Coromandel Peninsula and the Bay of Islands
After our rafting, biking, and Zorbing adventures in Rotorua we headed north to the Coromandel Peninsula. When we arrived we did a short hike to see Cathedral Cove and were rewarded with this:
Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel Peninsula
Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel Peninsula
The other sight to see on the peninsula is Hot Water Beach. It's a wild phenomenon where during the two hours on either side of low tide you can dig a hole and it fills with hot water from natural springs. You rent a spade and then find a spot on the beach to dig your own pseudo hot tub. It takes some time to find the right area where it will fill with hot, not cold water, and there are some areas where the water is way too hot and you'd burn yourself if you dug a hole there. We had some good laughs as dozens of people, us included, dug holes to lay around in. It was fun to cool off in the ocean and then get back in our own private hot spring.
After that we cruised straight through Auckland up to Bay of Islands. Our last few nights in the campervan were met with lots of rain and we were ready to drop it off in Auckland and sleep in proper beds. Before heading to Auckland, we went fishing for a half day out of Paihai. We caught several snapper, one of which was big enough to keep and Jake cooked it on the BBQ that night for us. Jake also caught a few Kingfish (Amberjack). They fight a lot more than the snapper and I was jealous not to land one of those myself. One of the other guys on the boat had a Kingfish on his line but when he landed it on the boat, half of it had been eaten by a shark! That was kind of freaky!
Jake and one of the kingfish he caught
Auckland
Auckland is a great city. We spent our last four days in New Zealand there and could easily live there. I was expecting to hate it because any time Auckland comes up in conversation with people who've been there, it's almost always followed up with, "get out of there as fast as possible", or "don't spend any time there". I get those comments in the context of New Zealand overall because you shouldn't travel all that way to hang out in the city. New Zealand is about the natural beauty of the countryside. However, Auckland on it's own is a clean, easy to navigate city with good restaurants, bars and activities. We found an amateur comedy night, walked around the harbor and enjoyed some good meals. There are many more activities that we didn't take advantage of because we were enjoying the free wifi at the library and planning our Australian itinerary. We also booked a flight to Buenos Aires where we arrive May 15th and start a week of Spanish classes the next day. We are going to try staying with a host family again and hopefully it will work out better than it did in Italy.
~ Jesslyn