Cathedral Cove Marine Reserve (Maori name: Te Whanganui-A-Hei) encompasses a spectacular stretch of coastline on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula, along with a number of nearby islands. Wildlife and habitat within the reserve are protected, and vehicular traffic is not allowed, except for one parking lot. There is a beautiful view from the car park (New Zealandish for parking lot), but one cannot fully appreciate the reserve without taking a walk.




The walk from the car park to the cove that gives the reserve its name takes about 45 minutes, and is mostly downhill. The insightful reader will deduce that the return trip is mostly uphill, and therefore longer in duration. Along the way there are optional turnoffs to Gemstone Bay and Stingray Bay, also parts of the reserve. Not wanting to be caught by darkness or the rain that was threatening to fall, we skipped these turnoffs and single-mindedly headed for Cathedral Cove itself. The walk itself was scenic, with forested areas, grassy areas and sheep.


The last section of the trail was a long wooden staircase which dumped us out onto a section of beach called Mare's Leg Cove, apparently named for an eroded rock feature which has since eroded itself out of existence. Mare's Leg Cove is scenic in its own right, and is surrounded on all sides by rock walls.



After a couple of minutes we noticed that the wall on the left was punctured by a large cave which led through a headland to the next cove over and our final destination, Cathedral Cove.

Cathedral Cove was named after the cave, which seems to have inspired religious imagery in some namer-of-places from the past.


Hollywood thought the cave other-worldly enough to use it as a gateway to Narnia in the Prince Caspian movie. At the opposite end of the cove from the cave is a large rock called Te Hoho Rock, which protrudes vertically from the surf.


Small islands both within the reserve and beyond its boundaries are also visible, making for an outstanding panorama.

After having our fill of the scenery, we made the climb back up to the car park.


From Cathedral we drove southward along the east coast of the peninsula, eventually cutting back across it and returning to the Coastal Motor Lodge in Thames.

We started packing our belongings and we got a good night's sleep, as the next day we would be saying goodbye to Coromandel and returning to the big city of Auckland.