Blogs from Hahei, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 3

I am staying at http://www.haheiholidays.co.nz/ and its not too bad. Pretty much portables with lots of beds. Sort of like work camp bunks i expect...except without toilets in the portables. Well cathedral drove is amaaaazing, as long as you get there early or are there late. People tend to come down around 1030ish, and it gets pretty busy. Lots of opportunity for pics. I got up this morning at 8:00 when my bus left (as i had requested to be left an extra day), and spent the day meandering down to cathedral cove. Last night we had a BBQ, and hung out. Not much to do here, but enjoy the scenery. However it did get cooler last night. thank god. It was the first time in a while it dropped below 25 degrees. I actually ... read more

We are heading up the coast to HaHei - but before this we went for a run to stretch the legs. Ran along the beach towards the beach towards the mount. Before having a bit of an argument, involving water, stomping off and a few temper tantrums; good to see that on a world trip there is still a bit of space for childish behaviour! After packing up the car, set off up the coast lots of cars, boats and people out today; we think it is the start of the summer holidays down here. We called in at a town on the coast and had our lunch overlooking the beach with a flock of seagulls looking on. Once we had finished they probably raced for the crumbs! Stopped mid afternoon at another coastal town for ... read more

Leaving Auckland for a second time, (and the Fat Camel hostel thank goodness. No clean linen and they hadn't cleaned the room from our last visit!), we were picked up outside the hostel by Warren (Woz) in his big orange Stray Bus. It was pretty much full when we got on and after stopping at the YHA, Backpackers, and City hostels we had a full house (bus). Woz began (as he would everyday) by giving a run down of the plan for the day, outlining our stops for sights, places of interest, shop stops and accommodation. The activities/ accommodation organised or recommended by Stray was listed on a clipboard which was passed around the bus and we chose what we wanted, or just left it and did our own thing. On our first day with Stray, ... read more

We drove to Whitianga on the westside of the Coromandel. Had a short walk around the town and decided to move on. So we drove to Cathedral cove in Hahei. We parked in the carpark and from there it's a 45min. walk. And it wasn't an easy walk. The walk took us past Stingray bay, beautiful The water is all different colours of blue and turquoise and so clear! Back onto the track for some up hill hiking we arrived at Cathedral Cove. Wow! It is known for it's limestone cliffs and a hole in the cliffs that you can walk through. We relaxed on the beach and had our lunch. Andy dug a big hole and burried himself, as boys do! The walk back was better, maybe because we had eaten, but it was still ... read more