until they disappeared under the surface and headed back to sea.
Tomorrow we head south to the Bay of Plenty! Check back in later for more updates!
