Blogs from Hahei, Coromandel, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 6

After a long and deep sleep I awoke to find my lock had been tampered with, so I breathed a sigh of relief that i'd thought to wear my tracksuit bottoms and a T-shirt to bed as it meant a trip down to Reception to ask for some lock cutting equipment. With the lock sorted I found the quay and bought my ticket over to Rangitoto island (a volcano which last erupted 600 years ago). The trip across was quite calm but perishing cold, i almost reconsidering sitting out on the deck but persevered so i could get the most of the sights around me. The route up to the summit was quite challenging at times which you'd expect of a volcano with the black basaltic rock and mangled roots which made up the pathway. I ... read more

Nach einigen Tagen surfen und rumhängen in Whangamata konnte es endlich weitergehen. Die nächste geplante Station war Hahei, wo die berühmten Cathedral Coves zu einer kleinen Wanderung einladen (siehe Fotos). Nachdem ich Whangamata mit ca. 3000 Einwohnern und 2-3 offenen Cafes fuer ein Kaff gehalten hatte, wurde ich in Hahei eines besseren belehrt. Ich hatte vor mir mal wieder ein richtig gutes Abendessen in einem Restaurant zu leisten. Ich mache mich also auf die Suche nach dem nächsten Restaurant und siehe da, direkt beim Backpackers schon die erste Spachtelbude. "Sorry, we're fully booked for tonight, please excuse any inconvenience through that." Na freundlich sind sie, das muss man ihnen lassen. Mein Magen war zu diesem Zeitpunkt schon nicht mehr so friedfertig gelaunt. Also weiter, aha eine Frittenhäuschen. Naja ich wollte ja was richtiges also weiter. Und ... read more

Thursday: Went and said goodbye to Byzantiums -the nicest place for brunch in Auckland and eat a pile of French toast, syrup and fruit and then dropped Rebeccah of at work and bought takeout lunch from Salad Works- the nicest make you own salads in Auckland. Then Tavis and I set of west to Hahei where Tavis use to go on holiday when he was a kid (he lived here till he was 7). We set up camp- yes a tent and then went to hot water beach- which does as it says on the tin! You dig a hole at low tide and hot water from below seeps up. It its really hot (60*C) and you have to mix it with cold water. It was really busy but we waited around until most people had ... read more

Day 2 - a mostly-overcast and often rainy day. We started out in Auckland in the morning, where we managed to set out at 8:30am to find a bite to eat and to stop by the AA Centre to get reciprocal membership using our U.S. AAA cards. Then it was back to the car and the Southern Motorway for a day on the Coromandel Peninsula. One of Ben's first observations on this, our first true "roadtrip day" was that the blue "services" signs along the road used an image of a carrot and apple as their shorthand for "food available here", while in the U.S. the equivalent symbol is a burger. A telling (and humorous) difference! By the time we got to the town of Thames at the foot of the peninsula, the rain was pouring ... read more

We ended up staying on in Coromandel a few days longer than planned and took advantage of a sunny Sunday to visit Wyrna Bay, take a Kauri forest walk to Tuck's Bay and drive up to Colville for ice cream at the end of the day. The sunset on the way home was the most impressive we have ever seen. The highlight of the next couple of (rainy) days was cooking and eating fresh Snapper and Oysters (caught and collected by our mate Myles). On leaving Coromandel we drove around the top of the peninsular before turning south towards Tauranga. Even though we hadn't expected the weather to be good enough or the tide to be right we managed to be driving past the famous "Hot Water Beach" for a second time at exactly the right ... read more