100% Free

Add your free link

Local E-mail Directory
Thames Coromandel
    District Council (TCDC)
Department of
    Conservation
Activity Listings
Pacific Coast Highway
Our Advertisers
Links & Search
Kudos from Guests
Guest Book
Community Pages
Contact Us
7am News
Site Advertising
Contents
Currency$Converter
Free Links Page
And Even More...

Where you can

on the
Coromandel
Peninsula

FREE EMAIL

Last Update
29 August 2008

Ferry boat access is available to and from the Whitianga Wharf and runs regularly linking Ferry Landing with the main commercial area of Whitianga.
The old stone wharf which is said to be the oldest wharf of its type, was built in 1837 and is known locally as Ferry Steps or Ferry Landing. A Mr Gordon D. Browne had this wharf built when he had established a thriving trading post, warehouse and boat building yards. Browne was responsible for the exporting of kauri spars to the admiralty from this point as early as 1835.

Free stone was procured for these steps from a nearby source. The blocks were fashioned by native unskilled labour, some blocks being two feet thick by four feet wide.
Front Beach, Flaxmill Bay, Shakespeare Cliff, Lonely Bay and Cooks Beach, are all beaches accessible from the Stone Steps Wharf. Front Beach is a lovely place to visit and is safe swimming for children and small boats. 1b the south is Shakespeare Cliff and at its base is Flaxmill or Homestead Bay which provides sheltered anchorage for small boats and where a flaxmill once operated on the foreshore. It was here that Captain Cook was said to have careened the Endeavour. To the south side of the bluff is Lonely Bay and Cooks Beach.
Lonely Bay is a small bay cut off by cliffs and totally unspoilt and accessible only from the Cook Memorial via a short steep walking track.
Dalmeny Corner is named after a Scottish Park by William Meikle, a director of the Mercury Bay Timber Company, who bought the land in the area in the 1870s. This is the turn off to Ferry Landing, Cooks Beach, Hot Water Beach and Hahei from Highway 25.

Hot Water Beach is as good as its name. Hot pools can be dug out of the sand at low tide near the rocks and where steam can be seen rising from the open sea at high tide. Volcanic activity is not prevalent on the Coromandel Peninsula and activity has died away leaving the hot mineral pools as a legacy.

Hahei Beach eastern end is the site of an old Maori pa, Mautohe Pa, with the terracing still visible showing the Maori method of fortification. The beach is 1.5km long and is safe and particularly beautiful with clear crystal waters and an abundance of crayfish and fish.
  
Hahei is an attractive beach fringed with pohutukawas and drifts of “pink” shells at the northern end of the beach. Offshore islands provide a breakwater for ideal swimming, boating and fishing.

Cooks Beach is a 3km crescent of fine golden sand with safe waters.
Cathedral Cove Recreational Reserve was donated to the country in 1971 by Vaughan Harsant. With its coastal access it takes up some 34.08 hectares and can be reached either by foot or by boat. This cove lies to the north of Mares Leg Cove (which was washed away during a major storm in 1980) and is accessible (except at high tide) only through the Cathedral, a gigantic arched cavern which penetrates the headland between the two coves. the Cathedral which gives an air of grandeur to the whole of the beach, is about 20 metres wide by about 10 metres high and was formed by sea action. The headland is the site of an ancient Maori pa. The beach is sandy with a pohutukawa backdrop, and provides an ideal picnic spot. Offshore a little way is a large pinnacle of pumice breccia known as 'Te Hoho'. Delicately sculptured by wind and water to form a most impressive and unusual sight, it looks somewhat like the prow of a large ship steaming into the beach.

Contact Us Credits Top

A Website
Website Copyright © 1996 - 2005 Bartley Internet and Graphics. All Rights Reserved.