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| From Coromandel Penninsula |
I arrived exhausted back on Queen street on Friday around 5:30pm having skipped lunch for a long as meeting. Half delirious and ravaged with stomach pains, i get this txt message from Hector "stop by alternative car rentals after work and put your name on the driver list so that you can drive to Coromandel. they close at 6. we are waiting for you." After cleaning out my inbox of old messages, I then got the bombardment of the last 15 text messages from Hector, G, and Becky that had been clogged up for the past few hours bc of my silly 90 dollar Nokia. After a quick kebab i sprinted to alternative, scurrying into the garage at 5:59. After getting my name on the list I skipped sweaty but smiling back up to my room in Unilodge- through a weekend's worth of belongings into a bag and then we were off!
The Coromandel Penninsula! I had been waiting for this for months! Ever since the fantastic stories of the first group's venture up the pinnacles and to the many gorgeous beaches I had been dreaming about going. This was much better than the two-day long library stay I had planned. School and work can wait- I'm in New Zealand!
Hector, G, Becky, Janice and I piled into the car and pulled out around 7pm, jammin and screaching along with Mariah Carey....
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| From Coromandel Penninsula |
It was great to talk with Janice on the way up because I don't get to see her as often as I would like. And I even felt usefula as i offered my hand (litterally) to G to wrap her knitting yarn around. Once night fell and the roads got dark Becky asked me to drive and I enjoyed winding through the mountains and navigating around the pot holes as we reached the gravel roads that took us into the depths of new zealand back woods. I even did my service to the environment and hit my first possum! They are an extremely overpopulated species, and their massive numbers are hazardous to the environment.
We arrived that the campsite and visitor centere around 10pm and ate dinner on the porch of the visitor centre. The giant wooden porch reminded me summers at reedy creek and learning all about north carolina wilderness at nature camp. Then, deciding to head to bed, we drove 20 minutes to get to the campsite that was actually only 5 minutes from where we started. We pitched our tent, which Becky, Hex and G slept in, while Janie and I took the car.
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| From Coromandel Penninsula |
It was an early 3am wake up call when Hex tapped on my passenger side window. We packed up and drove to the trail head, arriving around 3:30am. Loaded up with just our water and torches (flashlights), we headed up to the pinnacles in hopes of catching a beautiful sunrise. I must admit I have never done a 3 hour hike up rocks in the dark before, but it really is a lot like you would imagine it. The path started out flat then morphed into a slight rocky incline. As the stars began to dim and the sky started to get lighter, we had to pick up our pace (which is hard to do when you end up walking faster than your eyes can register what your torch is illuminating).
Then came the stairs- flight after flight of them. Then there were real ladders, and then to rock ladders, then there were these strange ones that looked like upside down bicycle handlebars stuck into the rocks. These got a bit tricky at times with one hand occupied with a flashlight.
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| From Coromandel Penninsula |
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| From Coromandel Penninsula |
Luckily, Hector, Becky, and I reached the summit just as light touched the horizen. We met some nice students and a teacher there, who all greeted us as we climbed on top of the wooden platform. From there, we scrambled around the rocks, trying to find the best views. All the while, we huddled and cuddled for warmth as the brisk early morning breeze whipped around the rocks, stinging any exposed skin or areas with only thin garments. We snapped tons of pictures and wondered a bit where Janice and G disappeared off to.
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| From Coromandel Penninsula |
The sunrise was beautiful- reds and blues mixed in the clouds that lay caught in the harbor. Mist blended greens and greys on the mountains, but as it burned off and the sun rose, light revealed details and the crisp edges of steep rocks and plentiful branches.
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| From Coromandel Penninsula |
Afterwards, we hiked back down to the nearby hut to eat a snack and as the warden if he had seen a small indian girl and a slight less small asian girl. Nope. Starting to get a little worried, we headed back to the carpark, hoping to find G and Janice on the way. We passed the time on the hike back by continuing our tradition of telling life stories. This time it was my turn. My story was probably about 2 hours and lasted most of the rest of the hike back. At one point we ran into some older kiwis, who were impressed with how "keen" we were to do the hike in the dark, and one of the ladies commented to her friend that that she had pants like mine. Once again, proof. Mom pants.
When we got back we found G and Janice. We were relieved they were alright, but sad that they were unable to complete the hike becuase they took a wrong turn and had gotten lost. Regardless, we were all glad to be back in the car and heading to breakfast in Thames. After some delicious paninis and sausage wraps (links in plain white bread- a big kiwi thing- sooo delicious), we headed to Cathedral Cove.
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| From Coromandel Penninsula |
Cathedral Cove is one of the MOST BEAUTIFUL BEACHES I have ever seen! It was even used in the filming of The Chronicles of Narnia. I spent the afternoon climbing on rocks, swimming around the coves and caves, and taking lots of pictures. We ran into another group of BU people on the beach and enjoyed catching up and catching some rays with them. We decided to swim out to this big rock out a ways from shore, but it took a little pump up to get us all in the cold water. I started a long ramble of why we needed to just throw ourselves into the water to Caroline as we stood a few yards from the water, after a few minutes of rapid talking she just grabbed my wrist and started running and we dove screaming into the water. It was actually really refreshing.
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| From Coromandel Penninsula |
After some rock jumping, Steph and I swam to some caves on the other side of the beach. It was good exercise and the water felt sooo amazing. It was so clear you could see the sand several feet below you. We swam back into this one cave and the waves washed us up and down, getting quite close to the cavern ceiling and then threatening to wash us back out to sea. One giant wave came in and we rode it all the way onto the inner shore. Sitting inside the cave, the view was really misty but we could see out to the rocks outside and could see more people jumping out into the water. It was so unreal, like a book or a movie. After sititng in disbelief for a while, we swam out again riding up and down on the waves as if we had been dropped into the wave tank at discovery place. I was obsessed with that tank when I was a kid- who ever thought I would be able to live it ha ha.
Later, we swam around the edge of the caves and out to the point where we climbed up some rocks and over some rock drops over the ocean. It was a bit scary, but totally exhilerating. On the point we could see miles of ocean in a complete 200 degree view. We also saw these cool as birds, black with huge orange beaks. They looked as if they had pecked at a giant children's crayon and gotten their beak stuck in it. The were so strange, but definitely cool yo.
After we had finished exploring we found a cool little waterfall from a small fresh water spring and we stood under it to rinse off. Some more old women giggled at us as we squealed and shivered under the freezing cold but oh so clean water. It was the moment in the weekend when I felt so alive and completly free, as if all worries or stress just washed away. An analogy for this whole semester.
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| From Coromandel Penninsula |
After we gawked at Hector's awesome sketch of the cove, we hiked back up to he car and headed for Hot Water Beach. There we warmed up by burying our legs in the sand. It was so neat. Some areas of sand were just normal, but in other areas you could dig your feet down and feel the sand engulf your ankles, hot sand squeezing like lava between your toes. It was almost scorching in some places! But then the waves from the ocean would wash up around you and cool you down.
We set up our tent and car as soon as the sun went down. A giant house party near the beach provided some party music before we headed to sleep at 9pm. And we woke up several times to fireworks exploding over the carpark and ocean. The next day we took a scenic drive around the penninsula and got lunch and some nice cold L&P, a classic kiwi soda, in Paeroa.
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| From Coromandel Penninsula |
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| From Coromandel Penninsula |
We rolled back into Auckland just around dusk on Sunday, which game G and me time to shower and get prettied up for dinner with Cait, her parents, and her bros. It was an enjoyable evening and some of the best food I've had since I have been here. All in all, it was a good weekend, one I needed after a full few weeks of adjusting to school and work. It has been hard to come back to class today!
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