Cathedral Cove

Friday 26th January 2007

Left Cook's Beach cabin about 10am but still had lots to do in Coromandel.

Decided to go in search of Cathedral Cove. It involves a 45 minute walk along the cliff top to a cove that adjoins another cove by way of a large - very large hole. Check out the photos - very impressive. We hung around there for a an hour or so pretending the few drops of rain that were falling were not happening. Jes and Joe went exploring the small cove and found a natural fresh water shower. Jes took advantage of this, had a shower and managed to clean off the salt water and sand. Both Joe and Millie refused to go in claiming it was too cold so before we set back on our walk Jes thought he'd give Millie's bikini a quick rinse in the sea. He went with two pieces and came back with only one. The sea had taken Millie's bottoms!! Fortunately no tears just giggles.

Because we had such a great time there the previous day we decided to venture back to Hot Water beach before we began the journey back to Auckland. Sadly the weather wasn't as kind to us and we cut short our visit before low tide so we weren't able to build another spa pool. Did manage to get a good amount of wave jumping in though.

Hot Water Beach

Thursday 25th January 2007
The following day we visited Shakespeare's Lookout from where you can see all the surrounding islands and bays including Lonely bay which is a bit of a hike to get to. We decided not to go as J&M had already walked 45 mintues just to get the view!!

In the afternoon we took the local passenger ferry from a place called Ferry Landing to Whitianga about 10 minutes away. there we had pies - another staple of Kiwi life - let the kids play in one of the many play grounds and then caught the ferry back.

About 5pm we ventured to Hot Water Beach. At this beach, low tide reveals some hot springs under the sands. It is the touristy thing to do to hire a spade for $4 for 2 hours, dig a pit and it turns into your own private spa pool. Joe in particular thought this was fab and made friends with a South African biy who was determined as he was to dig as many pits as possible and to try and adjust the temperatures of the pools they dug. No mean feat!!
Joe and Millie (and Jes) all discovered the art of body surfing on Hot water Beach. Some big surf was the source of big fun.

You just have to check these out on google earth - incredible. Really didn't want to leave this place.

New Car & Coromandel

Wednesday 24th January 2007

First thing this morning we went to pick up the new car - a white Mazda 626 Station Wagon. Rego ACH479. Jes had definitely had enough of driving the Selespeed. Too many incidents of fighting with the gears in heavy downtown traffic!!

Throwing caution to the wind we decided to go down and then back up to the Coromandel Peninsula. It took 4 hours to drive 180 kms. Single lane roads with lots of twists and turns but beautiful breathtaking scenery. Grownups were "ooh"ing and "aah"ing at the view and the kids were in the back "are we there yet?"

We chose to stay at Cooks Beach so named because it was the first place that Captain Cook landed when he arrived in NZ. There is a wonderful long, and quiet beach there that we in fact only visited on the first night for a quick walk, play and splash before we retired back to camp to have a compulsory bbq.
Picture show Lonely Bay with Cooks Beach in the background.

First Sight of School

Tuesday 23rd January 2007
Today we enrolled Joe and Millie in Mt Carmel Primary School. It seems a bit scary on our part to enrol them in a school when we haven't seen it alive with children yet. Having said that whenever we go near the school there are always a handful of children in the playground. Last term some new play equipment (climbing frame, monkey bars, slides etc.) was erected at the school and the locals are still enjoying the novelty of it. Millie took this picture of it but needless to say it doesn't quite do it justice. This is about a third of what's there.

As you can see in the background there is quite a large amount of green playing fields for the school as well. Just out of shot is a football pitch which pleased Joe no end. They still seem quite eager to go to school.

Understanding the Layout of Auckland

Monday 22nd January 2007
Karen, who arranged all our accommodation and the children's places at the school, came round today to show us a little bit of the layout of Auckland. She drove us through Cornwall Park to the top of One Tree Hill.
Cornwall Park is a fabulous, huge park right in the middle of Auckland. When the land was originally given to the people of Auckland a condition was placed on it that no-one could build on it and it had to retain a working farm. So you can do all the touristy things there - picnic, bike ride, walking, whatever you fancy buy you have to avoid the sheep and cows - pretty cool really.
One Tree Hill is a significant landmark for New Zealand. It used to have a solitary pine atop the hill until about ten years ago when a disgruntled local (Mike Smith) took a chainsaw to it and tried to chop it down. he was stopped before he could complete the job but sadly he had damaged the tree so badly it had to be removed a short time later. So One Tree Hill is no a misnomer - No Tree Hill it should be.
The week-end we arrived here, good old Mike Smith decided to make a bit of cash and tried to use an online auction site - Trade Me - to sell the infamous chainsaw. A huge furore ensued!!

First Beach BBQ

Sunday 21st January 2007
Today we were invited by Tim from TMI to a beach bbq. The beach was about 60 mins outside Auckland at a place called Maraetai. Lovely beach with white sands, a bit of surf and hardly any people there. this we are coming to realise is a theme on NZ beaches. Lots of lovely clean beaches and not many people. In fact the locals call it busy when there is someone else on the beach with you!!

We played a bit of beach cricket and chatted to Tim, his wife Anna and their friends. While the bbq was busy cooking our sausages a guy came a long with a camera and asked if he could take some photos of us. He is writing a book on Kiwi-ana and wanted a few photos of Kiwis doing what Kiwis do best - bbq on the beach. Eventually he left with several photos, most of which had the POMs at the front and all the photos had Millie posing for the camera. he assured us the book will be published next year in time for Fathers' Day. We'll have to wait and see!

Settling In

Saturday 20th January 2007
Had a relatively quiet day, getting over jet lag, shopping and putting stuff away in some of the many cupboards in this house.
Tim came round to lend us an Alpha Romeo Selespeed for a few days. We had to drop him back into town so had the delight of driving round Auckland City Centre on a Saturday afternoon. It was surprisingly quiet but as everyone keeps telling us many people are still on their summer holiday. We managed to find a big department store where Joe was able to buy a cricket set and a rugby ball. So he's happy now!

In the afternoon we went down to the reserve to let Joe & Millie run off some excess energy. It was also an attempt to make sure they slept well. It seems highly likely that much of our spare time will be spent down on the reserve meeting people and playing sport of some kind or other.