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We drove South through Auckland on our way stopping off at Orewa where we bought surfboard number 2 for Debs :) !!! We carried on driving past Aukland to the East coast and stopped at a really beautiful regional park called Tapapakanga. We both went for a run (James a longer one) and it was a gorgeous evening the park was great as it had the coast, farm and bush. We had picked up some fresh red cod which made an awesome dinner!! The next morning we carried along the coast and we stopped in at Miranda Hot Springs which is a huge man made pool filled by the local hot springs. It was really warm! Especially the sauna! We then traveled on towards the Coramandel Peninsula to discover our favourite road so far!! The road up the Coramandel side of the peninsula is so beautiful!!! We were right on the coast. The un metalled (gravel) road at the top to the campsite was the best! We stayed at the Fletcher Bay DOC campsite, it's stunning, in a valley looking out to the bay and the sea. We picked up some fresh oysters and snapper for dinner . . . yummy! In the next day we set off early and walked to Stony Bay along the coast, it was a 3hour walk there in and out the bush looking out to sea where we could see the Great Barrier, Little Barrier and Mercury Islands, it was so clear. Stony Bay was a perfect stop, a lovely bay where we could eat our sandwiches and watch the dolphins eat there lunch!!! We decided to do the loop back and unknowingly set off to then walk up a steep hill for well over an hour!!! The views at the top were worth it though! We then walked along the ridge back to camp. The walk took us quicker than expected so we spent the sunny afternoon swimming in the sea and sunbathing catching up on our books!
The next morning we decided to drive back down the amazing coastline and then cut accross the coast at Coromandel to the other coast. The beaches on that side of the coast were gorgeous! The sand what so white and the sea so clear. We walked arround to a lovely secluded beach called 'New Chums' which is apparently a really good surf spot but there was no surf . . . still pretty though! After stopping at a couple of other beeeaaauutiful beaches we went to Cathederal Cove, This was an amazing cove a little walk round the coast where the rock has naturally formed an archway in the cliff, it was madssive and pretty cool (yet again on another beautiful beach . . . )!
We then drove round to the Hot Water beach were we stayed at a site for the night. The next morning James headed out for a run to discover that tehre was surf! Excited to use our new boards we headed straight there and had a play, the waves wern't amazing but they were fun to play arround in and get used to the boards. We spotted the boards of people on the far end of the beach and went down to dig holes in the ground and sit in them! A hot water spring under the sand available at low tide fills up the holes and it is mad! The water was boiling! It was lots of fun/ very strange!
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