Finally an Update

We’ve been neglecting the blog, but all is going well. Here is a bit of a run down on some of the things we’ve been up to over the past month or so.

The boys and I took a tour with Granny and Granddad (David & Shieila, Andrea’s parents) of a series of old gold mining tunnels. They’re all located in the hills of a farmer’s field, not far from where we are staying. It was pretty cool.

James at a kauri grove

We went sailing for a day with the whole family on Kate and Phil’s boat. It was a beautiful day. We anchored in gorgeous cove and swam to shore, where we had a short hike and swim at a waterfall. It was all so beautiful, it was dreamlike.

We had a picnic at Otama beach for Kate’s birthday. The kids were all left with the grandparents. It was a fabulous evening.

The four of us traveled to the Waitomo caves (south of Auckland) and took a tour of three caves, one of which included a short boat ride on an underground river with thousands of glow worms overhead. It was like looking up at stars. They call them caves, but they’re really more like vast caverns, formed by underground rivers. They are truly spectacular. On a future trip when the boys are older we plan to do one of the blackwater rafting trips on offer. On our return we stopped by the Highland Games in Paeroa and watched Phil in the bag piping competition.

My parent’s arrived on Valentines Day. We’ve enjoyed showing them around. They’re staying in the same apartment block. Since their place has a bbq and they enjoy cooking we’ve been eating with them for most of the meals. It’s been quite a treat.

We all went on a two night road trip to Rotorua, a town at the edge of a thermal valley. We visited a Maori village and had a hangi, a traditional meal prepared in an earth oven. We also checked out the thermal area, where we saw pools of burbling mud, steam vents and craters, and brightly coloured mineral pools. From there we went to a zoo type park where we saw lots of birds and animals native to New Zealand (with the exception of the lions). We all had a chance to (carefully) pat a lion cub. On our final day we split up, Sam went to the museum with David and Sheila; James, my parents and I went to a Kiwi hatchery and reserve, and Andrea did a bit of shopping.

Since then we’ve had quite a bit of beach time and lounging by the pool time. We visited the nearby town of Coromandel, taking a little train ride up the forested hillside and later in the day stopping at a folk art water park. Andrea and Alexander share the same birthday, so Kate hosted a joint birthday party bbq. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. Yesterday we chartered a fishing boat and had a great day on the water. James proved himself to be a great fisherman. The sea life here is so varied! Of the nine fish we caught, we had five different species (snapper, gunard, John Dory, trevaly and sweep.) It was quite a smorgasbord for dinner.

tractor ride with Uncle Phil

 - Stewart

A Perfect 3 Beach Day

Today has been lovely. It’s hot, sunny, a bit breezy, and we have the whole weekend off. First stop this morning was Hahei Beach. It’s a bit of a drive, 40 minutes around the Whitianga Estuary. We went on a kayak tour from there to Cathedral Cove. Cathedral Cove is a famous beach with a tunnel half way along. We tried to go there last week and hike down to the cove, but the recent storm has closed the trail down. It was a spectacular trip. It was calm and breezy. We got to go into a huge sea cave, with a little beach at the end. The we got out and had lattes and hot chocolate at Cathedral Cove, made by the kayak guide. A woman was singing under one of the caves out in the water and it was stunning. Then we crossed over some open water to these big volcanic rock islands, and got to go through a sea tunnel through the rock. It was amazing! Not too many photos: I was kept busy paddling because my boat-mate (Sam) mostly laid back and gazed at the sea.

                                                 natural shower at the end of Cathedral Cove

James' shower for the week!

tunnel at Cathedral Cove

volcanic rock formations

Next was Hot Water Beach, so far our LEAST favourite beach here. It’s a lovely long white sandy beach, mostly deserted, but with a dense pack of Germans, JAFA’s (Just Another F*%#$ Auklander) and Japanese at one end. You have to stake out a claim and start digging. Geologically, it’s quite cool: hot springs come up through the sand, and the 2 hours either side of low tide are ideal for digging hot pools. The problem is that EVERYONE wants to build their own hot pool, nice and big to lie down in, but the springs only come up across about 20 meters of beach. Not a lot of space for a whole pile of people. Poor James kept on trying to dig a hot pool, and the people digging RIGHT below him kept unintentionally draining his pool! Sometimes just walking across the sand, you have to start running because the soles of your feet are getting burned. Jacquie and Richard, we’ll go there very early one morning on a week day!

 we're a bit early here but within 15 minutes the beach was PACKED

can you see the tight cluster of people just down the beach? that's where the springs are

Our last beach was Cooks beach, a long white crescent beach with a huge warm sand bar and estuary at one end. Perfect for a quick swim at the end of the day. James and Stewart walked from the end of Cook’s Beach to Ferry Landing, then took the ferry over to Whitianga and walked home. Sam and I drove the long way around the estuary.