Detour: En Route

If you're driving between Whitianga and Coromandel and the sun is shining, make some time to head north toward Whangapoua. Park your car and grab your bathing suit and a surfboard if you're keen, and make the 30-minute trek over to New Chums beach, a native forest-fringed bay of golden sand. It's accessible only by foot, and you have to wade through an estuary to get there, but the secluded beach—once rated by the U.K. Observer as one of the world's top 20 deserted beaches—is well worth the walk.