We went from seeing only a few people a day to the most populated city in New Zealand, Auckland, in a matter of just a few hours. After enjoying the beaches and the remote beauty of Coromandel peninsula, we drove to Auckland late Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, we arrived just at the peak of rush hour traffic and had to navigate the busiest roads we had seen in months in order to reach our youth hostel right in the center of the city. Much to our dismay, it cost more to park our car for the weekend than it did for us to stay in the hostel!

The first thing we noticed about Auckland, besides the abundance of people and the lack of sheep, was the incredible diversity. There were shops and restaurants featuring cuisine from all over the world available just around the corner. While we were there, there was an Indian "Festival of Lights" celebration taking place and the party was in full swing.

The spring weather didn't cooperate fully while we were in Auckland and we experienced a lot of high winds and heavy rains. For a short time on Saturday afternoon we got lucky enough to spend some time in Auckland's Sky Tower while meeting up with some of our friends from Queenstown, Steve and Devyn.

Steve and Devyn are a Canadian couple that were part of the staff that opened the hotel in Queenstown but had decided it was time to move on and had trasferred to the hotel in Auckland. After hanging out in the Sky Tower we all headed back to their apartment for dinner and for lots of catching up. Devyn called our rendezvous the "meeting of the minds" as we shared stories about work since we all came from different departments in the hotel: housekeeping, food and beverage, front desk and concierge. There were lots of memories shared and lots of laughs at the absurdly impossible task of keeping every guest happy in the field of hospitality. We looked forward to our next visit to Auckland and to hanging out with some friends from Michigan, Ken and Sarah.

 

 

Morning coffee with a view

My guidebook calls the far north of the Coromandel peninsula to be "supremely isolated and gobsmackingly beautiful" as well as "well worth the effort required to reach it."  This is indeed the truth; we found the tip of Coromandel to be gorgeous and remote, but it took a long time and a lot of patience to get there. 

View from the gravel road winding around to the tip of the peninsula

The far north of Coromandel can only be reached by 60 km of gravel road which is often only one lane wide.  Since the road twists and turns with the coast, it was usually very hard to see if anyone else was coming and so we had to go even slower than we normally could on a gravel road.  Fortunately, we didn't mind the turtle pace because the views were amazing.







At the very tip, we stopped for a picnic lunch and a walk on the beach.  We only saw a handful of people the whole day.  We soaked up the sunshine and the lack of people as that evening we were headed to Auckland - just a few hours away by car but a world away when compared with scenery and population.

Sean's favorite shells that we found on the walk

Bring your shovel!

Hot water beach - you have to walk past those rocks in the water

By far the best beaches and scenery we have seen on this trip have been in the Coromandel Peninsula.  We had planned two days and one night in the peninsula and we wished we had had more time.  The coastlines were rugged and remote and the small beach towns were friendly and picturesque.


We spent the first day exploring Whitianga which had attractions like Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach to be explored.



I've never seen a beach like Hot Water Beach before.  For two hours before and after low tide, you can walk past a rocky point in the beach and find hot water bubbling up in the sand.  People bring their own or rent shovels and spades to dig their own personal spa pool.

Cathedral Cove

Cathedral Cove is exactly like what it sounds - a big limestone rock formation in the shape of an arch.  The hike to the cove was beautiful in itself offering views of the rocky cliffs along the ocean and lots of islands scattered about on the horizon.

We barely made it to Coromandel Town before dark to find a camp site and cook dinner with plans to reach the far north of the peninsula the next day.  Feeling sandy from the beaches and pink from the sun we were quite happy to have more of the same tomorrow.

Mt. Maunganui in the background

The harbor

Fishing restrictions - fresh seafood is easy to get straight off the wharves in every coastal city

From spending so much time in sulfur-smelling Rotorua, we were anxious to be back on the coast.  After breakfast and goodbyes at our homestay, we drove north to the shores of Tauranga, a popular vacation spot for Aucklanders.

You could have a sheep in every picture you take in NZ if you wanted to

We had heard that climbing Mount Maunganui in Tauranga was worth the trip and were looking forward to some cool views of the city and coast.  At 232 m, Mount Maunganui is really more like a hill than a mountain and locals and tourists alike enjoy the trails up and around the incline every day.



It was a really windy but sunny day and we found ourselves quickly peeling off layers as we climbed up to the top.  On the way we encountered lots of curious sheep and even more Chinese tourists trying to feed them while taking a barrage of photographs. 


It only takes about an hour to reach the top and the reward is beautiful panoramic views of the coast and of Tauranga city.  We were in no hurry at all to return to the car and keep driving north to our campsite for the night.

Hugging the giant trees

Even the pools in the forest are thermal

After checking out the thermal and cultural sites of Rotoura we headed to the huge redwood forest to do some hiking.  The trees were huge and it was fun to walk around in such a giant forest with trees from seeds brought over originally from California.

Stretching out before the hike

We also saw many gigantic fern species which New Zealand is famous for.  One of the national symbols is the silver fern which is portrayed on the All Blacks rugby jersey.  Another national symbol is the uncurling frond of a young fern - you can see images of this on everything here.

We spent the evening at the Rotorua Museum which was a refurbished old bath house.  We joined one of the free guided tours for more in-depth information on the region and Maori culture.  I really liked the architecture of the building and the original stained glass windows.  Sean preferred the 4-D action adventure theater of one of the local volcanic eruptions.  It was a cool museum!