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Coromandel's thumb-like peninsula
extends north fifty miles from the main body of New Zealand's North
Island.
It forms a barrier between Auckland (40 miles west) and the open South
Pacific. Coromandel's west coast,
bordering the Firth of Thames and the Hauraki Gulf, is quiet, placid,
and protected, home to a few villages and
one town, Coromandel, with a sleepy frontier-cum-art-colony personality.
Running north-south down the middle
of the peninsula, a mountainous spine remains largely undeveloped and
cross by few roads. Coromandel's east
coast is wild, convoluted, and starkly beautiful, with numerous white
and golden sand beaches. At Kuaotunu on
the Pacific coast near Mercury Bay, Captain James Cook first claimed New
Zealand for King George III in 1769.
ALL PHOTOS © HOME AT FIRST
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A sunny, peninsular paradise
and
counter-culture
arts and crafts center
with jungles,
mountains,
secluded beaches, two coasts, but few towns.
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