Coromandel

On a whim, Jenna and I decided to rent a car and head up North for the weekend. We left Auckland Sunday morning and drove just over 2 hours to reach Coromandel. The weather was questionable the entire way there. We drove through torrential downpours that forced us to pull off to the side. But then no more than 15 minutes later it was perfectly sunny with no clouds to be seen. We stopped a few times along the way to take in the scenery. Once again… it was breathtaking.



We found a cute little hostel to stay at for the night. We had a 10 person room almost completely to ourselves with the exception of one other girl. It had a little kitchen for us and our own bathroom and showers.



After looking through some tour books we came across Cathedral Cove and set out to find it. The hike took about an hour each way but it was so worth it. The trail goes through cow pastures that overlook the ocean. Even from the top of the hike (it was all downhill) you could see the bottom of the ocean. The water was magnificent. We got to the beach and I could not help but go swimming, even though it was only about 60 degrees out. I got out to about my shoulders before it hit me and I realized how cold the water was.




The beach itself was beautiful and there was a waterfall off to the side. We walked through Cathedral Cove to the other side which was just as nice. I will be forever spoiled by New Zealand’s beaches.






After spending the night we woke up early to watch the sunrise over the beach in front of our hostel. About halfway through it started to downpour, leaving us both soaked.



We had originally planned to stay another day but decided it would be best to head back since the weather was supposed to be miserable. We had hoped to visit the hot sand beaches but unfortunately that did not work out. At low tide, when the water goes out you can dig holes in the sand which fill with hot water from below. They are almost like mini spas. But since we already bought the shovels and buckets we have an excuse to go back and try again.

Canyoning!

Yesterday we went canyoning. It was probably the most fun I have had since being here. We found a company to pick us up in the city. We drove about 45 minutes out into the middle of nowhere. We suited up and hiked about an hour up the side of a mountain. There was no real trail and since it has rained the past three days it made it quite slippery. This was by far the hardest part. Everyone was falling and sliding down. It was one of those 2 steps forward, one step back situations. So after climbing to the top the fun started. There were 18 waterfalls that we used to get back to the bottom of the mountain. The first one was about 15 feet tall and you jumped off into the water below. It was once again FREEZING! We had a few more jumps like that.



Others were too tall to jump off of so we had to repel ourselves down. We were completely on our own for this and it was a lot harder than I expected. Especially since the water was rushing over you making it difficult to see. About half way through I lost feeling in my hands which made climbing and moving that much harder. We did three repels in total.



The last option was water slides. Since all the waterfalls are formed from hardened lava some are really smooth. These you would slide down like a water slide. The guides were really fun and pushed us past our limits. They made us go down on our backs head first. It was sorta scary not being able to see what was coming or when you were going to hit the water, but it was definitely worth it.





We stopped for lunch about half way through then continued to the bottom. All of the pools below the water falls are filled with fresh water eels. They were about 3-4 feet long and I tried really hard not to think about swimming with them even though the water was clear enough for you to see them besides you.



This was by far the most physically challenging thing I have ever done. I am certainly feeling it today.

Activitiy Weekend 6-8 August

Hello Hello!!

Last weekend was the Activity Weekend for our program! It was great to get away (and have everything already paid for!) The director here (my second mother at this point) picked us up Friday afternoon and we drove to Waitomo which is about 3 hours south of Auckland. We dropped off our bags at a cute hostel and headed to a park for a quick hike. Here hiking is called “tramping.” So we wandered through the woods for about an hour. It turns out that this was the same spot that we were going to doing our blackwater rafting through the next day. It was gorgeous!



We headed back shortly after since it was getting dark. The sunsets around 5:30 pm here still so the days are quite short. Waitomo is a really tiny town with only one pub/ restaurant so we headed out and grabbed burgers and chips(French fries.) After we got back our group rested in the hostel in front of a cozy fire and watched movies for the night.

The next morning we woke up early to go blackwater rafting. I volunteered to go on the earlier trip. It turned out to be 5 kids from my program and 10 other people from Brazil who spoke absolutely no English. It made for a really interesting trip. Blackwater rafting consists of tubing through caves in complete darkness underground. Keeping in mind that it is winter here, you can imagine how cold it really was. They gave us wetsuits and helmets and I wore 3 layers of thermals underneath but it was still quite chilly. The water was about 40 degrees. So we climbed through parts and rafted through others. These caves were filled with glowworms which was super cool until we found out that that they were actually maggots that glow in the dark. But it was really neat to lay back and see nothing but tiny little glowing specs above us. They looked almost like constellations in the sky. After coming out of the caves they gave us bagels and soup and we took warm showers.






We all hopped back in the van and headed off to Raglan. It is almost halfway between Waitomo and Auckland. It’s a cute little beach town. We stayed at the sweetest hostel ever. It reminded me of a summery beach house. Since it was raining we didn’t get to do anything so we wandered around the town for a bit.We cooked dinner as a big group and then watched a movie before going to bed. Sunday morning we woke up and got ready for our surf lesson! This was probably the highlight of my weekend since I have wanted to surf for ages. We had a dry land lesson first before we headed to the beach. The beach itself was absolutely gorgeous. The water was freezing, but not nearly as bad as the caves were.





The instructors were so friendly and helpful. The water was a bit rough but I managed to stand up on my 4th try! We stayed in the water for about an hour and a half. Although, we had to keep getting out and walking back down since we were being dragged by the undertow.


(Yes, that is actualy me!)

All in all it was a great weekend!

Weekend Trip to Lake Taupo

This weekend a group planned a last minute trip to Lake Taupo. It is about 4 hours south of Auckland. We chose Taupo with the intention of Skydiving. It is supposed to be the cheapest with one of the best views so we booked our jump time and rented a car. It was so nice to get away from the city for a little bit. The drive down was nice. Everyone was so excited for skydiving that the time flew. We checked into our hostel, which was surprisingly nice and grabbed dinner in town. Then the five of us headed to the bar downstairs. Go figure, we were the only people in there. So we played pool for a bit and went back to try and sleep. But our room faced the club next door which played music until 3:30 so we really didn't sleep very much.

We got up early and visited the Aratiatia Rapids which were about 10km away. We got there just as they released the flood gates so the water was rushing through. It was crystal clear and a really pretty color blue. There was a trail that we followed to the top. It led us to a scenic overview which was breathtaking.



Next we visited Huka Falls. I was expected this amazing waterfall but quickly realized it was not at all what I thought. Instead it was rather small but really intense. The water rushes through at 30,000 gallons a second.



We headed back to the hostel since we were scheduled to be picked up at 2pm to skydive! But when we called they asked us to call back in a half hour since they were not jumping due to the weather. This went on for about 2 and a half hours before we were picked up in a long white limo! We signed our lives away and watched all the safety videos. We were all set to jump before they called us off again due to the weather. It was a complete disappointment. So we rescheduled for the next morning but the same thing happened. That night the weather was still miserable so we decided to go see Inception. It was such a great movie, go see it if you haven't yet.



Needless to say, we still have our vouchers so we will be heading back to Taupo soon.... hopefully with better weather next time.