Buffalo Lodge Coromandel

... we found Cathedral Cove, which unfortunately is having some geological problems and tons of the cove is roped off and huge chunks fall off the ceiling. We spent a good amount of time exploring Sting Ray cove and around Cathedral Cove before heading to our hostel. By the time we were situated and ready for dinner, only one place was open in town and it was way out of our price range. We ended up driving over 30 km back to the Subway where we had eaten ...

... midnight, all piling into my car and winding for a little over an hour across the peninsula. The sky had been saturated with clouds all day, but by a stroke of luck, had cleared completely by the time we left.

It was really cold upon arrival and we quickly made our way under bright moonlight to the beach, Unfortunately, we had no shovels and began digging with flimsy plastic buckets we had brought along. We were able, though, to borrow a fellow beachgoer's spade and make a nice ...

... time at the cafe (mostly foul words). He loves to drink and finds vegetarian cooking to be perplexing and difficult. He is a champion of American stereotypes. In fact, I just heard him proclaim, in his argument for America as a supreme nation, that he, as an American, "may not be the best person in the world, but I am definitely in the top 10." He is joking, of course, but it is just absolutely ridiculous comments like this that make him a pleasure to have around.

The other end ...

Today was one of those days that kind of just dragged on at a snail's pace. IT was rainy and the cafe was really slow, so there wasn't a whole lot to do. I washed a ton of dishes, pulled some weeds between downpours and made and ate some food. The nice part about the cafe is that when you don't have anything to do, you don't need to hide it by pretending to be busy. Everyone is so relaxed that it's okay to just sit down ...

... food. I think I will go back to wwoof if they'll have me. The people were nice and it seems to be quite welcoming.

Speaking of welcoming, what a great welcome I've received here from Stephanie at Karuna Falls Co-op. She is an older woman who is chock-full of stories. She mad eme feel very welcome and comfortable. There is also a couple from Ohio that arrived just before me - Brad and Caitlin. We spent the afternoon raking leaves and gathering ...

... a bit of effort to get around. His time I was in the back so doing much of the work, especially since my partner would frequently stop paddling! Anyway with stories and interesting facts from the tour leader made it back to our starting point. Whilst everyone else headed back across on the Ferry I decided to stay on the south side and go for a walk. Spent some time on the beach before heading up to Shakespeare's lookout, from which you could look down on Cook's beach and back around ...

... to get there. I don't think anybody was looking forward to that walk but in the end it was worth it. There were two rocks that you could swim out to and jump off but it didn't look very safe. There were several people on the beach but nobody seemed to be going in. Either that or it was just really cold. After leaving ...

... Well, there was someone in the bush behind our tent snapping twigs, throwing rocks, and tramping around for what seemed the better part of 2 hours. And there we are, two Canadians creeped out by this bush person, trying to distract ourselves from the idea that they'll attack us in our tent by reading our romance novels. *sigh* only in New Zealand!

... when we actually jumped, our parachute was twisted on one side, and so he had to cut it. We free-fell again, and I had no idea anything was wrong, even though when the parachute was twisted we were clearly spinning really fast. I thought it was normal for some reason. Then, we both jerked when the reserve chute opened, and it was so quiet and pretty, it was amazing. Dale asked me if i liked the ride, and i still had no idea that he had to cut our ...

Took a ferry trip over to Waiheke Island today - one of a group of islands in the gulf around Auckland. It's about a 40 minute ferry ride away, and when we arrived we got a day ticket for the island buses so we could explore a little. It's also possible to get guided tours around - the island has 19 wineries! But we decided we'd seen enough of those in Australia so just set off on our own. Weather was quite overcast today, although the sun broke through now and ...