Day 1 – The Coromandel Penninsula
After clearing passport control and biosecurity (move over TSA!), we made our way to NZ Telecom kiosk to pick up a NZ cim card for our phone. We then caught the shuttle to the car rental place and were in and out within 15 minutes. Then….the fun began. Navigating the roads just outside of the Auckland Airport was terrifying to say the least, and as if to add insult to injury, we encountered our first traffic round about came within about 30 seconds of departing. OH MY GOSH! After pulling over in a Dunkin Donuts parking lot and getting our bearings, we were soon on the interstate and making our way out to the Coromandel Peninsula. The roads were narrow and twisty turny. This, combined with the fact that it’s hard to force yourself as the driver on the right hand side of the vehicle to hug the center line, made for quite the adventure! Our Nissan Wingroad station wagon handles pretty well, but doesn’t make it up hills so well, which is fine with me, because going slow seemed like a fine idea. When we heard that the national speed limit on the open road in NZ is 100km/h, we thought that seemed slow. How wrong were we! I haven’t felt safe going much over 80 km/h in this country and I routinely get passed by the locals.
The trip out to the Coromandel was worth it! White sandy beaches, limestone arches, and beautiful blue water – it truly is a taste of the South Pacific! JD was brave enough to get in the 55 F or so water for an invigorating dip after our trans-pacific journey. Hiking through the bush (there are all these magnificent fern “trees” about. We keep ferns in pots, they grow to be 50 ft tall in this country!
We then made our way to hot water beach, which we learned is called “hot” for good reason. We rented a shovel, headed down to the water and quickly learned about techniques and ettiquite for digging the perfect hot tub. (Some people get them in their hotel rooms on their honeymoon – we dug one like little kids in the sand =) At low tide, the water bubbles up due to geothermal activity are HOT! So as you dig, if you encounter a hot spot, you let the water bubble up and fill a hot pool. You then dig your pool to the side to let the otherwise cool sand water mix with the hot stuff to make for a nice bath.
We then visited the EggCentric Cafe, where we enjoyed a fish and chips and chicken meat pie – both of which were delicious and so fresh!
We then got lost for a bit on the highway, but eventually made it to our B&B, where we stayed in a lovely cottage in the garden. As soon as we showered, we fell asleep by 8:30pm local time and slept through till 5:30am. We slept like logs.
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