Angela and I hit the road! Our first stop out of Auckland is Waipu, a very small town with a remote beach.
our next stop is to see 'one of the most beautiful falls in NZ' in whangerei. No, they are not man-made. ;o)
Some scenery on our dolphin/hole-in-the-rock cruise at the Bay of Islands.
One of the islands seen from the cruise- look at those trees!
The infamous hole-in-the-rock. We went through it and...
...hey! There's the other side.
The Mousetrap at the Bay of Islands- my first hostel!
Now fast forward two days. Here start my adventures on my own. This is a lookout over the mangrove forests just outside of Whangerei.
Okay, so this mangrove forest really interested me... you read about them in your bio books and whatnot, and here I was finally seeing one. They just grow in water.
More mangrove- look at those sprouts!
Yes, yes, this is that same hike, but just up from the mangrove forest. If you zoom in, you can see some water trickling through the forest. It was like being in movie.
Here I sit on above the shores at Orewa. This is my view to the left...
... to the front...
...and to the right. Beautiful, eh??
And there's my shadow next to the big tree (who knows what kind of tree- all the vegetation is different here) I was sitting under.
And that same night I took a long walk on the shores of Orewa. Here is a view from the beach looking onshore.
Now fast forward another two days. This is after my stay in Thames on my way toward Coromandel Town. This was some random beach...
...covered with these shells and rocks...
...and I noticed there were a few scattered people with buckets looking for things in the rocks. My curiosity got the best of me, so I asked these folk, and they said they were looking for mussels to make some stew. Apparantly, (if you didn't know, NZ has been hit with some of the most dramatic storms in 100 years these past few weeks) due to the storms, the mussels wash up quite nicely. These people live in a little camper near the beach.
After driving along the beach, the road narrows and takes you up the hills. This pull-out was breathtaking. This picture was taken to my right...
... to the left...
...and directly front. Yes! Those are the famous sheep of NZ! This was my first semi-close encounter. My next encounter was on a stormy day in Auckland's Cornwall Park (which holds One Tree Hill and the Auckland Observatory, and yes! I am a freak who loves to go running in the rain) where it struck me silly to watch these sheep sitting calmly right on the other side of the fence while rain was POURING down. Well, what are they supposed to do, I wonder?
These are the girls (Australian on my right and Netherlander my left) that I was able to share part of my journey with (more particular our stays at the hostels.
This is on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula around where Cathedral Cove sits. There were some magnificent white cliffs around here.
Hot Water Beach! Those people (tourists) are digging and sitting in hot water that comes up from volcanic activity under ground. I joined them, and practically burned my feet off while sinking my feet into the sand.