Blogs from Coromandel, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 13

Hey all, just checking in so you know I'm still alive. Unfortunately, I have quite literally nothing to report at present. I've cleaned a garage, spruced up some fridges, mowed a lawn and worked in the office at the weekend and that's been pretty much my life since I got here. Saw a cool band though on Saturday and was surprised to learn the bass player was the drummers 60 year old mum. We had a laugh though when I chatted to the drummer afterwards and said how they played some songs my band did and he said "typical isn't it? you fly thousands of miles to the other side of the world just to hear the same songs..." Went for a bit of a run this evening (it was quite literally a "bit" of a ... read more

I love Halloween. I was a little worried because the kiwis don't really celebrate Halloween but was actually very pleased with how the day went. I carved pumpkins with my Scottish roomie, Kat, who had NEVER done that before! The pumpkins in NZ in the spring are very small and white, not like pumpkins much at all, but they made pretty good Jack-O-Lanterns. After dinner Kat and I dressed up and went to the late night ((double feature!!!! Picture show! In the back row---f* the back row!!)) showing of Rocky Horror, complete with stage performance, encore Time Warp, and lots of men in lingerie. We went out for drinks afterwards and started talking with a couple of locals. One of the men, an old NZ farmer, was talking to me about politics and congratulated me on ... read more

Monday 26th October - today I started the Kiwi Experience bus tour! Just before 9am the green Kiwi coach pulled into the Auckland youth hostel to pick up some of us. Everyone on the coach looked extremely knackered from non-stop flying and drinking! Today we were heading to Whitanga on the Coromandel Peninsula just off the north coast, and I couldn't wait to get out of Auckland and start seeing more of New Zealand. Along the way we all got to know each other. There's people from all over the world - Australia; Denmark; Switzerland; Israel and far too many Canadians! There's a fair few English people here as well. On our way out of Auckland our first stop was Mt Eden, one of New Zealand's dormant volcanoes. From the summit we got to see One ... read more

Between October 20 and October 24 I had embarked on another fun adventure with the stray bus. On October 20th, we headed over to the Coromandel peninsula and on to Heihei and Hot Water Beach. Hot Water Beach, as the name indicates, is a beach with hot springs under the sands. So we dug a hole where the hot water can form a manmade pool and we laid in it. Well, we tried to anyhow. It was so hot, that we kept stepping out of it. I had tried to put my feet in for a few seconds, but had quickly taken them out. They were as red as a tomato! Apparently, what you’re supposed to do is take a dip in to the cold beach water and then warm up in the hot springs, but ... read more

Sept, 13 - Sept, 27 Hiring a campervan and hitting the open road is kind of obligatory when in New Zealand so we found the cheapest possible deal ($30 a day) and picked up a bright orange converted people carrier that is now known as a Spaceship called Ray. We took Ray to a town called Hahei from there we would explore the Coromandel Peninsula (the top right part of the north island). We parked up at a site on a farm and ended up getting loads of bites on our legs. We hoped this was from insects in the long grass and nothing living in the grimy carpet of the van, or heaven forbid the bedding! Unfortunately we had a bit of a mishap when we set off to the Coromandel and ended up trapped ... read more