Getting Away: Taster of Whangamata, Coromandel Peninsula

Can you believe this is middle-of-winter weather?

When recovering from tonsillitis, Papa M and I were invited by my mother to come down for an overnight stay at her bestie’s bach in Whangamata. Suffering, as I was, from cabin fever, we jumped at the opportunity, even though Papa M’s work meant that it would be a drive there – stay overnight – drive home situation. I’m eager to spend time with my mum while I can and Whangamata is one of the towns of the Coromandel where we have never been.

The beautiful tidal estuary

It was everything we had hoped for – the weather was absolutely stunning and conducive to walks along the beach, Mum’s friends very kindly cooked us both dinner on Saturday night and breakfast on Sunday morning and the town had this lovely laid-back vibe. It was vastly different to two-towns-over Whitianga, which has a far more buzzing “city vibe”. This little “taster” has us eager to go back in the warmer weather; we’ve got a bucket list of things we’d like to do!

• Hire a kayak – there is a estuary and tiny wee harbor. It would be great to explore this on the water! We’d also like to head over to Hauturu/Clark Island but we’re undecided as to whether we would kayak or wade.
• Hire a tandem bicycle – there’s a hire shop in the main street and it would be great to tootle round the side streets on this together and find some great secret spots
• Walk the complete length of the beach accesses – all accesses down to the main beach are numbered, from one to eighteen. We stayed closest to Beach Access 14 and walked all the way to Beach Access 8 but would love to walk the whole length of the beach (and obviously back as well) – wasn’t quite well enough to do this this time around
• Eat at Soulburger – a gourmet burger joint on the main street
• Eat at Laurenzo’s Pizza & Mexican – Papa M was so excited to see a shop that combined two of his favorite forms of takeout
• Bodyboard – it has been years since I’ve bodyboarded but the smaller breaks at Whangamata look ideal for getting back into it!

Cute but very nervous birds – this is as close as they would let us get to them

Heading down to Whangamata? Check out this website – it has loads of local events, business and accommodation information; a great little one-stop shop! We’ll definitely be back!