Roadtrippin'

We just got back from our second... and final roadtrip to two places on the North Island we've been dying to go to, the Coromandel Peninsula and the tip-top of the island: Paihia.  Classes ended on Friday, October 15 and we packed up and headed out on the following Monday. Here's how our week long trip went:

Monday:

• We caught the Nakedbus up to Auckland and stayed the night at our friend's (Dani from HI) apt. at the Auckland uni.

Tuesday:

• We got up early and lugged our bag to the Jucy site to pick up our camper.  We were "supposed" to be on our way towards Coromandel by 8:00, but because they didn't start prepping the van until that morning, we didn't leave until 9:00 am.  Logan spent the hour pacing back and forth and checking on their progress every 5 minutes :)
• Once we were out of the hustle and bustle of Auckland, we headed to Coromandel (about a 2 hour drive).  Our first stop was Hot Water Beach, a popular tourist beach known for its hot water. duh.  You can rent a spade (shovel) for $5 and dig a big hole in the sand and let the hot springs underneath fill the hole with steaming water.  It's MUCH to hot to dig with you bare hands or feet, so a shovel is essential.  The water was so hot that we had to pour buckets of water from the freezing ocean into our "pool".  It was really relaxing though & I guess that is one of there main objectives: to let people relax and be free.  Some people took this a little too literal and there were a bunch of "oldies" wearing skimpy speedos and one lady was topless!

• Our next stop was Cathedral Cove.  It was a half hour walk down to the actual cove area, but it was BEAUTIFUL! Logan didn't have slippers, so he played the tourist card reeeeal well and sported his tennis shoes with his towel draped over his shoulders :) Due to rock slides, the actual Cathedral Cove was blocked off due to safety precautions, but the bay surrounding the area was amazing.  The weather was sunny and warm and the water was crystal clear! I haven't seen a beach so clean and clear... but since then, we've come to find that MANY of the beaches here are that clean.  Amazing!  Logan went for a swim, but I stayed on the sand looking for shells. Typical! haha.  The water was freezing... of course, it is the Atlantic.

• Our next and final stop for the day was New Chums beach... we think.  I read up that New Chums is a really popular beach in Coromandel for whatever reason, but we couldn't find it.  Maybe we did, but there were no signs or anything labeling what the name of the beach was.  However, we found a map that led up to a beach and we pretended that it was the awesome New Chums.  There wasn't really anything spectacular about it, but there were some pretty cool shells we collected.  The funniest thing happened... I was joking around that I really wanted to find a starfish (a dead one of course) and take it home.  As we were walking back to the car along the shore, there was a tiny starfish that had washed up on to the beach.  It was the weirdest thing! There were no rocks or reef around, so I'm not sure how it ended up there... but it did!