Waitangi Weekend and the fun thereafter

Oh my! I've been so busy I haven't had time to keep everyone updated with my adventures, so sorry that this post will be a bit long. Today is the first day in more than two weeks that I have gotten to come home from work and just sit. Its been amazing.

Two weeks ago we had another long weekend and Sean and I went camping in the Coromandel Peninsula. We were excited because we were finally getting to use our new tent, but the fact that it was raining when we left home was not a positive sight.

Fortunately by the time we reached our first stop, the rain had cleared. We saw a massive gold mine and then went on a two hour return hike to a waterfall in the Wentworth Valley. The waterfall was really tall and from the lookout across from the waterfall, you couldn't even see the bottom. Then we drove a bit further and did a five minute hike to the top of Mt. Paku. The view was a stunning 360 and I only wish the clouds hadn't hidden the sun as much. I still got some cool pictures though.

Mt. Paku

Mt. Paku

From there we drove to our campsite and did another short walk to the end of the peninsula by our campsite. We got back and I was absolutely exhausted once I finally sat down. Sean's watch has a pedometer and it said we walked about 9 miles that day. The wind was still really high from the storm that had passed through, and we were a bit worried about our tent blowing over, but it was fine. Sean's wine got spilled at least 3 times by the wind, so we have decided to invest in sippy cups next trip. About an hour into our drive, we had discovered our first forgotten item of the trip, Sean's pillow. Since I had reminded him three times to get it, there wasn't much sympathy, but he had an interesting time switching between a sweatshirt and sharing my pillow.

awesome rock formation right by our campsite

Lonely Bay

The next morning we woke up early and did a 3 hour kayaking trip around the Hahei coast. We couldn't have gotten more perfect weather and the seas were nice and calm. The coast is formed by volcanic activity and there are a bunch of caves and blowholes in the coastline. It was a really neat hike and even though my arms got their workout too, I wasn't ready to head back to the beach at the end.

The coast was littered with caves...

..so we went in a few

our fearless leader

 

inside an old collapsed blow hole

we kayaked through the gap

inside another blow hole

We started on our first of many kilometers of gravel road and headed to Castle Rock. Our car met its match with one of the gravel roads and we decided to abort. We reversed down the hill we had only gotten halfway up, but fortunately we were pretty much at the start of the track anyway. I was a bit jealous when a truck just plowed up the hill we had just failed to make and there were quite a few other cars parked at the top. The hike was a tough climb, but well worth it. My favorite view of the weekend. I wish we had spent more time at the top just looking out, but I was nervous about how long the rest of our drive was going to take, since google didn't even know.

view from castle rock. One of those dirt patches below contains our car.

the coast we came from

The coast we were going to

View from castle rock

We then drove a bit more and finished off with another hour along a dirt road. Fortunately we were hugging some stunning coastline. We peaked over a hill to see the bay where our campsite was and it was spectacular. We camped at Port Jackson which is at the very tip of the Coromandel Peninsula. Our campsite was about as close to the beach as we could get and it was so relaxing reading and listening to the ocean. We also discovered our second forgotten item of the trip, matches, and made friends with our tent neighbors.

view from the road

Living the rough life

sunset!

We woke up the next morning, packed up and did a hike that left from the campsite. We returned to our car just before the clouds started settling in again and headed home exhausted. Over the weekend we walked around 26 miles.

The coast never ceases to amaze me

in the background is the bay we camped in

 

The next week was full of sport as usual and Thursday our flat went to a show called Empire. Its a New York show that is similar to Cirque de Soleil and it was AMAZING. I liked it better than cirque and I highly recommend it. Friday I met up with a friend of mine from Canada that I met when I first got here that just moved back, so I still missed out on my day of rest.

Sean did an excellent job on Valentine's day. I told him I didn't care what we did, as long as he planned it and he went above and beyond. He made me pancakes in the morning, which is an accomplishment in itself if you knew how much he hates cooking. Then after I let him watch some cricket, we went and had lunch at a beach. He had planned for us to do a walk around there, but he left his notes at work and couldn't find the trail. We ended up just walking along the coast and it was absolutely beautiful. It reminded me a lot of a lake and the pictures don't do it justice. Then after some more cricket watching, we got burgers and milkshakes and went to the top of Mt. Eden, one of the highest points in Auckland, and watched the sunset. He even cut a flower from the garden and got me chocolates. I was stunned.

can you spot me?

Sunset at Mt Eden, zoomed in

The next morning I did a 5K color run with a friend from soccer and some of her friends. (see why i'm enjoying sitting today). Since one of the girls was 5 months pregnent, we essentially walked the whole way, but we had a blast and have plans to do something together this weekend. It is a 5K course and at different spots they throw colored powder on you as you go through. You end up completely covered in color and its a blast. Once you get to the end they give you more powder and everyone throws it in the air at the same time.

This weekend I aim to try and relax as much as possible and will pack for our trip. I am so excited to get to see my family and travel somewhere new. I am counting down the days, though I'm not excited to have to leave summer to go to winter.