Weekend 9: Scott & Nikki 2

September 23rd - 25th

EASTERN BAY OF PLENTY

After another Friday morning spent getting Bertie all geared up to go, we took off early Friday afternoon and were headed to the Eastern Bay of Plenty region. To give you an idea of what this area is like, it is the coastal region that Captain Cook sailed through in 1769 and named it The Bay of Plenty because of the abundant food supply and amount of sunshine. It is apparently the sunniest place in New Zealand, with at least 2000 hours of sunshine per year. The weather in Hamilton the last week has been fairly cloudy and rainy at times, so we were due for a dose of sunshine.

More specifically, we drove 105km to the city Tauranga, taking us only about an hour and a half. Since we left fairly early in the day and had some extra daylight to work with, we decided to stop at a few places on the way.

First was just a quick stopover at a lookout with views of the flatland of the Waikato region (pretty much the only flat area on the island).

Next, we stopped at McLaren Falls Park, where we found a beautiful river bank with great big boulders and clear water. There were a few people laying out on the boulders soaking up the sun. But why would you lay there suntanning when you could be jumping from boulder to boulder. Kids could be occupied here for hours Wait... Scott could be occupied here for hours.

 

Then we made it to Tauranga. As you come into the city, you have the option of taking the toll road or going through the heart of the city to get downtown. In deciding which road to take, we opted out of the toll road because it just bypassed the city and the whole point of coming to these places is to see it. So, we took the route through the city. Arriving into town at about 3:30pm, we realized why people take the toll road. This is when we experienced our first NZ traffic jam. I know it is hard to believe that we haven't come across one in more than 2 months here, but I guess that's the benefit of living in a small city. We can't say we have missed sitting in traffic. This one, however, was not caused by an accident or a stalled car. It was just pure volume. The street taking you into the city happened to have two high schools and a hospital all within a few blocks. And our timing for that could not have been more... perfect. Schools out and most likely a shift change at the hospital. 

WEEKEND 1: Scott & Nikki 0

We eventually made it downtown. Since we had arrived earlier than we are used to, we had the rest of the afternoon to walk around downtown, grab a Bretzel for a snack (basically a bread pretzel with some garlic butter on the side), and check out some of the shops. The city center had a Victoria feel to it and was quite nice to just wander around it for a bit.


We found out that the NZ International Film Festival was going on in town that weekend, so we checked out what was showing that night. It was a movie called Jiro Dreams of Sushi. We like sushi, so why not. We made some dinner and made it back in time for the show. It was a documentary about Jiro Ono, who is thought of as the best sushi chef in the world. He has a restaurant in Tokyo and has devoted his entire life to being a sushi chef. He is now 85 years old, and still works all day everyday in his restaurant making sushi. If you love sushi, it is a must-see. Just don't see it on an empty stomach.

That night we had to park Bertie in a campground for the night. Because of the rugby, there are a lot more travellers and campervans out and about, and some cities are cracking down on freedom camping. Tauranga being one of them, we had to fork out a little cash and spend our first night in a Holiday Park (which are basically popular caravan parks that have full facilities: bathrooms, hot showers, kitchens, and laundry). It wasn't so bad, just very different from how we are used to camping.

WEEKEND 2: Scott & Nikki 0

Bertie didn't like it much though. I think he felt very inferior to the neighboring campers.

The campground was actually in a town just next to Tauranga, called Mount Manganui, right on the beach and alongside the mountain. There was also a hot swimming pool that looked appealing, so we spent the rest of the evening chilling out there until we returned to small little Bertie and climbed into bed. We tried to console Bertie that night, telling him not to worry... size doesn't matter.

The next morning we woke up, had some breakfast, and decided we'd take on the mountain that was peering over us: Mt. Manganui. We started onto the busy track, and very quickly realized that we were probably some of the only tourists on the trails. It is obviously a very popular track for locals to do their morning exercises or trail running. We definitely stuck out like a sore thumb. It was a short track, and we found ourselves at the summit in about 25 minutes, but the views were amazing.

Overlooking the town of Mt. Manganui to the southeast.

Views of Tauranga to the southwest.

And Ocean views everywhere else. 

Very often while hiking, we come across trails that go along some major cliff drops and do not have any railing or barrier. On our way down, we were a little concerned when we saw they actually had a railing up. That must mean it is a pretty good drop. Eeekk.

Only in NZ can you have a sheep farm, the ocean, a forest, and a city all in one shot.

By the time we made it back down, it was time to check-out of the holiday park (another perk of freedom camping... you don't have any checkout times). So we handed in our swipe card and went on the hunt to find some kayaks to use for the afternoon. Unfortunately, the only kayaks we could get our hands on were for guided tours only and we were not wanting that.

WEEKEND 3: Scott & Nikki 0

The other thing we were wanting to do was surfing. But after hearing from some of the guys at the pool the night before that the surfing here hasn't been great lately, we decided to head a little more east in the Bay of Plenty to Whakatane. So off we went along the beautiful road which followed along the ocean on one side with great big cliffs on the other side.

Not only was the scenery beautiful. The road was great. Look... an actual shoulder on the road! Amazing!

We realized as we were driving that we were getting hungry for some lunch, so we found a quiet little beach to stop at to have a picnic.

Not really sure what's going on here...

Anyways... after recovering from the strangeness of the last picture, we carried on to Whakatane, arriving just before 1pm. We went to the i-site and the lady there told us where to go for kayak rentals.

So, off we went to the next town called Ohope, only 10 minutes away, to the fisherman's wharf, where we were told the kayak rentals would be. Once we got there, all that was there was a sign for KG Kayaks and a phone number to call. So, we dug out our cellphone and gave him a call. (I knew that cellphone would come in handy eventually).

The Fisherman's Wharf in Ohope

The guy never answered the phone and we were left out in Ohope with no kayaks in sight. Just a few fishermen out on the dock.

WEEKEND 4: Scott & Nikki 0

We drove along the beach, hoping to come across another kayak rental, or even a surf shop.... but found nothing. We pulled out our Lonely Planet book and found a number for surfboard rentals and lessons. Perfect. This time someone actually answered.

Scott: Hey, we were looking to hire some surf boards for the afternoon.

Man: Oh, ya man, I'm not doing that today.

Scott: Uhmmm... OK.

Man: Sorry dude.

Scott: (hangs up the phone looking very confused).

WEEKEND 5: Scott & Nikki 0

OK. No kayaking. No surfing. Let's go hiking.

There was a hiking trail that started just down the beach. So we put on our hiking boots and packed a bag and off we went. When we arrive at the trail head we find this....



WHAT? NO! We are doing it anyways.

Feeling a tad discouraged but determined, we decide to go along anyways. How bad could it really be? The weekend is NOT beating us on this one.

 

Oh...it's just a staircase that is a little unsturdy. Scott made it up safe, so Nikki followed carefully behind. No biggie.

A little tape isn't going to stop us...

Not long after though, we came to the true cause of the closed track...

 The trail no longer existed. It was washed away by rain.

Deciding our mothers would probably fly to New Zealand just to give us a spanking for this one, we turned back and ended up back on the beach right where we started.

WEEKEND 6: Scott & Nikki 0. But still smiling.

We ended up just chilling out on the beach for a while, had a snack, and then decided we were so tired of not being able to do what we wanted... so we had a nap.

Once we woke up we made delicious Sweet and Sour Meatballs for dinner (OK... by make, I mean warm up). Then we headed to the local pub to watch the All Blacks vs France rugby game. We started talking to a couple sitting at the next table and they just happened to be Canadian (from Vancouver). And then at half time, a Kiwi guy from across the pub came up to us, having recognized our 'accent'. He had done a bike trip across Canada, ended up spending a couple years in Calgary, and met his wife in Calgary. What a small world.

That night we were back to our usual way of camping. We found a spot to stay overnight down past the marina. We were a little worried we'd get a knock on the window in the middle of the night, but were undisturbed the entire night. We woke up the next morning and had some breakfast next to the beach.

While eating breakfast, we noticed how it had been overcast with little sun, and had been like that most of the weekend. Recalling that we were in what is supposed to be the sunshine capital of NZ....

WEEKEND 7: Scott & Nikki 0.

We said goodbye to this area and drove a little ways inland to Rotorua. We spent some time here a few weeks back, but didn't have enough time to do everything we wanted. So, since it was only a little over an hour away, we decided to go there again. The one main thing bringing us back was a place called Skyline. It was a little bit of a rainy overcast day, but that wasn't going to stop us.

First you hop on the skyline Gondola which takes you 487m up Mt. Ngongotaha. It was a very slow ride, and even though there wasn't any snow, it got started getting Scott all antsy for the upcoming ski season.

Once at the top, you enjoy the views of the Lake Rotorua, and the city of Rotorua while shaking off the pre-activity nerves.

Then you find a helmet that kind of fits. Made Nikki a little more nervous knowing that this thing was probably not very good at its job in the life-saving department.... Eeeekk! 

Then you get into a luge cart and go. No safety belt or anything. Just GO!



We took the intermediate track first, just to get the hang of it. It was a 1.7km track of pure fun and excitement with lots of wide corners, narrow chicanes to navigate around and then goes through a tunnel near the end. Apparently there are beautiful views the whole way down, but Nikki was so concentrated on the track that she missed out on that aspect of it.

Then you take a chair lift back to the top and do it all over again. This time we took the advanced track. This one was 1km full of tight bends and dips and then joins the other track before going through the tunnel again and reaching the end of the track. Since the track was wet from the rain, there was some slipping and sliding around corners, and we even got some air on some of the drops, but we both maintained control and came out injury free. We learned later from our roommates that heaps of people get injured doing it. I'd say we beat the weekend on this one.

WEEKEND 7: Scott & Nikki 1

It was so much fun and we could have spent a few more hours going up and down the different tracks, but it was at this time that we realized that we had forgotten about Daylight Savings that had bumped the time forward an hour. So we had thought it was only 11am, but it was actually already noon.

WEEKEND 8: Scott & Nikki 1

The other thing bringing us back to Rotorua was that we had heard about an event happening that afternoon called the Rotorua Rugby Mud Festival. Basically, there was a few different games you could do, all in the geothermal hot mud: Rugby, Tug-of-war, mud scrums, diving competitions, and volleyball.

Obviously wanting to play in the mud, we bought an online coupon earlier that week and signed up for the mud volleyball event which was to take place from 3-4pm. We stopped for lunch in town before heading out to the Hells Gate Geothermal area which was just a few minutes outside of town.

We arrived there just before 2pm, got all our gear ready to play volleyball in the mud, and made our way inside figuring we'd have some extra time to check out the other activities going on before our big game of volleyball. We handed over our tickets to the guy at the counter, who then led us to another guy. This guy then looked at our coupons and told us we were a little late and had missed it all. Probably reading our confused faces, he explained that since the weather was so bad, they went ahead with the activities and ended things early. 

Our minds were just spinning trying to figure out why a little bit of rain would make any difference to the events when you are out in a pile of mud? Still not really getting it, but what can you do.

WEEKEND 9: Scott & Nikki 1

Fortunately, in exchange for the pre-paid coupon they let us into their geothermal park where we got to see more boiling hot springs and mud pools. We hadn't planned on seeing more of this kind of stuff, as we did lots of it the last time we were in the area, but we thought it'd be nice to go for a walk. So away we went.

Some of the unique features of this area compared to the ones we saw before was a beautiful hot waterfall called Kakahi Falls (the largest hot water falls in the southern hemisphere with water reaching up to 40 degrees), and an active mud volcano. 

Kakahi Falls

Mud Volcano. Erupts once every 6 weeks.

At the end of the walk, we got to stop at the carving school where we got to carve our very own piece of wood. On the left: Nikki's Kiwi bird (meaning determination). On the right: Scott's symbol meaning strength. We even got to take them home as souvenirs!

Also, in compensation for missing out on the mud activities, they took us to the WaiOra Spa and allowed us to soak in a private mud bath for 20 minutes. Definitely not the same as what we were expecting out of playing volleyball in the mud, but we went for a soak anyways.

People pay a lot of money for this kind of spa treatment. The mineral enriched geothermal mud mixed with the sulfurous waters is thought to have healing, moisturizing, detoxifying, and bactericidal properties and is supposed to be great for your skin. The mud can block your pores if you are in it for too long so they have a 20 minute time limit. And because it is so warm, and they don't want people passing out after, they force you into a freezing cold shower for 30 seconds to bring the blood flow back to your heart and head. That was NOT fun. But afterwards, we got to jump into another hot pool and warm up.

After looking up the regular prices for what we got to do this afternoon, we realized that we got a great deal. We paid $20 each for the coupon for the Mud Festival. The combo pass for walking around the geothermal area, wood carving, and the private mud spa was normally $115 each.

WEEKEND 9: Scott & Nikki 2

The only downfall to the relaxing mud-filled afternoon was that our clothes reeked of sulfur and even worse, we pretty much had sulfur smells seeping from our pores for the next 24 hours. After a few loads of laundry, and a good work out at the gym followed by a really soapy shower, we are finally rid of the smell!

We made it back to Hamilton, grateful for the extra evening daylight, unpacked Bertie, made some dinner and were so exhausted we went to bed. Even though the weekend kicked our #*@, we still had a good time. I guess we can't complain that out of all the weekends we have travelled so far, this was the first that didn't work out so well.

"So Are ALL Canadians Lumberjacks Or What?"

September 16th - September 18th

Before coming to New Zealand, we knew we were going to be here during the Rugby World Cup (RWC), but I don't think we understood how big of a deal this was going to be. Kiwis are crazy about their rugby. And coming from Canada, where rugby is not really a big deal, we didn't know much about it. But, we figured it'd be part of the NZ experience to go to a game. So we decided to get tickets.

We had the choice between travelling a few hours to go see Canada play, or we could stay in Hamilton to see the All Blacks play (for those of you who don't know rugby... that's New Zealand's team). With all the hype over the All Blacks, we decided it would be more of a true Kiwi experience to go see them play in their home territory.

Friday, September 16th: ALL BLACKS VS JAPAN

The Waikato Stadium in Hamilton normally has capacity for 26000 people, but with temporary seating installed, they were able to add an extra 5000 seats. With an anticipated full stadium, and very little parking available nearby, we decided we would be better off getting downtown earlier rather than later. After getting a prime parking spot, we went for dinner at a restaurant called The Bank and then checked out the Hamilton Fan Zone.

They closed down a couple streets downtown, put a stage and a big screen, and had some live music before the game. There were tents set up selling hot dogs and a make-shift attempt at a carnival, with 2 rides and one food booth selling the typical fair food (cotton candy and fried foods). And for some reason, a group of scantily dressed girls on rollerblades making laps up and down the street.

Looked like Hamilton had put some time into planning its big RWC debut. The only thing missing was people. There were only a few groups of people wandering about. (Maybe it would pick up for them later in the night)

We then made our way to the stadium, which was about a 15 minute walk from the Fan Zone. There were free shuttle buses taking people there, but we had lots of time and it was much warmer if we walked. A few blocks into it, we found ourselves surrounded by hardcore All Blacks fans. Dressed up, faces painted, flags waving, we could sense the excitement and anticipation of the fans. We would be lying if we said this didn't get us excited for it.

After checking out the stadium, we found our seats, which happened to be in the temporary seating sections, behind the goal post, about mid-field.

View of the field from our seats.

Both teams entered onto the field, and we had a moment of silence in honor of the thousands of people effected by both the Japan and the New Zealand earthquake, followed by the national anthems. 

And then the All Blacks did the Haka. We have a video but it was too big to upload. :( 

For those of you who don't already know, the All Blacks do a traditional Maori Haka dance before every game. It is meant to assert their power and intimidate their opponents. Some teams will do their own intimidation dance back at them, but I think it is mainly a New Zealand thing.

Then came the game. Let's just preface this by noting that the All Blacks are #1 in the league, whereas Japan is ranked #13. So as you can imagine, the Japanese were looking a bit beat up.

The All Blacks scored a try (a goal) pretty early on, and subsequently scored 12 more throughout the game. Japan managed to score 1 try. Making the final score 83 to 7. The All Blacks are a pretty amazing team to watch. But, the most amazing thing was that the crowd was not at all what we expected.

Now, we understand that what we have to compare this to are Canadian hockey games, and they shouldn't really be comparable. But.... come on. The fans were so concentrated on the game, that there was not as much cheering as we had expected.

There were several attempts at starting the 'wave', but was only successful once, and then failed every other time. And there were a few people who got mad when people stood up when to cheer when the All Blacks were just about to score a try. The only redeeming feature of the crowd was that they gave Japan a great big cheer when they finally scored a try (possibly even bigger cheers than when NZ scored). 

But, despite the disappointing crowd, we still had a great time at the game and we do not regret the decision to go see the All Blacks instead of Canada.

Saturday, September 17th: AUSTRALIA vs IRELAND

Since we were staying in town for the rest of the weekend (so Scott could catch up on a bit of school work) we decided we'd go out to catch some of the other games that were playing. While walking along in the Fan Zone the night before, we noticed a pub that looked like it had great screens and fairly comfy place to watch the game. So... we thought we'd check it out.

What we didn't know before was that this pub has named itself the unofficial Wales embassy, which became apparent as soon as you walk in. It was FULL of Welsh people. Not thinking much of it, we found a great place to sit and watch the game. We weren't sure how the Welsh got along with the Irish, but we were pleasantly surprised when they all started cheering and singing when Ireland scored their first points. Sitting next to us was a Welsh man named Greg, who played professional rugby back in the day in Wales, who gave us an inside perspective on the Welsh fans and rugby.

Ireland ended up beating Australia in a really close game. This was a pretty big upset for the Aussies, who were expected to take first place in their pool. But now it looks like Ireland might take that from them. Of course we are cheering for Ireland, mainly because right now we live with a guy from Ireland, and on behalf of Kieran, the Irishman who we met in Fiji. GO IRELAND!!

Sunday, September 18th: CANADA vs FRANCE

 Bertie supporting Team Canada

Having heard the night before that the Welsh don't really like France, and that they would be cheering for Canada, we decided we'd meet them all back at that same pub for Canada's game.

This time Darcy (another Canadian exchange student from Victoria) and Viljami (our Finnish housemate) came along with us. We got to the pub at about 7:45pm, and again, it was full of the same Welsh people who were all celebrating their teams win earlier that day.

Us with Greg from Wales

Viljami was threatening to cheer for France, but that plan was quickly thwarted by making him wear our Canadian flag on his back like a cape. A lady came up to us wanting to take a picture of the Canadian fans. When Viljami started to pose, smiling for the picture, she said, "no offense, but can you turn around so I can get a picture of the flag". A few minutes later she came up to Viljami with a pen and paper and asked him if he could write down the lyrics to our national anthem for her so she could sing along with us. Our plan to force Viljami into cheering for Canada worked... but that was a dead give away. He came clean and Scott proceeded to write the lyrics down for her.

Darcy showing her true Canadian spirit

The game started out really well with Canada scoring the first points. I don't think there was one person in the place that wasn't cheering for Canada. There were lots of "Let's Go Canada, Let's Go" chanting and cheering, even though we probably only counted 10 obvious Canadians. We met a lady from Vancouver Island, and a couple of guys from Vancouver.



And... one girl who claimed to be Canadian but when we asked her where she was from, she said "oh... like... uhmm... Ontario" and then after the game, she said "oh well, we'll just stick to ice hockey". How many Canadians actually say that. It is hockey. Not ICE hockey. Dead giveaway.

Canada stayed in the game until the second half, where they were getting sloppy and giving away points by getting penalty after penalty. It didn't help that France had a really good kicker who made all but one penalty kicks. Overall, Canada put up a good fight but lost 19-46. Obviously the French were not intimidated by the bearded Canadian men.

If you meet some Kiwi's and they think that all Canadians are lumberjacks... you have rugby to blame.

In trying to figure out why they would grow such things, Darcy and Nikki figured out that it must be a tactical move on their part. For example, when it is raining and the ball is slippery, just mop it up with your beard and you are good to go. But then the downfall would be all the pulling and tugging of the beard that would inevitably happen when you get tackled. OUCH.

We had a great weekend full of rugby. We never expected to get so into it, but we now find ourselves looking at the pool scores and checking out who is playing who next, and anticipating upcoming games. It's hard not to get into it when you are surrounded by it everyday. The Rugby World Cup is going on for another month, with the final game on October 23rd. We'll see what we have to say if you ask us in a month how we feel about rugby. We might be a little sick of it then. But for now, we are enjoying it.  

Three Canadians and one crazy Finn

Look out All Blacks, The Canadians will get you.

"I Think Bertie Deserves A Carwash After This One"

September 8th - September 11th

COROMANDEL PENINSULA

When talking to Nikki's dad earlier this week, he said we should be careful what we post on the internet about Scott's school here because if the UofC finds out about how slack it's been, they might decide to change their minds and not give him credit for it. Haha. First week back at school after two weeks off, and classes cancelled on Thursday and Friday. Perfect! We needed a long weekend for this trip. And just for the record, we could have technically left on Tuesday night, but Scott was responsible and worked on some assignments on Wednesday and Thursday.

We left at about 2:30pm on Thursday and were off to the Coromandel Peninsula. When asking people here what their favorite place on the North Island is, this is often the answer. So we were happy to have a little extra time to spend here.

From Hamilton, we drove the 125km stretch to Whangamata, taking us just about 2 hours. The first part of the drive was through familiar farmland.

But just past the town of Paeroa we cut east and drove through the Karangahake Gorge. Let's just say there were several close calls of puking out the window on this road.

Then we drove along the Pacific Coast Highway where if you looked left you had views of farmland and classic New Zealand hills, and if you looked right you had beautiful views of the ocean. 

We made it to Whangamata (without vomiting) just before the i-site closed and found out where to camp for the night. This lead us to a place called Broken Hills Campground, which was about 30 minutes north of Whangamata, most of which was on a gravel road. It was worth it because we found ourselves in a very isolated, quiet place with a beautiful view of the cliffs of the Broken Hills.

Broken Hills in the moonlight

We had a romantic moonlit dinner under the stars next to Bertie. (Mmmmm... Moroccan lamb stew), played some Backgammon and tucked ourselves into Bertie for a good night sleep. 

We woke up to a misty cool morning, had some breakfast and made our way to our next destination.     

We drove another hour up the coast to a place called Hot Water Beach.

We had to time this just right because you can only experience this beach within a couple hours either side of low tide. We looked it up and knew that low tide was at about 10am. Luckily, our timing was perfect.

Hot Water Beach - Doesn't look like much from here

But once you get around the rocks on the left of the picture, it turns into this...

You either bring your own shovel or rent one from the nearby cafe for $5, and dig a hole in the sand to make your own pool. There is a natural spring of hot water bubbling up through the sand, but you have to dig down to the water table to find it. If you are just one foot outside this area, it is cold. And if you dig in some areas, it is hot enough to burn you. But if you hit just the right spot, you can create your very own hot tub in the sand. The hot spots at the top of the area trickle towards the ocean and spread out a bit, filling all of the pools that people dig with steamy, clear water.

We paired up with a couple from Alaska and dug a great big hole that had a boiling hot water source combined with a cool one, creating the perfect pool.

We then adopted another pool from someone who left, but created a stream from our original one so we could use some of the boiling hot water to make our new pool the perfect temperature. After all our hard work (OK, let's be honest...Scott's hard work), we laid out in our pool and relaxed here for over an hour.

As we sat in it, the sand would gradually fill in the pool, and we'd have to dig it out again to keep it deep enough. We stayed in our pool long enough to watch the lower pools get destroyed by the incoming tide, a couple times taking distracted people by surprise when the cold waves came crashing in. All the hard work was worth it because we left feeling super relaxed.

Not surprisingly, we continued to find sand in every nook and cranny for the rest of the weekend. Too bad Bertie doesn't have a shower.

Then we drove 10 minutes up the road to the town of Hahei. We looked into renting kayaks for the afternoon to explore the Cathedral Cove area, but were disappointed to learn that the only kayak company in town only did expensive guided tours. Not really appealing to us, we decided we'd just hike along the coast to Cathedral Cove instead.

We drove the the start of the trail, made some sandwiches for lunch, topped up our lunch with a hot dog from the food stand, and set off on the hike.

The track veered off down to Gemstone Bay, which had a bouldery beach but is supposed to be great for snorkeling. We left our snorkel gear at home, so we just took in the beautiful scenery and continued on our way.

Gemstone Bay

The next detour off the main track was down to a place called Stingray Bay.

This was a beautiful bay with boulders and sandy beach. Across the bay there is a great big cliff face and as you can see in the picture above, a sea cave. As you can imagine, Scott decided to go explore the cave. And as you can also imagine, it did not go without incident.

Scott taking on high tide in attempt to reach the cave

Nikki's Perspective: I stayed on the south side of the bay, watching out for the Orcas that had been spotted near this bay earlier. The next thing I see from across the bay is Scott on one of the boulders, jumping up and down, hands on his head, in only his boxers. Not phased by it at all, I went on with my business, thinking he probably just got splashed by a cold wave. A couple minutes later, Scott came walking up the beach in his dry boxers.

Scott's Perspective: I went running along the sandy beach to the north side of the bay, where the tide was just coming up along the boulders. The water was only knee-high, but waves made it come up a bit higher, so I stripped down to my boxers to wade through the water and get around the boulders. I took a few steps in. About to take my next step, I look down to see a big black stingray right where I was about to step. Half-way through the step, I changed the direction of my step to my right, to avoid stepping on it, only to find another big black stingray on that side of me too. I jumped back up onto the boulder, and had a little bit of a freak out while I remembered that the Crocodile Hunter guy died from one of these, picked up my pants and walked back along the beach back to where Nikki was sitting.

Scott was not impressed with Nikki's initial reaction of laughter when she heard what happened. But she soon realized how close he was to stepping on them, and how close he was to being stung by it if he had stepped on one of them. Still pretty funny though.

With Scott's adrenaline running full speed, and Nikki still giggling a bit to herself, we continued along the main track. It climbed uphill to a high point overlooking the coastline, through a small bit of farmland, and into a pine forest where it then descended to Cathedral Cove.



 Cathedral Cove

Scott walking through the Cove

Sandstone formations creating little islands and large cliff faces

Nothing like a little meditation by the sea

After the hike back, we drove another 30 minutes north to a town called Whitianga. (I don't know if we have ever explained that in the Moari language, 'wh' is pronounced closer to an 'f'' sound. So this town is pronounced fit-i-anga).

After arriving here, we walked around the town, scoped out a good seafood restaurant and a place to watch the rugby game. We also found a place by the marina to park Bertie for the night.  

We had dinner at a place called "Squid's" that everyone recommended for seafood. It was a small and quaint husband and wife operation right beside the water. For a starter we had pork-stuffed squid with five spice, which was pretty good. For mains we shared a smoked seafood platter and a kilo of Coromandel mussels with bread. Everything was really good, smoked kingfish is amazing, and their mussels, although quite different than BC or PEI mussels, are still great.

After dinner we headed straight to the pub to catch the opening ceremonies of the Rugby World Cup. In terms of spectacle, atmosphere, national pride, and emotional investment, this tournament is right on par with what the Vancouver Olympics were for Canada. People are nuts about this rugby thing here. Anyways, the opening ceremonies were interesting, and they were followed by the first game All Blacks vs Tonga. It was a complete slaughter, and by half-time it was 9:30 pm, we were tired, and we figured there was no need to stick around for the rest of the game so we walked back to Bertie and settled in for the night.

The next morning, we needed to get across the peninsula to Coromandel Town. There are two routes that will take you there. One is to continue north along the Pacific Coastal Highway until it cuts west and makes its way on a typical Kiwi highway (narrow and winding). The second option takes you along the "309 Road" which basically cuts straight across the peninsula. Of course, we chose the second route.

Yes, it is the shorter route, but definitely not the fastest. It is even more narrow and winding, and mostly gravel. But, there are lots of things to stop and see along the way. We knew what we were in for because we read somewhere that this road presents no problem to the motorist who is prepared to drive steadily and stay well to the left around the corners.

Our first stop was at a grove of Kauri trees. We hadn't seen any other cars or people for several kilometers, but when we pulled over to park, we were a little weirded out by a man just hanging out by his truck. He actually ended up being a really friendly pig-hunter, waiting for his buddy and dogs to come back with another pig.

Scott: ANOTHER pig?

Pig-hunter: Yeah. we've got a little one back here already. Wanna see it?

Scott: YES!

We spent probably 15 minutes talking with him, learning all about pig hunting and how they cook it. (great...we just had breakfast and now Scott is hungry again).

He even offered to give us some pig he had in his freezer if we met him in Coromandel later that night.

Recalling the real reason we stopped here, we hiked the short track to the Kauri Grove. It was common in the past for these trees to be logged, because they provided good materials for boats and traditional Maori carvings. This specific area, however, has been protected for several hundred years and has some of the largest remaining Kauri trees.

Left: Siamese Kauri Tree

Above: Tree-hugging

We also stopped at Waiau Falls. It was a small waterfall with a little swimming hole at its base. It was just a couple minutes walk off the main road, making it more of a nice stretch break from driving than anything.

Our next stop claims to be Coromandel's most fun attraction. We have to say...it was SO much fun!

It is called The Waterworks. It is an extremely unique and clever version of an amusement park. Full of water-powered gadgets, sculptures, and things to play with. Lots of things that tell you to turn the wheel to make something move, only to have a shower head above you in a tree spray you with water.  

Water Gadget Thingys

It also has an area with self-propelled amusement park style rides (of course all without any safety features that would never fly in Canada) These so called 'rides' were SO much fun. There were no carnies or line ups or even kids. It was just us, and an elderly couple wandering about the place enjoying the step back to our childhood.

There were flying bicycles (controlled only by your very own pedaling), a spinning see-saw, round-the-world swing, hamster wheel (picture on right), and a couple of insanely fun ziplines (picture on left). These ziplines were unbelievable. You just climb up to the starting point, jump on the rope and away you go, hoping the tires at the end actually stop you. No harness or safety requirements at all. The elderly couple really enjoyed watching us do it several times over.

SO much fun!

They usually have some animals around, kind of like a petting farm, but with the animals just wandering around freely. But they weren't out when we were there. They have a pig that just had piglets though, and as we were driving out, we saw them on the side of the road.

After snapping back into adulthood, we continued on the 309 road a little ways further until we reached Coromandel Town. With all our stops along the way, it took us about 3 hours to get to our final destination, but totally worth it.

Once in Coromandel Town, we wandered around a bit, stopped at the famous Coromandel Smoking Company and tried out a few of their smoked mussels (the only redeeming feature of the town as far as we are concerned) and then found the i-site to check out what we could do for the afternoon. We didn't have much energy at this point from all our running around at Waterworks, so we had a tough time deciding what to do for the afternoon.   

After some humming and hawing, Nikki had a light bulb moment. We had planned on hiking up to the Pinnacles the next day, and having done some reading on it, Nikki remembered that there is a backcountry hut up there. So, with not much to do in the town, why not go up to the Pinnacles hut for the night?!

Wondering if it would even be possible at this point, we went back to the i-site to ask about it and were told that it is a great thing to do. At this point it was 1:00pm, and we still had 78km to drive to get to the start of the track (14km of which was gravel road), get our bags, gear, and food packed up, and hike to the hut. The reported time to hike to the hut is about 3 1/2 hours and the sun sets just before 6pm here. So... we booked the hut, and off we went scurrying about to get organized. By far, it was the fastest, most spur of the moment backpacking trip we've ever done. Luckily, Bertie was equipped with everything we needed.

We arrived at the trail head, all packed up and ready to go at about 3:30pm (remember that driving 78km here takes a lot longer than it would back home. Man, we miss straight roads). 

And this is when the race against the setting sun began. Luckily, we are fairly fast hikers, and we usually complete routes in less time than is suggested. We really wanted to get to the hut before dark, so we moved at a pretty good hustle.

The hike starts as a wide gravel path, not very steep, that crosses a creek several times. As the path reaches the back of the wide valley, it goes from flat to steep and from gravel to stairs... Stair after endless stair that has either been built out of stones or carved into the dense ash that composes the ground in this region (called `The Rock Staircase`).

The track moves through dense jungle as it climbs, but once in a while the forest would thin a bit and we could see back down the valley. Eventually the steep ascent eased off and followed the top of a ridgeline, still climbing steadily, through some huge spires and peaks making its way to the hut.

One great thing about hiking at this time of day is that the light of the setting sun gives everything a wonderful warm glow. It was a beautiful evening to be out wandering around in the backcountry. A few more minutes of the ridge and we caught sight of the Pinnacles.

The Pinnacles Peaks

The sun had just ducked below the horizon as we came over the last ridge, and had the last few hundred metres downhill to the Pinnacles Hut.

With our long legs and deliberate pace, our time was 2 hours 10 minutes. The hut itself is huge and quite modern, and it holds 80 people at capacity. For our night there was 50 or so other hikers.

We staked claim to some bunk beds and made our way to the very busy kitchen to cook dinner. 50 people in a little kitchen was pretty cramped, but what made things a little bit hilarious was that EVERYBODY (except us) was in full-on cooking mode. No dehydrated meals or bagels for dinner here, people were cooking with woks and were cutting up vegetables and raw meat and all kinds of stuff. It was incredible! Nothing like huts back home. Our simple meal of re-heated chili seemed downright boring. Delicious though.

After dinner we cruised back to the bunks and got ready for bed, despite it being only 7:30pm. The temperature was dropping fast and the wind kicked up, and pretty soon we needed to tuck into our sleeping bags to keep warm.

The lights were already out in the bunk room, so we played cards for a little while under the light of our headlamps, and then called it a night fairly early.

Morning at the hut came early as people starting getting loud around 6:00 am. We awoke to grey skies and low cloud, low enough to put the Pinnacles into the mist and make the views from the hike in non-existent.

Sad to be forced out by the weather

We knew that there was supposed to be heavy rain moving in by late morning, so we scarfed down some breakfast, packed our bags and started the hike out. It would have been nice to ascend the Pinnacles, but we weren't too sad as the views of hike in had been so stunning. Once again, we had motivation to do the hike quickly, as the rock/ash staircase would be a little slippery in the rain.





Nikki navigating down the rock staircase

Each one of the many stream crossings on the hike has two routes, one where you hop the rocks and one "flood route" where you stray from the main track a bit and take a swing-bridge to get across (another reason to get out of there before the rain started... it`s not very reassuring when they have to have flood routes).

We took the bridge pretty much every time, not because it was flooding, it's just plain fun.

It's strange how things turned out for us: Hike in = 2 hrs 10 min, and got to the hut minutes before the sun set. Hike out = 2 hrs 10 minutes, and got to the camper JUST as it started to rain. Literally seconds away from being drenched. It didn't look like the rain was going to let up any time soon, we were pretty tired, and there wasn't much more we wanted to see in the region, so we gased up Bertie and drove back to Hamilton. It poured rain the whole way. Which was actually kinda nice, since after so many kilometres of rough, dusty, gravel roads, Bertie was due for a good shower.

The Coromandel Peninsula is a really beautiful place. The people are truly friendly and sweet, the seafood is great, and there are a ton of fun things to do. We have heard that in the summer the population in the area nearly doubles with vacationers and tourists. Anyone who travels to North Island NZ should make it here.

To put it all in perspective as to where all this stuff went down, here is a map of the area.