Oceanside Motel Whitianga

... hordes' of people at Cathedral Cove but we arrived to an empty car park. The walk to the cove took an hour or so including a couple of stops at some beautiful little beaches where the water was bright blue and really clear. The weather had brightened up and the walk was really scenic looking out over the bay.

Our arrival at Cathedral Cove coincided with a group of kayakers but apart for that the hordes had not ...

... t get to go that often while we are travelling but it's something that we both love doing when we are at home so if we get the chance to go we try to take it.




When we left Mount Maunganui we went to Whitianga. It is further north and so the weather was not as nice. It was quite cold and torrential rain was forecast for the next few days. We only stayed for one night because the things we wanted to do were stops included on the way to
Whitianga and not ...

... tunnels and bridges and a lookout tower at the top called "Eyefull Tower". We arrived at the "station" with enough time to look around before we departed. There was a train yard with four of the pint-sized trains. Each train had an engine, and cars that were just wide enough to fit two people across. There was also pottery and blown glass on display everywhere. We could see the tracks disappearing into the woods beyond the train yard. Soon ...

... from! So then it was our turn. We could see steam rising, but when we dug, we could only feel cold sand. We headed to where steam was rising and reached places in sand where it was so hot it would burn your feet. One pool looked empty so we thought we'd take advantage of someone else's handiwork, but we soon realized it was one of main sources for the hot water, and it was scalding, so we had to scrap that plan! The space was all but filled ...

... come in the kit to make a decent looking tent. We ended up with a lop sided little hut. We're troopers though, and it was good enough to sleep in (WAY better then the car the previous night). We did however set it up on an incline...our bad! So after our tiring day of walking around and beaching it, we decided to be lame and go to bed around 8 ...

... work in the nursery and raked up more of the autumn leaves that are falling thick and fast. Piet let me finish early due to the extra hours I did the other day, as I didn't use my time off to go to Cathedral Cove this weekend after all. I spent the rest of my morning copying some of Piet's music onto my mp3 player. I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and I'm so glad that I accidentally killed my old mp3 player. This way I'll be ...

... are sitting in these man-made pools of hot water. When I say hot, I mean HOT water! Luckily though, the waves come up every now and then and crash over the walls, giving some relief to the heat. At first I wasn't sure about it, but eventually I tested it out and stripped down to my bikini. I was one of only two or three out of our group who actually got all the way in, because the weather wasn't too nice to be in a bathing suit :) I ...

... Maybe if I got the fedora to go with it. After "K" street we headed down Queen Street, which is the main shopping street in Auckland. We were both trying hard not to spend money, but I apparently wasn't trying hard enough-I bought a few shirts and a dress. Oops. One of the stores we went in had a huge neon section-everything was ridiculously bright. It made me reminisce back to elementary school. So, of course I had to buy a shirt there. In the early afternoon, we decided to ...