New Zealand’s North Island, Part 1: Auckland & Coromandel Peninsula

When we were planning our big trip, New Zealand was a non-negotiable. We knew we had to make it work budget and time wise. However, when we were actively booking flights and key items for our trip, the New Zealand border had not re-opened from the pandemic! So we semi-blindly booked both our campervan (for a huge discount!) and flights in hopes that the border would in fact open and stay open. Fortunately, our gamble paid off!

New Zealand is filled with epic national parks, stunning landscapes, inspiring Maori culture, hospitable Kiwi people, and the promise of some amazing adventures. Despite being left off some world maps (there’s a whole sub-reddit on world maps without NZ), it is the length of the east coast of the USA (from Georgia to New York). Our plan was to pick up a campervan from Auckland, drive down to Milford Sound and back in 29 days. Here goes nothing!

We picked up our campervan Rigby from her owners in Auckland and drove west to Muriwara Beach for the night. We stayed at the Muriwai Beach Campground. This rugged black sand beach known for surfing is also home to the Takāpu (gannet) refuge colony. We climbed up the rocks to get up close and personal to these birds. They have been displaced from Australia and come here to mate. We saw very fluffy chicks, half fluffy teenagers ready to test their wings, and adults!

We headed south to Piha Beach, another ultra popular black sand surf beach. The morning had some thick cloud coverage and the beach had a moody PNW vibe. The rock formations, including Lion Rock, were so tall and imposing. When we returned to the beach after lunch, the sun was out and we had a glimpse of Piha in all her iron-sand glory!

Our next stop was Kitekite Falls which is right by Piha Beach and is in a Kauri tree protected area. There is a fungus that is attacking the native NZ tree and so the government has set up cleaning stations in certain areas to keep the fungus out! You have to clean you shoes before entering to stop the spread. The 2 mile walk followed a clear blue stream through gorgeous ferns and thick tropical fauna. Kitekite falls is a 40m waterfall with 3 drops! It was definitely worth a visit!

After these first falls, we drove 2 hours east towards the Coromandel Peninsula. We made a stop at Owharoa Falls, which is a stunning falls right on the side of the road!

Our last stop of the day was the Karangahake Gorge Historic Walkway. It is a stunningly beautiful gorge between Paeroa & Waihi and is thought to be protected by a supernatural creature according to the Māori. It also is the location of some very large gold veins brought to the surface from all the volcanic activity. Miners finally were able to get access to their area in 1875 and built several railway tunnels and bridges to help mine the gold. This was the location that they successfully trialed using cyanide to extract gold in 1889! The old tracks have now been converted into walking & biking paths, including the 1000m long tunnel. The tunnel was completed in 1905 and lined with concrete and 5 layers of bricks! I’m so glad we stopped by to see this old mining area on our way to the Coromandel Peninsula. We stayed in a carpark in Thames for the night and made some tacos using our camp stove.

The drive along the coast of the Coromandel Peninsula was absolutely stunning as it wound around beautiful coastlines and rolling hills. It was both more hilly and more winding than we expected with gorgeous turquoise ocean views around every bend! We were very fortunate to enjoy the few sunny days the North Island received this summer between record rainfall, terrible flooding in the Auckland area prior to our arrival, and a Category 3 cyclone that would hit right after we left the North Island. We really didn’t realize how lucky we were in the North Island!

One of the stops we made in Coromandel was on the northern side to New Chums Beach. This beach is located on the northern part of the Coromandel Peninsula and is considered one of the most beautiful beaches in the country! It takes 45min to hike along a rocky beach to reach this remote beach. The hike up to the viewpoint is super steep but so worth it! We spent a few hours swimming in the waves and enjoying the white sandy beach. After, we headed to our campsite at Hahei Holiday Park and settled in for the night. Hahei Holiday Park was our favorite holiday park throughout our month. It was a really pretty campground with great facilities and an even better location right on the beach. It also was located walking distance to the Cathedral Cove walkway!

Cathedral Cove is a very large naturally formed cave just north of Hahei Beach. It’s a 1 hr walk along a beautiful coast get to the archway. It’s best visited at low tide so you can walk through to connect to both beaches. It’s also recommended to go at sunrise for some beautiful colors and less crowds. The day we were there, low tide was 3:40am and sunrise was at 6:40am so we decided to go ahead and wake up early to get to the cove for sunrise and low-ish tide. We were able to walk through the cove and saw a gorgeous sunrise over the surrounding islands! The cave was massive! We had no idea how tall and long it would be. We learned a few weeks later that there was a landslide on the north side of the cave a few days after we were there and it is now closed to visitors by land, but you could still visit it by boat.

We continued our drive south to Whangamatā to visit Whenuakura (Donut Island). This island is part of grouping of 3 islands just off shore that you can kayak to. Donut Island has a hollowed out center from an old volcano. There is a small 4m wide by 10m tall tunnel in the side of the island that opens up into the center. Only kayaks and paddle boards can fit inside.

Once inside, you have entered into a peaceful paradise with waves breaking on the sandy shore, crickets chirping, birds singing, water dripping in cave, and the distant booming of waves hitting the outside walls of the island. The Māori believe this island is sacred and we can see why! We spent an hour inside the cave enjoying the peacefulness. We definitely didn’t want to leave but our stomach's began growling. We headed to shore and had a late lunch at Craig’s Fish & Chip. We ended our day in Papamoa and stayed at the Beach Grove Holiday Park just across from the beach.