Waihi

Last week Saturday, our kiwi friend Ricky took us to Waihi and a few of the neighboring towns. We left uni at 8 am and drove through tons of pastures filled with cows, sheep, and horses. It was beautiful! Rolling hills on either side and miles and miles of open land surrounded us. It took us about an hour to drive to Paeroa (home of L&P, New Zealand's famous soft drink.) L&P stand for "Lemon and Paeroa" and the kiwis LOVE it! It tastes like a really lemony Sprite, if that’s makes any sense. It’s pretty good. There were banners on every light post and a giant L&P bottle right at the beginning of the town.

After stopping for a quick breakfast at a bakery, we went to the Karangahake Gorge, which was absolutely gorgeous! We went on a scenic walk along the river in hopes of finding the glowworm caves further down the trail. We crossed over bridges, some were more stable than others, and it didn’t help the boys kept bouncing on the bridge and scaring us! There were also a bunch of different artifacts that were left from the gold mine days. We finally got to the tunnel, and it was CLOSED for repairs! We were so disappointed, but oh well, we got over it.

Next stop: WAIHI beach! The entire beach stretches for miles (or km) and it takes about 4 hours to walk along the entire thing. First, we went up to the lookout and saw the entire town. We walked down to the sand, which wasn’t at all like back home. 1) It was hard; it felt like walking on concrete 2) It was freezing! Everything was freezing. It is winter here, so it should have been expected, but nonetheless, I wanted to go swimming! It reminded me of the beaches in Oregon, but it was much prettier. We wrote our names in the sand, took a bunch of pictures, and explored the caves built in the side of the mountain. There wasn’t anyone else on the beach except for a few fishermen.

Next, we went down to the main part of the beach where a lot of people go surfing during the summer time. There weren’t any waves during the winter nor were there any people. I guess the beach really isn’t a popular place to go when its 40 degrees outside. Now, if you know me, you know I love to collect shells. There were soooooo many pretty shells at this part of the beach. I could have stayed there the entire day collecting shells. I filled up the entire Ziploc bag that I had brought. Don’t worry, it was a snack-size!

Ricky had a soccer game at 2 and so we got a quick bite to eat and headed to the field. He plays on the A-team for the uni, and he’s only a first year student. That’s pretty good! The uni played a Waihi club team, and they had players of ALL ages, ranging from teenagers to some preeeetty elderly men. It was amazing! We watched for a while, but then got pretty bored, so we went to explore around the area.

We found a forest reserve right next to the field. There was a path that led through the reserve, so we went for it! We walked along a stream, through a bamboo forest, and even saw cows, sheep, and a pet goat! It was gorgeous! As we were walking along the path, a couple that was familiar with the area told us that if we walked about half an hour up the mountain, we’d find a mineshaft! We unfortunately didn’t have enough time to go up to the shaft, so we went back to the field and watched the last few minutes of the game. The uni ended up losing 4-1.

After the game, we went to Ricky’s house, which was nearby. He lives on a dairy farm! There were a bunch of cows, and even more cowpies! None of us had the proper footwear, except for Ricky who put on his gumboots before joining us in the pasture.

We hung out at Ricky’s for a while and then headed back to campus. It was an awesome day!