Thames and Whitianga

Haere Mai!
the last few days I spent in Thames and Whitianga, or in brief  The Coromandel Peninsula.
Thames used to be an old gold mining town which has nowadays not veeeeery much to offer. However, it is nice and has still some old buildings.
The town got its name from James Cook who arrived on the shores in 1769 and "babtized" the nearby river Thames.
Gold was found in 1852 and made this town a flourishing place (inhabitants in 1867: 18.000, today: 7.000) util 1918.
However, the name was not the only one. The place consisted of three different boroughs namely - Grahamstown, Shortland and Thames.
Grahamstown was/is popular for its small gauge railway (pictures below) which is still in use on the weekends.

Whitianga is a bit further north and is together with Coromadel and Hahei the most popular town in the Coromandel Peninsula. It's the gateway for excursions to Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove.
The town has currently (winter time) up to 4.000 inhabitants, however, in summer time (around Christmas) there are more than 35.000 people living in here!!
Cathedral Cove is currently hard to reach as debris was coming down in the past few weeks regularly.
Hot Water Beach is famous for its "homemade" spas. During low tide you can dig a whole in the sand and the hot water coming up from the geothermal source serves as a nice tub.

Cathedral Cove; source: http://www.whitianga.co.nz/

Hot Water Beach; source: http://www.whitainga.co.nz/

The third beach this region is famous for is the Cooks Beach where Cap. James Cook set his anchor in 1769.

But the most popular sight is actually close to be abondoned. I just had the unique chance to take a picture shortly before this beautiful, very timid creature was dismissed ... see here: