February 11th- 14th, "Narnian Beaches", Coromandel NZ

Welcome to Narnia… After 4 hours of morning homework this was a much welcome treat for the girls! You might remember at the beginning of the Prince Caspian movie where the kids are transported to that fabulous beach along a beautiful sea? That is a real place in the Coromandel Peninsula New Zealand. Curt had read some information that the beach “Cathedral Cove” was used in the making of “Prince Caspian”, the second of the Narnia movies. This was a fun find as we really didn’t know this was the actual beach until hiking down to it and viewing it for ourselves. After our 45 minute hike we broke out onto spectacular Cathedral Cove. The kids immediately remembered the pictures in the movie Prince Caspian. McKenna shouted out “I’ve always wanted to be in Narnia and I’m finally here.” She immediately wanted to start taking pictures of the sea caves, beautiful white granite cliffs and granite rocks that jutted from the ocean floor. We spent the better part of 5 hours body surfing, jumping from rocks, flying the kite and doing what you do in a special beach spot. There was even a 60 foot “fresh water” waterfall falling from one of the cliffs onto the sandy beach below where people would shower off after their swim in the ocean. As we camped our way around the Coromandel Peninsula we realized it was “big” on picture perfect beaches with no people. One afternoon we spent a few hours swimming and lazing on Opito Beach. Opito Beach was crescent shaped and about a quarter mile long; it had this perfect tan colored powdery sand that slopped gently down to the sea. There was absolutely no debris, rocks or trash in the sand. The waves were in the 2-3 foot height range and gentle enough for body surfing and swimming. All great beaches have similar qualities and Opito had to rank as one of the best beaches we have seen in our travels through out the years. The most amazing thing about Opito Beach? At one point we were it!!! We were the only people on this most beautiful beach. I looked up and down the beach and could not see a soul. That is truly the beauty of New Zealand and the many places we have visited around this country. Had this beach been anywhere in the States it would have been fronted with high rises and fancy restaurants… Not that that’s always bad, but it’s really incredible to be in such amazing scenery and have none of that busyness and no people. It was actually very cool, and kind of strange all at once. “I felt very spoiled to be enjoying such a special place and to be the only one there…” (Curt) . There was one road into Opito Beach, and one little campground (a small field) behind the dunes along the beachfront. You see, in New Zealand, many of the DOC (Department of Conservation) campgrounds are simply fields. You drive your car into the field and pitch your tent. One Kiwi family was camping at the campground. We had a pleasant exchange with the family inquiring about the fee to camp at the campground (about $15 American dollars). We found out this was actually a private field and you needed to walk up the drive to a farm house and pay the owners to camp in their field. Anyway, this family had the entire campground to themselves. Back to the beaches… all the beaches along the Coromandel Peninsula are similar in their beauty and all you need to do is drive right up. One of these beaches “Hot Water Beach” had something very “hot” and special along it’s crescent strip of sand… When the tide is out, you wander down the sand with a shovel in hand, and look for bubbling hot water spots. On this beach, hot water springs erupt into bubbling little pools do to the volcanic activity in the area below the surface of the earth. This might be the only place in the world were hot water springs bubble up on the beach. So the fun of all this? Well, when the tide is out, you find a nice little spot and then dig your own little hot tub. The water is hot, really hot, so you need to be creative with your hot tub and the spot you dig it in. Many people dig their tub closer to the sea so they can get a little cool water filtering into their tub as the waves role up, and then they dig a 10-20 foot trench up to a hot spring and let it run into their personal hot tub. You had to be careful digging close to the bubbling springs for it could scald your bum and feet if you weren’t paying attention. We found a nice little spot and eventually dug our personal hot tub so the entire family could fit, and we even had a couple visitors from Switzerland join us. Once you overheated, you could jump out of the tub and stroll over to the ocean to cool off, and then stumble back to the tub. You only needed to walk about 50-75 feet to get to the waves. We stayed so long that eventually the tide came back in and devoured all the hot tubs built that day. The Coromandel Peninsula Rocks!