Snorkeling and Hiking

Feb 25 – Cathedral Cove

Our plan today was to snorkel at Cathedral Cove. We headed up around 10am and already the parking lot was packed. We ended up parking down the hill a little on an empty lot. I was a little worried at first about parking there but then about 6 other cars pulled in beside us so I figured we'd be fine. We walked down to Gemstone Bay which has a little snorkel track. There were buoys set up for you to follow. We hopped in the frigid water and started swimming. We saw a ton of snapper. They were actually following us around. We saw quite a few other fish too. We were quite chilly at this point so we started swimming for shore. I looked up and Beau was swimming full tilt in the wrong direction. Turns out he saw a ray and swam after it taking video. We warmed up in the sun for a bit and then Beau decided to go out again. I decided against this because I was still cold. While Beau was out I had a brief chat with a couple and it turns out the boats will fee the snappers which is why they were following us around. They were hoping to get fed. Beau came back out of the water and we decided to head out. The sun had been in and out from behind the clouds and didn't look like the clouds would be clearing. We parked down at Hahei beach and had some lunch. Then we casually walked into the holiday park we had stayed at last night and borrowed their showers. Once we were nice and clean we headed to Thames. In Thames we stopped into the i-Site for a little info on the Pinnacles hike then went to the grocery store. We headed into Kauaeranga Valley and set up camp at the DOC site right before the start of the hike. We had bought venison sausage to have in our dinner and I wasn't a big fan. It had a very strange texture. Beau tried to get a fire going but the wood was quite damp and our fire pit had a permanent grill on it which impeded his efforts. One side of it was a flat metal plate so the smoke just kept blowing in our face. We gave up on it and headed to bed. We hope to be up early so we can get a reasonable start on our hike.

Some Snapper

Feb 26 – The Pinnacles

We had planned to get up relatively early this morning but it was so chilly outside our sleeping bags that we put it off and didn't get up till about 8 am. After having breakfast we got our hiking stuff together and set off at about 9:30am. It was as beautiful day. The track started off fairly steep. It was a bit over grown too. There was some very rocky sections and a bit of water was running down the path. We crisscrossed some rivers and along the way there were some historical information sign post. This area used to be a huge kauri forest but in the early 1900's it was almost totally deforested. The track we were hiking was once used to by pack horse to bring supplies into the loggers. In some areas there were carved stone steps. I'm not sure if they had been warn down like this from the horses or if they were man made. We also crossed a few little suspension bridges that cautioned only 1 person at a time. The track was pretty forested for the first 2/3s until we hit a stop called Hydro camp. Then it opened up and we could see some of the scenery around us. It was pretty spectacular. We also got a glimpse of the Pinnacles peak which looked a little daunting. We reached the Pinnacles Hut by about noon. You can camp over night at the hut which we would have done if we had done a little more research prior to the hike. We set off for the peak after a little break and snack. It was a lot of up hill climbing, about 542 steps to be exact. Once you had completed the stair master there was some more up hill but it was similar to rock climbing. There were ladders to get up some areas and bars that had been secured into the rocks to help you over some of the steeper bits. It was intense! At the top there was an incredible view. You could see either side of the Coromandel Peninsula. We enjoyed our lunch up at the top in the sun shine. Then we started the descent. Man were my knees aching by the time we got down. Back at the hut we took a little detour to a historic kauri dam. The loggers built many of these dams to help send the logs down stream. Apparently about 20% of logs were destroyed in these log drives. We took a slighlyt different track at Hydro camp down Billy Goat Track. Some how we ended up going up hill again! Even though we couldn't see the mountains anymore parts of the forest were quite interesting. There were many palm trees growing, it was hard to believe that we were in a mountain range in New Zealand. We finally made it back to our camp around 4:45pm so we had a 7 hour and 15 minute hike in total. We were hot and sweaty so we went for a rejuvenating dip in the river. It was pretty brisk but felt amazing on the feet. It was really nice to rinse all the sweat off too. We made another fairly interesting dinner of just whatever there was. We'll probably never be able to recreate any of these meals but for the most part I'm not disappointed. The sun had set so we had another stab at having a fire tonight. We used a different fire pit that had a removable grill. We enjoyed a lovely campfire some some drinking chocolate and chocolate chip cookies before we bundled up for bed. It was another very chilly night.

The Pinnacles

Almost at the top

Crazy Climbing

The view

Feb 27 – North of Auckland

We had were pretty slow getting moving this morning, the tent was wet from all the condensation so we moved it into the sunshine to dry. After the usual breakfast (sans coffee press, it broke), clean up and pack up we headed back into Thames. We went into McDonald's to try to use their internet and got a coffee. The internet wasn't working well at this McD's so it took forever to check our e-mail. We then went to Pak 'n' Save and picked up some groceries and goodies for lunch. We went a park in town to eat our lunch which was cheese, crackers and smoked salmon pate. After our yummy lunch we hit the road and headed towards Goat Island again. We had a brief detour to get cheap gas. We reached Goat Island and were going to stay at the camp ground next door but it said Closed for a Private Function. So we had to go in search of another camp site. The next place we checked out cost way too much money so we vetoed that. We ended up a bit of a ways from Goat Island at a nice, reasonable holiday park in Mangawhai. There was a pool so we went for a swim but then it started to rain. So we got out of the pool, grabbed stuff out of the car for dinner and had a nice hot shower. There was a lovely covered patio area outside that we sat in while it rained and we started chopping stuff for dinner. It poured for awhile then cleared up for the rest of the evening. We weren't sure if it would rain again overnight so we opted for sleeping in the car.

Feb 28 – Goat Island Again

Turns out we could have slept in the tent last night since it didn't end up raining. We had breakfast and got reorganized with our snorkel gear handy. We drove back to Goat Island along the gravely road we took to get here. It took about an hour but it wasn't too busy at Goat Island when we arrived. We got set up on the beach with our camp chairs and sunned ourselves for a bit before getting wet. The water was pretty chilly but we decided against renting wetsuits. The tide was high so it was pretty easy to get in the water. We saw lots of fishes including large snapper, some goatfish, and several schools of some pointy nosed fish too. We got out of the water and warmed up in the sun some before heading up to the picnic tables to make some lunch. We had some nice tuna sandwiches on buns. After we headed back down but moved ourselves over to another spot where we went for another snorkel. We saw much of the same but got lucky and saw a ray. I was so excited I popped my head up and yelled at Beau to get his attention but then forgot to stick my snorkel back in my mouth so I ended up with a mouthful of water. We followed the ray for a short ways before the visibility became awful and it disappeared. We were happy with our two snorkels so called it a day and got rinsed off in the cold outdoor showers. We also got our equipment all cleaned off too. We were headed to Waitakere just west of Auckland and stopped into an i-Site in Orewa to get some info on where to stay tonight and the best way to get there. Unfortunately our maps suck and we made some wrong turns but McDonald's wifi came to our rescue and we Google mapped our way to Karekare, a tiny beach village south of Piha. We arrived shortly before sunset so headed to the beach to watch. We walked across some dunes and arrived at a huge black sand beach. I was having fun goofing around on the beach and we watched the sunset while snacking on some very spice Doritos. We went to our campsite and started setting up in the dark. We had been told there would be an honour box to drop our camp fees off in but there was no such thing just a sign that camping was by permit only. We were the only people there, it was dark so we figured we'd deal with it in the morning if a camp ranger came by. The mosquito were the worst we had experienced. We struggled to make dinner in the dark while being attacked by mosquito looking for their dinner. We made the strangest meal which was fitting for our last camping. We went to bed in the tent shortly after dinner.

Karekare Beach

The sunset at Karekare beach

Coromandel and Auckland

We've been all over the Coromandel, back to Auckland and now on to the East Coast.  I was going to get all caught up on my blog in Auckland but instead of writing up and posting I spent quality time with Elaine and Shane.  Sorry! Also with my McDonalds internet I'm limited on how much I can upload so it might take a few posts to catch with with photos!

Feb 7 – Coromandel Peninsula Beach Day

Since we stayed at a Holiday Park we took advantage of the facilities and made eggs for breakfast, a much needed change from oatmeal. After breakfast we did our usual clean up and take down then hit the road. We were headed up to the top of the Coromandel Peninsula. Man was it a crazy road! The first section was paved and very twisty turny. There were some sections with the sign “Wash out” which meant that part of the road had collapsed near the edge and the narrow two lane road was now 1.5 lanes. Fortunately we didn't meet anyone in these section even though there were a number of people coming the other way. After a certain point the road turned to gravel and combined with hairpin turns and blind corners were also hills. The road here was barely wide enough for two cars and in some sections was only one car wide. We made it safely to Port Jackson which is a little bit south of the tip. There was quite a large DOC site there which also had electric BBQ's and fire pits, the toilets were some of the less nice pit toilets we've been at. It was a beautiful sunny day so Beau tried out our new snorkel gear and I read on the beach. There wasn't too much to see sea life wise in the bay but I think Beau enjoyed himself anyways. It was actually quite windy out so I got a few sandy wind gust but it kept me from getting too hot. I didn't actually go in the water. We were feeling sleepy so we had a little nap before dinner. For dinner we used the electric BBQ to cook on meaning we actually stuck our pots on the hot surface which worked quite well. There was a large group of Germans who arrived but a smallish bus, which I can't image driving on those roads, and their guide was preparing a lovely spread of grilled vegetables which would have been nice to get in on. Once done dinner we headed back to our site and noticed a pile of driftwood sitting at an empty site. We confiscated the wood and had a lovely fire which helped keep the night chill off.

View to the left from our campsite at Port Jackson

View to the right from our campsite at Port Jackson

Feb 8 – Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove

It was another beautiful day this morning. We took advantage of the electric BBQ and fried some eggs for breakfast and made toast on it. We are headed over to the east side of the peninsula today to check out Hot Water beach and Cathedral Cove. We had to go back down the crazy road we were on yesterday to reach the highway over to Whitianga. We passed back through Coromandel Town and stopped into the Coromandel Smoking Company to buy some smoked muscles. We bought garlic, habanero and original. We drove along HWY 25 and made some scenic picture stops. At one of the stops you could see either side of the peninsula. Once we reached Whitianga we needed to pick up some groceries, we only found a little convenience store type grocer so they had very limited selection. We did pick up some crackers to have with our muscle which we ate on a waterfront bench. The muscles were delicious especially the garlic ones. We were a little disappointed in the habanero ones, they weren't spicy. On our way out of town we found a proper grocery store and picked up some better things for dinner that night. We then went to Hot Water beach. There is a natural hot spring that flows under the sand into the ocean here and at low tide you can dig yourself your own little hot pool. The place was packed! We did get lucky and some people were leaving their pool when we arrived so we snagged their spot. There is only a small area that actually has hot water coming down it so you have to have dug in the right spot. You can also dig where the water is too hot. The place would have been more enjoyable if there weren't so many people, it was a bit of a tourist trap but at least it was free. We hung out in our hot pool for a little bit then went for a swim to try to wash all the sand off of us. As you can imagine there was sand in all kinds of uncomfortable places. We ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich then headed to Cathedral Cove. This is a popular beach with some really cool rock formations including a big tunnel through the rocks to a beach on the other side. It's also a marine reserve. It was a little late in the day for snorkeling so we plan to come back and check out the sea life next week. We drove to a DOC site called Broken Hills in the center of the Coromandel Peninsula, it was an old gold mining area. After getting set up we made a decent dinner of chick pea spaghetti. The camp warden came over to check our registration and also told us about a cool little night walk. He was taking some people later on and invited us to join in. A little while later we set off for the walk with the warden and nine other people. When we reached the entrance to the walk there was a tour bus parked on the side of the road. Apparently this walk is cool enough to warrant tours. We hiked up the tail and saw tons of glow worms in the rocks. We hopped across a little river and were shown an old miners jails. People that had stolen gold were placed in this tiny cell. As kind of a gag though there was a skeleton laid out on the bench, it had sneakers and glasses on. We were also shown a prospectors mine. It dead ended but was pretty cool, we did some some very hideous bugs called weta. Beau aptly described them as a cockroach with spider legs. YUCK! After the mine we headed back to the campsite, we might have gone on a further hike but the path was choked with the tour bus people.

The coastal road we had to follow

Hot Water Beach

Cathedral Cove

Feb 9 – Back to Auckland

It had been pretty chilly last night so there was condensation all over the tent, inside and out. While we had our coffee and oatmeal we got the tent dried out and packed up. We headed towards Auckland and on our way stopped off at McDonalds to check our e-mail. We had confirmation that Elaine or Shane would be home today and had a McFlurry while we were there. That was a huge disappointment! It was more like a sundae with crappy toppings. I guess they don't have to try as hard when there is no DQ to compete with! We got into Auckland around lunch time and were able to park in Elaine and Shane's parkade as their roomies where away for the weekend. We had lunch with Elaine and Shane and caught up a little then Elaine headed off to work. I got some laundry going before we headed out for a walk to Mt Eden. There was a spectacular 360 deg view of Auckland from the top of the dormant volcano. After our little walk we headed down to the CountDown to pick up beer. Beau and I have been craving a nice cold beer. We haven't been able to chill anything so if we get alcohol it tends to be red wine since it can be served at ambient temperature. Back at the house Shane got started on making us pizza for dinner. Elaine got home and we were severed some delicious thai chicken pizza. We spent the evening catching up on Australia and our travels around the north island.

View of DT Auckland with the crater