Endeavour Motel Whitianga

Day 66 - Joined the Kiwi Experienc bus today and journeyed up the coast (Eastward) to Mercury Bay. First stop was Mount Eden in Auckland, which is the highest point giving some nice views of the city. Then through Thames and onto the east coast. Took a walk to Cathederal Cove which was grand ...

... the lake. We both attempted and failed but John got very close to hitting one of the scuba divers that's<br>employed to collect the balls that miss the target.<br><br><br><br><br>We stopped along our way to Wellington to take photos of &#8220;Mount Doom&#8221; from Lord of the Rings. <br><br>When we got to Wellington, the first place we were shown was the view of Wellington. Personally I wasn't overly impressed by it but I have been spoilt having seen Hong Kong all light up at ...

last night was a quiet one a quick scout around tauranga and dinner then back to the hostel by 9.30 - (i was knackered) this morning was up bright and early 6am after the early bed time and I jumped the bus to mt maunganui which is a 15 minute bus ride from tauranga. The mount itself is a significant piece of rock which is visble for a good few miles at the end of a ...

... aber leider alles voll deutscher, wasi ch bloed fand. denn mit deutschen nur englisch reeden finde ic hauch albern. naja, in meinem dorm mit 8 betten, waren wir dann 8 deutsche maedchen. na toll :) abends sass da dann noch bis mitternacht so freak (mal wieder einer). und der hat, obwohl internet total teuer war, sich nur videos bei youtube angeguckt und dazu total schlecht gerappt und gesungen. kooomisch :)

... und so gegen 10h gingen wir in die City um Fotos zu machen. Auch besuchten wir eine kleine Kirche und die Goldminen. Unser Ziel heute war die Coromandel Halbinsel, die wir so um halb eins erreichten. Hier machen die Kiwis (Einheimischen) ihren Urlaub. Weltweit beruehmt fuer seine natuerliche Schoenheit, nebelhafte Regenwaelder und goldene Straende. Als erstes hatten wir Mittagessen in Coromandel und fuhren dann weiter ueber ...

... going to the Waterfalls Dam and Taravaere Dam. On this walk we had everything...climbings, slippings, brooks crossings with jumping...very variedly and exciting and sometimes scarry. The hanging bridge was the best, only one person was allowed to cross it at the time. The walking took us 4 hours in total, we were exhausted and hungry. We got back to the car and drove to the hostel to have a nice hot short shower and went out for dinner to the Old Thames Restaurant, we needed a ...

... not to over shoot each bend. It was fun, aside from cars which squeezed dangerously passed, which I then had to avoid hitting as they to were forced to slow due to the extreme turns. I pressed on to Kautunu, it was scenic but despite the short distance - tough! At the hostel everyone was very chatting (even some new zealanders) no chance to read much here either but I did explain the idea of Fair trade which is almost not sold here - which is a shame.

... It was scary to be on my own at first, but then after a while I had a lot of fun doing all the things I wanted to do. I also met two really cool guys from Argentina and England and we all started hanging out and doing touristy things together. Yesterday, I climbed a volcano(Rangitoto) off of Auckland. It was an easy hike and the view was spectacular ...

I drove most the way up to Coromandel in the dark, it was chalenging roads and it took about 3 hours. Once there we dived into a pub for some pool (everyone is REALLY good) and a few beers, we then slept in the van outside the pub which was an unbelievable squeeze (4 people, van designed for 2) as there was no ...

... tide water then you just burn your feeet like i did. It was fun though watching everyone dug holes and sit in them then get out not long after when the cool water goes and it just gets stupidly hot. We had lunch at the beach then drove to cathedral cove to go snorkelling. we hired our snorkelling gear, and took the blokes advice that we didn't need wetsuits, and set off. From the top cathedral cove is really ...