Going For A Walk: Coromandel Town {Or Coro Pies Are The Best}

Wharf in Coromandel Harbour

Coromandel Town is located on the western side of the Coromandel peninsula in the Hauraki Gulf, approx. 39 nautical miles from Auckland. It is a great place to anchor up, get some groceries in, top up your diesel and water at the wharf, do the wash and take care of various other life chores. The town and larger area got their name from the HMS Coromandel which visited the area in 1820 from Madras, India. Today, it is a popular holiday spot, known for its arts and crafts community, and as a good base to explore the local sites and attractions related to mining and kauri timbering. It is also a great place to go for a walk and take in the old historic buildings. Of course, if you're going to sail to Coromandel Town, then your walk will also include a bit of a dinghy ride as the waters in the Coromandel Harbour are quite shallow and you'll need to anchor a ways off and pay attention to the tides.


There is a channel from the bay through the mangroves which is accessible by small boats. It is clearly indicated by red and green lateral marks to the south of the wharf.

You can take the channel all the way into Coromandel Town and leave your dinghy up on the grass while you do your shopping. That's our dinghy on the right. It is a bad dinghy. The oar lock keeps breaking. We punished it by making it wait for us while we went for a walk. I suspect you may see a separate post on our recalcitrant dinghy. I bet you can't wait.

If you prefer, you can tie your dinghy up at the wharf and walk into town. If you do, you'll see some of the old trailers which have been turned into sleep-outs.



Such a cute little police station. When you see hanging flower baskets outside the police station, you know you're in a small town. Almost makes you think getting arrested here would be a pleasant experience. Don't worry, we didn't test that out.



Here is where you can do your laundry. You have to love the old washing machine on the roof. Fortunately, they have the modern kind of washers inside but it will cost you NZ$5 a load. I can see why cruisers wear the same clothes all the time. It is expensive to keep your clothes clean. I think I'm going to have to give clothes washing in a bucket in the cockpit a go.



Best pies ever! Next time you're in Coromandel Town, check out Coro Pies and get some for yourself. We got there around noon and they had already made 900 pies. I'm particularly partial to the egg & bacon one as it has caramelized onions on the bottom. We picked up three pies for around NZ$10 and had a nice lunch in our cockpit. By the way, when they say "pies" in New Zealand (and much of the rest of the world), they mean savoury ones, not the sweet ones you get in the States.

One of the old historic buildings in town. Coromandel Town kind of reminds us of the Old West back in the States..

The mining museum. Only open on weekends so we weren't able to check it out.



Want to move to Coromandel Town? Here is a potential fixer upper.



One of the old wooden bridges. I don't really have anything to say about it other than that.



Coromandel has a rich Maori history. The islands in the Coromandel, and greater Hauraki Gulf, were likely the first spots where Polynesian migrants landed circa 1250-1300 CE. But who really knows when they landed. Archaeologists and historians always seem to change their minds and contradict each other.

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