Cathedral Cove

Waking up well rested in Thames, we made a quick weather check and found that the rains - which had been predicted - were now looking like they wouldn't hit until mid afternoon on the east coast of the Coromandel where we were headed.  So we set off toward Hahei - a small town which sits immediately next to two of the main attractions on the Coromandel - Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach.

At times the drive to Hahei was reminiscent of the road to Hana, curvy, lush, and picturesque - though thankfully the road was not carved into the side of a cliff.  After dropping our stuff at our hotel, we headed straight for the trailhead for the 45 min hike to Cathedral Cove.  Cathedral Cove was actually featured in the movie the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - which we haven't seen, but plan to after this visit.

Any concerns we had about slogging through mud on the trail were alleviated when we discovered that the trail was actually paved, which definitely decreases the adventure feel, but did improve the experience given the past day's heavy rains.  The trail itself winds through forest, up and down small ridge lines, and eventually descending 147 stairs (yes I actually counted them) to the beach. 

The beach was stunning, and on the left side of the cove was the massive rock arch which gives the area its name.  After walking about 100 yards through the archway we emerged onto an even more spectacular beach.

On the left (north) side of the beach is a rock pinnacle just on the water's edge - then on the right (south) side is the massive arch we had just walked through from the other beach.  

It is hard to imagine a better time to have visited Cathedral Cove - although it is winter it wasn't particularly cold, and even through the forecasts had called for heavy rain just the day before, we didn't have a single drop of rain, and the sun even emerged through the mixed cloud cover.  The season and expected weather meant there were maybe 20 people total on the beach - mainly the first beach.  In fact we got the second beach completely to ourselves for 5 - 10 minutes, which I'm sure is unheard of during the summer season.

River of course kept trying to run into the water, until he got interested in picking up pieces of driftwood some of which were as big as he is. 

After hanging out on the beach for a while we hiked our way back to the car, and made our way back to Hahei.

  The place we are staying, the Hahei Beach Resort is awesome.  It's basically just cabins on the beach - nothing too fancy, but plenty comfortable - and the view from our room isn't too bad!

I was pretty excited about Hahei because, in addition to Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach, the town boasts a brewpub called the Pour House.  After hauling our not so small toddler up 147 stairs on my back I was looking forward to a beer, but come to find out they are closed for a month.  Since July is their slow season they just apparently close the doors and take a month long company vacation, which I kind of admire.  But it did leave us stuck because the Pour House, in addition to being a brewery, is in fact the only restaurant in Hahei.  So plan B was for Sharyl to round up something from the little general store (which closes at 5 pm - and we thankfully realized our situation at 4:30).

While Sharyl went to the store I took the boys out front to play on the beach for a bit.  Reef had tons of fun running down the sand dunes pretending he was off to rescue someone, and River as usual was either trying to get himself into the ocean, eating sand or picking up sticks around the beach.  Hahei beach itself is pretty stunning, I'm glad we were able to see it in good weather!

Right next to the beach cabin is a really cool circular wooden hot tub, which under a surprisingly clear night sky was a perfect way to finish off the day.