Coromandel, Whangamata, and Cyclone Pam

Well, it has been the better part of three weeks since I wrote anything on the blog and I've been getting a little bit from Kerri to pull up my socks and do something on here.   Truth is, she's been doing such a good job, that I haven't seen the point of trying to better her efforts.  However, I'm sure once word gets out that I've actually done something, we'll have an immense number of views, the Brighton Independent will likely call me and ask that I submit a weekly article.   It might even replace news about our local council that gets so much space (mind you, with the number of errors I make on the iPad and the number of autocorrects, I may not be contacted as quickly as I might think).   Anyway, enough about me (my favorite topic), and on to some adventures and insight into time on the road (as it turns out, I wasn't able to put this in and the blog ends quite abruptly - maybe in the  next post where I'll try and explain how Whangamata is pronounced Fang-i-ma-tah and no one ever knows what I'm talking about, it's like living in Switzerland again).

Currently, it is Sunday late afternoon in NZ, which means it is just before midnight in Brighton.  This concept has continued to entertain both the boys, their friends and our friends.    The international date line is a concept that is hard to grasp for many - that on a Sunday morning here I already know that the Leafs have lost even before they've played is truly amazing (or entirely predictable).   

We have been in the town of Whangamata, just on the edge of Coromandel Peninsula, for the last couple of days.   We arrived yesterday early afternoon, leaving Hahei and making the ones hour drive down without incident.  The Kiwis must be amongst the finest in the world at making roads that aren't straight.   A simple 60 km drive always seems to take at least an hour, without any traffic or street lights to interfere with driving time.   At this point in our trip, it feels as though I've travelled up every mountain, through every gorge and valley on this island.   Unfortunately, I often don't even get a chance to take in the views as I'm white knuckling it on the wheel.    

In Coromandel, we went to a number of beaches that are amongst the best in NZ.   We started by hiking to New Chums Beach (which is just fun to say), a beach which once made a top ten beaches in the world.  This claim might be a bit of stretch, but we had the whole 1.5 km to ourselves for about thirty minutes and the boys loved the isolation and solitude.  Our pictures are starting to gets repetitive with beaches, white sand and waves, but its a good problem to have.   From there, we went to Hahei, where the Cathedral Cove is located.   We had hoped to do some snorkelling on the way there, but big waves got in the way.   The Cove is truly breathtaking, and the boys quickly found that the conditions for wave jumping were too good to pass up.   An hour or two of our time was dedicated to what is quickly becoming our daily gym schedule.  Back at our "resort", a word they use here perhaps differently than we might, we settled into our simple room (beds, bunk beds, fridge) and left for yet one more beach, Hot Water Beach.  This one was suppose to be a different though.   In theory, you arrive at low tide, walk across the beach barefoot toward some old (I mean really old) rocks until your feet start to get warm, the dig a hole and let the geysers under them ground heat up the water.  Unfortunately, every tourist within 50km seemed to be there so finding space was somewhat limited.   That, and the strong waves prevented any success.  At one point, when we had fortified our chosen sight and felt sure the marines couldn't break through, nature decided to do what it can do.  A wave crashed onto shore, flooding our impenetrable fort, knocking Braden over without problems and destroying our hard work.   Braden soon after abandoned ship, and Carter stuck and I stuck it out a little longer before joining Kerri and Braden.  It was certainly a bit of a lunch bag let down.  In the morning, we left for our present location.   If you can imagine, the beach here is just as nice and we spent a hours body surfing and wave jumping.    It's amazing that this never gets old.   We checked into our hotel where we intended to stay low until this cyclone blows through.  Currently, we are in the second hour of the storm, but it should be gone through by lunch tomorrow.   I did get in a great hike this morning at the Karangahake Gorge, an old mining town not far from here.  That's been about the extent of the excitement.  The boys have spent the day catching up with friends on line -  in ways it has been the perfect day.   Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will head to Rotorua, apparently, the smelliest town in NZ.   It should be interesting.  

Some other points of interest