Raglan to Coromandel to Auckland and back again

---

I spent about 5 days in total in Raglan just surfing everyday usually twice a day for about 2-3 hours a time. It was brilliant because my hostel has a sauna and a hot tub so I just surfed, relaxed, ate and had some social beers with people the entire time. Raglan is an amazing small town with a great laid back vibe, a sleepy town where time doesn't really matter except when the high and ow tides are for the surf, and a calm get away from life in general. The days melted by and I made some great friends from a couple of Brits, a South African, and several Canadians and Australians. This all being said there really isn't much to do than just relax and surf. I have finished a couple of books here such as the Life of Pi and have started the Kite Runner. I haven't read this many books in my whole uni career and I think I have rekindled my love for reading. I have probably read about 12 books in my whole travel since January!

I woke up on Friday and had been bitten by the travel bug. I was restless and left that day for a small trip. I ran off to the Coromandel Peninsula only a several hour trip away and spent a night in another small town in a hostel where there was only a french traveler and myself. I watched some live reggae/ light rock band play, got up early and drove the scenic route around the peninsula stopping plenty of times to see the beautiful beaches and the crystal clear waters. There are several spots I would love to go camp at and spend several days there in the future. Secluded beaches with water that looks too blue and too clear to be real. I have seen plenty of pictures of beaches online and haven't really believed them to be as beautiful as they are, having been doctored by photoshop and other programs to make them look as spectacular as they are. I'll admit I was mistaken, there is such beauty out there but I imagine you must know where to look.

I made it to Cathedral Cove and hot water beach which were two great attractions to the area as well. Cathedral Cove is featured in films like the second Chronicles of Narnia movie. There was a great walk along beaches with towering sheer cliffs of limestone that have been eroded to form giant caves, the main one being the cathedral archway you can walk through which is about 15-20m to walk through. There are many pillars just left out in the ocean as everything around them, past caves and other formations, have been eroded leaving these 'spires' just standing out of the ocean. There are many other 'islands' there that were attached to the mainland but are now secluded and house many bird colonies and are good photos of original flora and fauna from the early New Zealand days. There were also interesting erosion patterns in the shape of honeycombs formed by salt spray getting into the rocks and eroding in extensive honeycomb patterns.Traveling has really helped me to appreciate how lucky rocks are to get into the rock records, especially sediments from beach environments and other high energy areas. nerdy, I know, useful to my degree? Undoubtedly. It is good insight into geology and many of the cores that I have looked at make more sense and are better understood/visualized.


I missed most of Hot Water Beach but caught the tail end of it as you can only witness it truly at low tide as well as the Cathedral Coves. I dallied too long at the cove but still enjoyed hot water beach though not as much as I would've like. like much of new Zealand there is thermal activity everywhere. In this case, 2km below the beach. At low tide and two hours on either side of it, you can dig a hole in the sand and enjoy a hot spring that seeps out of the beach is the water that is in the sand is heated in an aquifer below the beach and escapes through the sand. I only got to experience the upper beach water, which is cooler but noticeably warmer then the oceans water. Truly a spectacular beach because there is much more to do than just enjoy the sun and the surf. The beach has pretty nasty rip tides as you can imagine because of this high activity area and the warm waters mixing with the cooler ones make it quite hazardous for swim and surf though people flock here for its good surf. I didn't because I would rather be safe than sorry.

I drove to Auckland to spend a couple of nights with the German girl Lea I met in Waitomo. She put me up for two nights, showed me a bit around the town and I eventually sold my car to her. Yay! I wandered around the town the first day I was there to see all the sights and the museums. I am a little sick of seeing the same old same old in all the museums but at least this one had a great WWI/WWII exhibit. Lea let me keep the car a few days and I will be returning to Auckland on Thursday to give it to her as she leaves on Friday to go to Melbourne. I wasn't a huge fan of Auckland because there doesn't seem like too much to do and I am not too partial to big cities. When I return there I intend to go hike a volcano and get to its crater (the city has something like 20 or so volcanoes, not too active of course, within the city itself!). I was going to head north to check it out but as my New Zealand adventures are nearly at and end and I didn't feel like driving around and exploring too much, plus the landscape is starting to blend together, I made it back to Raglan for three days to relax and surf.

The beaches here are rather unforgiving to be honest. I have added some nice dents into my board and have moved down for the rocky beaches back to the sand. The points are really good waves... almost too good for someone with my skills. I got bashed against some rocks several times and smothered by some massive waves. The rocks are only about a meter or so underneath you at low tide so it can be pretty hairy sometimes. The black sand beach doesn't have any rocks and is a lot better. To me the waves just feel friendlier and are easier to catch so I have been playing around there for the last few days. The surf isn't too great today so thinking of going fishing or maybe to play some golf. Just relax as much as possible basically. I will be leaving on Sunday back to Australia to go to Cairns via Sydney where I will meet up with a friend after 2 months of being on my own. It will be nice to spend some time with people I know again and I look forwards to it quite a bit.

I leave Australia for good on Sept 18th to Singapore for 3 days and then to Calgary on the 21st. From there I plan to go to Edmonton immediately, spend two nights there and then fly out early on the 24th to Vancouver for my brother wedding.

I have booked the rest of my flights for my trip too. Come September 29th I fly from Vancouver to Bangkok. I will spend some time traveling here through Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and maybe Malaysia before leaving on December 8th to fly to Norway. I have a quick layover in Istanbul where I get to see the airport, then spend until the 28th there before flying to Iceland (again only the airport), and back to Calgary for the New Year. The reason for Norway is that I met someone in Australia and was invited there for Christmas. I know I was excited to have a beach Christmas and to surf on Christmas day but Norway will be a great place to spend some time and add some more worldly experience under my belt. The funny thing is I didn't experience any culture shock coming to Australia. I know I will experience when I go to Norway and Asia. This is something I am oddly looking forward to because it will give me some great experience and insight around the world.

New Zealand on a whole reminds me a great deal of Canada and the people here and in Australia are quite similar as well though you can tell the surf culture and the backpacker culture has really sunken in to the overall social scene. Quite a comfortable place to come and spend time and to travel. I highly recommend it!

---

Comments

[Cynthia]

reading...
... and enjoying life. You have really got it made. Can't wait to see your pics of this thermal activity.