Cathedral Cove and the Gannet Birds at Muriwai Beach

Cathedral Cove

One of the awesome things about being in New Zealand is there is always somewhere to go and something to see.  Whenever we can, we go on a Saturday excursion. One of these excursions was to Cathedral Cove on the Coramandel peninsula on the East coast.

At the trail head to Cathedral Cove.  In New Zealand hiking is called tracking.

There are two ways to get to the cove, kayak or hike. We thought about kayaking but Jeff is having trouble with his shoulder and so we opted to hike.

View from the cliff top along the track.

We left Takapuna early in the morning.  The drive was beautiful. We drove over some mountains that reminded me of Logan Canyon with all its twists and turns. The hike itself was about 3.5 miles long. The trail went up and down with stairs to and from the various inlets on the way to the cove.

Stingray Cove is before Cathedral Cove.  After you get to the beach you track up to the top of the cliffs and on to Cathedral Cove.

We definitely got our 10,000 steps in that day.



Cathedral Cove is a huge opening in a rock that you can walk through.  Beautiful white sandy beaches on both sides. Inside the rock the ceiling is high like a room in a cathedral. It was very impressive. Looking out to the ocean there are several smaller islands.







After the hike we took a different way home, but it was similar to the mountainous drive there, except the road we took over the mountain was mostly dirt.  The road was only paved on hairpin turns and over narrow one car bridges. After coming out of the mountains we followed the coastline. It was very curvy but fun because we could see the ocean the whole time, and thankfully it was paved all the way.


Muriwai Beach

The other fun excursion was to Muriwai Beach on the West coast. This is the Tasman Sea side of New Zealand and the beaches and water are much different.  On the East side the water is calm and the beaches are white.  On the West side the water is much more tumultuous and the beaches have black sand.

Cave below the Gannet nests.

On the West side is where the surfers are. There are also lifeguards on this beach. Muriwai Beach was very long and disappeared into the horizon on the one end and was rocky and mountainous along the coastline going the other way.

Looking down from the Gannet nest Northward.  The beach goes to the horizon.  The dots in the water to the left are surfers, to the right are swimmers and boarders. 

Looking Southward from the lookout above the nests.  The dots in the water are surfers. 

Muriwai Beach is where the Gannet birds come every year in October/November to lay their one egg. They hatch during December and January.  The birds stay on the rocks above the beach until about April then they head back to Australia.

Gannets and chicks.

These birds mate for life and lay just one egg a year. There are thousands of them.  The baby chicks are so fluffy and white when born.  Their feathers eventually come in black and white. Adults have white feathers with black on the edges.



The parents of the chicks take turns flying out to sea and getting food for the chicks. It was interesting to watch the interaction between the birds.  They are very territorial and don't like other birds coming into their space.

Closer view of the swimmers and surfers.  Elder Champlin in the blue plaid shirt.