Palm Pacific Resort Whangamata

... drink it as that would be much too expensive very irresponsible. 10. Smoke liberally at every bus stop and 15 minutes later as bus is ready to go - decide to go get coffee and have a slash as the bus is sitting waiting. 11. Play snap. 12. Ask questions about everything on the tour as often as possible. Then tut and disapprove of the answers. 13. Struggle to understand each other's english and then ask the "native english speaker ...

... Visited Hot Water Beach and its not wrong...at 64 degrees you hop over the hot bits. 2 hours either side of high tide, you can dig your self a pit and the hot water below rises up to fill it. Cathedral Cove had some good walks and stunning views. We also went to Coramandel Town on the 309 " alternative route" that Bri navigated us on to.....its 25kms of sheer hell. The car never made it out of 2nd gear and as it was raining I was surprised we didint end ...

... look set about our main reason for staying here - the magnificent Cathedral Cove. We were entertained near the car park on top of the cliffs by some silly B who had nearly gone over the edge when trying to park on the roadside. Luckily, some Kiwi had a 4x4 with a winch. It is quite a hike to get to Cathedral Cove (about 45 minutes) and it was a boiling hot day but it was a lovely ...

... a degree that the sand is too hot to walk on. People more prepared than us come with shovels and dig themselves holes in which they then gently simmer. Each to their own. It is on the backpacker circuit and as we leave at about 1800, a party is clearly warming up. Back at our base, we cook ourselves a meal. After weeks of restaurant dining, it is a welcome change to be able to eat our own food at our own pace. The wine helped, obviously.

... and there house was lovely and warm and cosy. We'd had lots of rain in Auckland too which felt very much like home. I had my birthday in Auckland and on the Friday before hand we had a house party and one the girls houses from work to celebrate and also say goodbye properly. On my birthday we chilled out with a slight hangover then went out for a meal in the evening. On the Sunday we finally had no rain so went up to ...

... what we can do. They offer to put us up in the town for the night. My plans are flexible, but Stine is meeting her brother in Christchurch on the South Island next week, so her time is much less flexible. We really were looking forward to our day of Maori bone carving, hot water baths, and sea kayaking. Instead we are picked up by the nice, well-traveled, and helpful hostel owner where we decide chill out and figure out what we're ...

... but getting tp the water is a nightmare and i'm suprised we didn;t break an ankle climbing over the rocks in flip flops. then the water was really rough and FREEZING, and the visibility looked really poor, so we decided to not go in. but we did have a nice walk. Decided that we would leave Whitianga day earlier than planned and our hostel said they'd givce us a days money back so all good. On to Aukland tomorrow!

Alex - My turn to start one of these for a change! We set off from Janne & Karl's in the morning straight for Janne's brothers place close to Whagamanta (pronounced Fangamatar). The drive was fairly uneventful apart from a brief stop in Auckland to pick up my hoodie which I'd inadvertently left behind! The farm is amazing! Right off the beaten ...

... the Canadian. We've even been on the radio. And, one of the guys in town has offered us one of his cars to use for the next 6 months, so we don't have to rent a car. Simply amazing! I'm staying on my path though. Taking care of myself and making sure to pray, meditate, workout, and stay grounded. That is the most important thing I can do for myself, and I will not allow myself to stray too far from that path. That is my life's work.

... and who have an interest in all things excavatory, open-pit mining requires a fair assortiment of heavy kit. Even better, the mine does tours!!! So I called them up, and sure enough, for 5 bucks (not even 3 euros) I was on a one hour tour of this gold mine!!! Great stuff! I've lashed on a few photos here, and it really is a dirty big hole, located (in all seriousness) right in the middle of the town! The extraction stops next week and they will spend 5 years making the ...