Days 1-3: Auckland, Piha & Coromandel Peninsula

The Skinny if you're just here for the highlights: We landed in Auckland to a double rainbow, grabbed a rental car, and spent a full day exploring the city: harbor walks, great food, and just enough energy to fight off jet lag. From there, we headed west to Piha and Karekare, where dramatic black sand beaches, massive waves, and waterfalls set the tone for the trip. We then made our way to Whangamatā for a couple nights-- morning swims, sunset views, and some more fantastic meals before spending a full day driving around the Coromandel Peninsula, hopping between beaches, hiking into Cathedral Cove, and getting great views from the top of a small dormant volcano. Lots of driving (yay Sean!), walking, and an amazing start to the trip.

Scroll down for pictures.

While we lost a day in transit crossing the international date-line, we landed in Auckland at 6 am on April 16-- day two, and were immediately greeted by an expansive, vibrant double rainbow.

Rental car

We took a very brief shuttle to pick up our one-way rental car (with a drop off scheduled for 15 days later in Queenstown) from Snap. It was incredibly cheap, our research (now backed by our personal experience) told us it was a reliable and commonly used company, and it allowed for putting uncapped miles on the car. We also purchased their car insurance as our credit car insurance excludes New Zealand.

With morning commuter traffic it was about a 40 minute drive to the Auckland CBD (central business district), though without traffic it should take about 25 minutes.

Auckland

We stayed at the simple but adequate Ramada Victoria Street. Comfortable, clean, and excellent location. Before checking in, we spent the day exploring Auckland and walking 8 miles in the process. But first: breakfast. We started the day eating at Scratch. Our beef brisket and chicken schnitzel sandwiches were phenomenal.

Beginning with the Viaduct harbor where we saw tons of sailboats and yachts as well as Team New Zealand's impressive sailboat, we ventured over to the maritime museum, which was rich with the countries' history, as well as its deep ties to boating. We walked along the water past the busy ports of Auckland, which somehow still felt clean and organized, to Judges Bay. We would have loved to have taken a short 40 minute cruise across the Hauraki Gulf to Waiheke Island, famous for its vineyards, olive groves, gin and whiskey distilleries, and premium Te Matuku Bay oysters (we did have a chance to sample these oysters, they were to die for) but we were a bit tired after the flight. We did take a very quick ride up the Sky Tower for some spectacular views of the greater Auckland area. We planned to grab a drink on the 52nd floor, but one of us was feeling uneasy about the height...

So we walked across the street to an Irish pub and had a cheers to our Irish loved ones. Next, back by our hotel The Brewers Co-Operative served up fresh, crispy fish and chips that hit the spot after a very long day. Desperate to keep ourselves awake until 8 pm and beat the jetlag, we capped off the day with excellent sunset drinks at the QT hotel rooftop.

Though our time was brief, we really liked Auckland. The city is clean, beautiful and quiet.

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Piha & Karekare

On day two, we headed out bright and early to Piha beach. A 50 minute ride west along extremely windy, hilly, beautifully vegetated roads eventually gave way to incredible views of the ocean, tiny islands, and surrounding bluffs. Posed against the dramatic, green backdrop of the the hills that rolled down to the ocean, we were blown away. We checked out and walked around both the South and North beaches, and found the surf to be very energetic, the waves choppy and the current strong. With 8-10 ft waves in the forecast, we ditched our original plan of surfing, though we saw some brave locals suiting up.

We stopped at a cute market by N Piha beach what had homemade sandwiches, pastries and pizza, and drove another 20 minutes (heading east on the way to Whangamatā, our next overnight stop) to Karekare falls and beach. The falls were absolutely gorgeous-- 30 meters and about 100 feet long, we had a phenomenal zoomed out view from the car park and, after a 5 minute walk, were able to stand at the foot of these cascades. We then continued our walk along Karekare beach. Similar to Piha, this beach too was nearly deserted this off-season morning (its late fall currently in New Zealand, though it was still about 65 degrees out up North). The beach links up with the massive Te Araroa Trail, which stretches the length of both islands of New Zealand.

Continuing east, we broke up the 2 hour and 45 minute drive with a quick stop at a farm stand that we spotted, and loaded up on kiwi (gold and red), New Zealand variety oranges and mini pears, pineapple, melon, and homemade samosas for lunch. This drive was very green, spotted with many cows.

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Whangamatā

Our Airbnb in Whangamatā was perfect. It was so comfortable and two short blocks from the beach, which we immediately walked to for a chilly but refreshing swim. The ocean in this little bay was so glassy, but unfortunately opposite to the west coast, too small to surf. The wave looked like a really consistent, smooth righthand pointbreak. By sunset, the bay was calm enough to waterski. Sunrise walks with a cup of coffee were a treat, especially the first morning. The sun came up right between two small islands in the bay.

Food

Rassasy was excellent. We got the giant prawns, beef carpaccio, homemade pork & shrimp potstickers, and the daily catch.

Pizza Dose food truck served up quick and reasonable Neapolitan style pizza. Very fresh ingredients.

LuvCoffee had really good, healthy, grab and go breakfast options. Everything was fresh made.

Craft Haus: Fun drinks, really good prawns & shrimp dish, have live music

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Coromandel Peninsula

We spent day three driving through and exploring the coromandel peninsula. It was so spectacular, we had to stop ourselves from pulling over at every beach we passed (which was difficult since they appeared nearly every 10 minutes). We began by driving all the way to the first outcropping off of the peninsula, stopping at:

Kūaotunu: quick beach walk

Otama: swing on the beach and and lunch at Kua Kawhe-- loved the chia seed pudding. We found out too late that there was a sauna on the beach here. There are two companies that have them located all around New Zealand. Secret Sauna and The Sauna Project.

Opito: amazing views on the drive through this quaint town.

On the return, we headed to the Cathedral Cove / Hot Water Beach area.

Cathedral Cove

We parked here and walked along a trail through a cow farm with rolling hills covered in neon green vegitation, cut by crystal clear streams. Eventually we exited the shire through a gate that met up with the main walking trail from Hahei town/ beach. Parking at Hahei and taking this trail would also be a great option as it crosses through Gemstone Bay and Stingray Bay. At this point, the trail continues down to the famous Cathedral Cove and its brilliant water, super cool rock formations including the hallmark archway, and small freshwater waterfall. We swam for a while and though we brought our snorkel gear, it was too windy and choppy out to use.

On the return walk, we took a detour path to the Catherdral Cove / McHands Bay Lookout for the most incredible views of the coast, including the peninsula we had driven earlier in the day.

Hot Water Beach

We thought we had timed things perfectly to arrive to Hot Water Beach right at low tide, which is the time to go to be able to dig your personal hot tub in the sand, but with the Lookout detour, we had to scrap it. Te Pare point was another cool lookout that we ran out of time to experience.

Tairua

Considering the volcanic activity necessary to give rise to hot springs like those beneath Hot Water Beach, it came as not huge surprise to us that the interesting peak we noticed 30 minutes outside of Whangamatā was a long dormant volcano. On the return ride, we drove halfway up this formation, through a beautiful neighborhood, parking at the local playground. It was a quick 10 minute steep walk up to the top of Mount Paku. From here, we had 360 degree views of the surounding islands, namely Shoe and Slipper as well as the Alderman Islands. We thought Tairua was such a neat coastal town, and seemed to be the most robust year-round town we had seen on this coast.

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We couldn't stop thinking about how much you would be able to explore-- quiet islands and untouched beaches, via boat, from this town, throughout the Coromandel Peninsula.