Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Neil's Round the World Trip!
I was woken up by Jack at 5.30am and I stumbled into the shower. I packed my backpack and then Jack drove me to a nearby bus station. I hopped on a bus to the city. The view of the city as the bus drove over the harbour bridge was amazing (just like the photo above). I walked to Base Backpackers and waited in the hostel for the bus. I spoke to a Canadian guy called Jeff on the Stray bus driven by a funny Kiwi guy called Kerry. He drove us to Mount Eden and we walked around the edge of the extinct volcano now covered in grass with cows dotted around the place. The views were amazing!
We stopped at a fruit & veg store and I bought some fruit. The NZ apples are excellent! We drove through the countryside towards Coromandel Peninsular. We stopped in a town called Thames and bought food from the supermarket. Our driver, Kerry told us all to wear sunblock as New Zealand has the highest cases of skin cancer in the world and also the only good possum is a dead possum!
He asked who wanted to go sea kayaking but I didn't want to as I'm on a tight budget and they wanted $75. We drove further north and stopped in a beautiful place called Haina. We checked into the holiday park situated right on the beach. I went walking with Jeff and a German guy called Cornelius (what a name!). We walked along the path to the secluded Cathedral Cove. There were lots of interesting sculpted rocks. We met another Strayer called Karen who is just like a pixie and is South African. We all walked along the beach back to the hostel via Stingray Bay.
We had a BBQ with sweetcorn, meaty squares and sausages. We ate our meals on little picnic tables under the stars; it was cool.
Everyone had a few drinks and then later at 11pm we were driven to Hot Water Beach. We walked down to the beach, it was a magical setting; moonlight glistened on the sea and sandy water pools. We walked along the sandy beach until we found sand that was warm then we got the spades out and dug a huge hole. The hole fills with hot water and then we all sat in the pool. It's like a natural jacuzzi but sometimes the water spurting up can be boiling! Eventually the tide came in and washed over our sand barrier prompting us to jump out and then end of the fun!
We all went to bed at 12.30pm....zzz..
- comments