Hahei 7th of October

Luckily the shop is open early, time to buy some bread. In New Zealand the available bread is mainly toast bread.
And a typical New Zealand breakfast would include toast with some kind of marmelade and or bacon and eggs. Both are not necesarrily my favourites.

So I have come up with a alternative solution. In most supermarkets you can buy hummus and a particular good brand in New Zealand is Lisa's, they sell all kinds and i really like the one with kumara, second to that a one with tomato is nice as well. Actually all variaties from Lisa's must be nice, and I will try out a number of them during the rest of my trip. Next to the hummus nutella is also available, and once in a while salmon is nice too.

So much for breakfast, today I started by travelling to the ferry landing. The ferry transfers people to Whitianga, you would pronounce this as Fittianga. All 'WH'are actually pronounced as an F.

That is most i can recommend about Fitianga, it is like a kind of 'Renesse' in the Netherlands mainly focussed on tourism and not very authentic. The one thing i can really recommend is the Monk Street Market, they sell really good cheeses and a lot of other delicious organic products. Next to that they also sell a number of 'authentic Dutch' products like beschuit or stroopwafels and pepermunt.  
 
From Hahei towards the ferry landing shakespeares point provides nice views and a walk towards lonely beach. When i visited i was not lonely there were others as well.

In the afternoon we went to Hot Water Beach (see picture), which is nice to view humans perform group behaviour. At 2 small spots hot gasses mix with water and it is actually quite strange to walk in cold seawater and your feet are in hot sand. To actually participate in the digging was next to impossible because there were quite a number of people trying to create their own little hot spa. Anyway it was nice to watch them for a little while. The next stop was the surf beach next to the hot water beach. This was an almost deserted beach, but to be honest that was a nice change from the crowded hot water spots.

To top of the day we visited the Cathedral Cove a 2nd time, and honestly this is 10 times better then the hot water beach. This time we also took the side trips to stingray beach and gemstone beach both are really recommendable as well.
During our second visit the tide was a less lower than the previous visit which allowed for a nice walk to the other side of the cove. It is really an amazing peace of beach. In case Teus is reading this as well this could be a spot
to ask a particular question ;-).

Coromandel Peninsula

While leaving Thames i made a mistake so we made a small detour. Anyway after returning via Thames we continued to Coromandel Town, this is a nice scenic drive along the shoreline of the peninsula. Via the Rough Guide we found a nice cafe to have lunch, it was an organice cafe and they had good fruit juices and a nice Dahl. Via the 309 route (second option to cross the peninsula) we travelled to the east coast. It was mainly a gravel road however if you have time then that is no problem at all.

The owner of the Thames backpackers explained that Whitianga is very touristic, focussing on richer kiwi's who buy holiday homes over there. Hence it might not be the best spot to visit, however it is good for shopping. So we travelled straight to Hahei, which is close to both the hot water beach (tomorrow's destination) and Cathedral Cove which we already visited today, and maybe tomorrow again. Chloe (a french girl) joined for the ride toward Hahei today.


Tonight all shops in Hahei already closed early so the meal was kind of a combination of the things we had bought earlier. So we had couscous with guacamole and yellow kiwi's. Yellow kiwi's are really nice, i can really recommend them. 

Thames or a rainy day in New Zealand

The first day in the Coromandel Peninsula started with continues rain. And it has not yet stopped. So the main question is what to do on a rainy day in New Zealand. Well after finishing grocery shopping there is not so much to do. So planning the next few days (the weather will improve!!). After talking to the owner of the backpackers the plan to visit Whitianga is changed. Whitianga is a kind of 'valkenburg' which can easily be skipped. The next destination will be Haihu close to the Cathedral Cove and the Hot Water Beach. 



  

Day 2 in Ruakaka and traveling to Thames

In the evening Adrian and Rian proposed to visit the Pizza Barn in Waipu. This is the best pizza place on the entire north island. To be honest i can really recommend the pizza's and certainly the pizza desert. Which is to say the least just incredible.

In the evening the biggest boxing fight of the century (at least in new zealand) was on. Adriaan was invited to watch the match at his neighbour Bruce. So we went there in the evening and prior to the main fight a number of smaller fights were shown. Besides that we also watched parts of the cricket match between the UK and Australia.

When the main fight started everyone placed bets. And since i did not know anything about both boxers (David Tua (already retired) and Shane Cameron (the new guy) John gave me some pointers, so i placed my bet on David Tua.
After a little bit more than 1 round David Tua won the fight by a Mike Tyson style knock out. Actually the fight should have been ended already at the end of the first round. Shane Cameron did not stand a chance so his profesional career is most likely over. I guess you could call David Tuayson. Anyway due to this quick victory the end result proposed by John was among the winning results, so i won 28 dollars.



The next morning we discovered that I was missing my car keys (i drank only 3 beers). Luckily they were found at bruces around lunch time. Prior to leaving is was even allowed to feed little Keagan for a couple of minutes. Guess what feeding a baby for the first time that was really special. Apparantly i looked quite worried, but then again how often does it occur that you can feed such a little beautiful baby. After saying goodbye to Vaughn (Adriaans son) and both Adriaan and Rinda I left for Auckland, to extend the rent of the car which went fine.

A navigation device is really usefull so i am using my Garmin for car navigation purposes now. I did extend the rent of the car untill mid december at a favourable rate. And after quite a long drive (from Ruakaka via Auckland to Thames) i am happy to arrive just in time at the local backpackers. Tomorrow I will start my visit of the Coromandel Peninsula.

BBQ kiwi Style !!! then a weber looks like childsplay ;-)

Mrs. van der Veeken with her medals

Whangarei and Ruakaka

Thursday I visited Sien van der Veeken, she is the lady I met at Schiphol during the delayed departure. She lives very close to the Whangarei Rugby field, and she showed me around town. Whangarei is one of the biggest cities north of Auckland.

Mrs van der Veeken is a world champion in athletics at the master games in Finland. I will post a picture in which you can see her with all her medals.


We visited the Whangarei Falls and the war memorial, which is build on top of a mountain and has a spectacular view. On thursday evening  we were invited for a genuinie Kiwi BBQ at her daughters house. Her grandson Joel is an expert diver and he catches crayfish with his bare hands an other fish by harpoon. It was a lovely meal, with really nice company.

On friday my trip continued to Ruakaka which is 30km south of Whangarei, to visit Adriaan & Ryan Strydom. I met Adriaan at the B&B in Auckland, at that time his wife was in the hospital giving birth to their second son (Keegan). Vaugh is their oldest son (3 years old) he is a real nice energetic boy. He explained parts of rugby to me, and he also explained that South Africa has won the tri-nations tournament, and



Yesterday Adriaan showed me the sites around Ruakaka and we visited the local pub in the evening. BBQ'ing is part of the New Zealand lifestyle and Adriaan has a huge gas operated BBQ which replaces his Weber coal BBQ. Honestly the Chicken was superb, and I also learned a nice recipe for asparagus bread. Will try that the next time we have a BBQ in the Netherlands.


Today we went to the visitor's center at the Ruakaka Oil Refinery, this is where Adriaan works as a fire fighter. The refinery is one of the few in the world to be able to process lower grade crude oil. Actually the instructional video was really interesting and to me the factory resembles DSM/SABIC in limburg. But instead of producing plastics their main product is fuel, diesel and kerosine.

 

To be honest all the coastal scenery i have seen so far in New Zealand is fantastic. And lot's of kiwi's own their own boats and all out doors activities including fishing are part of their lifestyle.