The day we left Kaikohe we headed up to the very tip of the North Island. Our GoPro camera has a suction cup mount that attaches to the car windshield for some good pictures along the route.
Thirteen kilometers south of Cape Reinga, we stopped at massive sand dunes to try our skills at sand surfing. Boy was it windy that day, which made it more of a struggle...but at least it was sunny and we couldn't pass up the chance to have some fun at the biggest sand dunes we have ever seen.
The GoPro's fisheye lens makes this dune seem pretty big, but this was only the kiddie hill, we also went up the top of a massive sand hill and shot down the side of that one too. The big one was too extreme to take the camera though, so no pictures :(
After the sand surfing adventure, we camped at the northern most camp site in New Zealand just 3km south of Cape Reinga. In the morning we shot back down the peninsula and explored some of the bays to the east. It was a long day of driving though because we also made it back down to the Auckland area. In the morning we met up with Gael and Bill, mutual friends of Janet Geissmann; they fed us lunch and took us to see Piha beach and a surrounding waterfall as well as the Waitakere Ranges lookout.
That afternoon we headed east again towards the Coromandel Peninsula. The beaches at the Coromandel are suppose to be some of the most stunning beaches in NZ, but the weather did not cooperate for us unfortunately. We did meet a nice group of friends and traveled around Coromandel with them, which made the weather more tolerable. We met Cecile and Quentin from France, Allison from Chicago, and Lauren from Australia! We all caravanned to Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach.
After our hike to Cathedral cove, we went to Hot Water Beach. Hot Water Beach was the best place to be in the rain because the water was the temperature of a very hot bath.
That night we stayed at a Top Ten Holiday Park by Hot Water Beach. Holiday parks have a few more amenities than regular camp sites. There was a kitchen, TV room, dorms, and camp sites. There was even a giant "jumping pillow" for the kids, but with all the rain we needed to get our wiggles out somehow. We got silly...
We decided to leave Coromandel the next morning because there wasn't much we could do with the downpour. We're in Raglan now: a bohemian surf community and we've started our next WWOOFing adventure. Pictures to come at the end of our stay here.
Love,
H & L
Love,
H & L
