Auckland to Hahei

July 3, 2009

Well, I’m here! I’m here with Raven in Hahei, which is on the Coromandel Peninsula. It took me about 24 hours from the time I left my apartment in Olympia until I arrived in Auckland. Raven was there to pick me up and it was so good to see a friendly face! Raven wasn’t the only one waiting for my flight. There were a bunch of teenage girls holding signs, eagerly awaiting the arrival of… apparently, there were some wrestling stars on my flight. I’d seen them in LA and they acted like they were in the “Biz”, being very obnoxious and acting entitled. It was funny because Raven said that the girls were excited and getting pictures with these wrestlers.

Raven had driven up a couple of days before and was staying at a motel near the airport. She hadn’t checked out yet so that I could go there and take a shower before heading out on our first adventure. We drove towards the Coromandel Peninsula, stopping first at a café called “Café 2 Go” so that I could have my first meat pie of the trip. We shared a couple of pies and desserts so that we could sample more. I ordered a pastry called a citrus slice, which was amazing. Not sure what it was exactly but it had crumbled pistachio on top. Mmmm.

We drove towards the Coromandel Peninsula determined to stop whenever we wished. My guidebook recommended stopping at the Matatoki “Cheese Factory”, so of course we stopped. Not really much to see there. I got a children’s book about cheese, which cracked me up. We bought some cheese and continued on.

The drive up to the Coromandel Peninsula is gorgeous but incredibly curvy and hilly. There are a lot of cars and large semi trucks flying down these 2 lane roads and since I’m suddenly on the other side of the road, it’s a bit disconcerting. I’m glad that Raven is driving because I’m sure I would have already crashed if I were behind the wheel.

We decided to stop at the small beach town Hahei, on the Pacific Ocean. We saw a sign leading to the Cathedral Cove so we got out and started to walk along the beach. What really struck me was that the sand was pink. Looking closely, there are tiny pink shards of shell intermixed with the sand. The coast kind of reminds me of the Oregon Coast in that there are little patches of land out at sea. It is July, which in NZ means that it’s the dead of winter, but in Hahei it really felt like I hadn’t left summer. I even wished that I had my capris! It really felt like summer vacation. We walked all along the beach and came across a rope swing, which I had no arm strength to actually swing from. Good pictures though. We saw our first kiwi wildlife while walking on the beach. We saw a teal kingfisher, two oystercatchers and a dead blow fish. We also saw what we thought was a turtle but turned out to be a rock that kept surfacing the water. I think I got some great pictures on my first full day in NZ.

It’s now 7:30 pm, it’s been dark for a couple of hours now and my body thinks it’s 12:30 am. We’re staying the night at a backpacker here in Hahei. We went to the only restaurant open in town (beach town, closes down in the winter) and had a yummy but expensive dinner. We were going to try to make our own food by going to the grocery store first but it wasn’t really a grocery store. No thanks. Anyway, I’m tired and THRILLED to be here. People are incredibly friendly and the scenery is beyond description. Tomorrow we plan to head further up the peninsula to go kayaking and sit in hot water pools. Yay!