Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Rock Cafe
(
www.castlerockcafe.co.nz
; 1242 Whangapoua Rd, Te Rerenga; mains $15-32; 9am-3pm Sun-Thu, to
8.30pm Fri & Sat)
offers cafe dining, good takeaway pizzas and gourmet burgers, and its own
range of jams, dressings and sauces.
Continuing east on SH25 you soon reach
Kuaotunu
, a more interesting holiday village on
a beautiful stretch of white-sand beach, with a cafe-gallery, a store and an ancient petrol
pump.
Black Jack Lodge
( 07-866 2988;
www.black-jack.co.nz
;
201 SH25; dm $35, s/tw/d from $55/80/90; )
has a prime position directly across from the beach. It's a lovely little hostel with smart fa-
cilities and bikes and kayaks for hire. In Kuaotunu village,
Luke's Kitchen
(
www.lukeskitchen.co.nz
;
20 Blackjack Rd, Kuaotunu; pizza $12-28; 9am-late daily)
has a rustic surf-shack
ambience, cold beer and woodfired pizzas. Occasional live music, local seafood and
creamy fruit smoothies make Luke's an essential stop, though hours are reduced outside
of summer. For more luxury, head along the beach to
Kuaotunu Bay Lodge
( 07-866 4396;
www.kuaotunubay.co.nz
;
SH25; s/d $270/295; )
, an elegant B&B set among manicured gardens,
offering a small set of spacious sea-gazing rooms.
Heading off the highway at Kuaotunu takes you (via an unsealed road) to one of Coro-
mandel's best-kept secrets. First the long stretch of
Otama Beach
comes into view - deserted
but for a few houses and farms. There's extremely basic camping (think long-drop toilet in
a corrugated shack) in a farmer's field at
Otama Beach Camp
( 07-866 2362;
www.otamabeachcamp.co.nz
;
400 Blackjack Rd; campsites per adult/child $10/5, cottages $220-260)
. Down by the
beach they've also built a couple of self-contained, ecofriendly cottages (sleeping four to
six), with solar power, a composting waste-water system and ocean views.
Continue along the narrowing road, the sealed road finally starts again and you reach
Opito
, a hidden-away enclave of 250 flash properties (too smart to be called baches), of
which only 16 have permanent residents. From this magical beach, you can walk to the
Ngati Hei
pa
(fortified village) site at the far end.
At Opito,
Leighton Lodge
( 07-866 0756;
www.leightonlodge.co.nz
;
17 Stewart Pl; s $135-145, d $175-195;
)
is a smart B&B with friendly owners, a self-contained flat downstairs, and an upstairs
room with a view-hungry balcony.
309 Road
Starting 3km south of Coromandel Town, the 309 cuts through the Coromandel Range for
21km (most of which is unsealed but well maintained), rejoining SH25 7km south of Whi-
tianga. The wonderfully bizarre
Waterworks
(
www.thewaterworks.co.nz
;
471 309 Rd; adult/child $20/15;
