Cathedral Cove

Cathedral Cove, on the Coromandel Peninsula of New Zealand's North Island, is a coastal formation centered on a large natural sea arch cut through a headland of pale, sheer volcanic rock known as Cathedral Cove Rhyolite. The arch was carved by long-term wave erosion acting on natural lines of weakness in the rhyolite, a hardened volcanic rock, which was progressively hollowed and widened by the sea into a tall, cathedral-like archway connecting two adjoining beaches, alongside a separate freestanding sea stack called Te Hoho Rock nearby. The formation remains an actively eroding coastal feature, part of the wider Te Whanganui-A-Hei Marine Reserve, and its dramatic sea arch has made it one of the best known coastal rock formations in New Zealand.