Monday : We woke up and checked out of our motel. It was a rainy day, we were kind of glad, because we knew the day was going to be filled with driving. Matt had read about the Wairere boulders that were on the way, so we decided to stop there to check them out. It was still wet but we decided to explore anyways. The woman who worked there was very expressive of how the Maori people around the area that we were the most savage, as they were cannibals. Interesting stuff... So we went along the footpaths and explored through little caves. The boulders were GIANT, and the river running through it was “Coca-cola coloured” which was a nice way of saying it was brown. There were boardwalks across them, and paths through the boulders, it was real adventure. As always, Matt was climbing on the rocks and exploring off the path while, Alex, Mark and I basically just stuck to the path. We piled back into the car, and headed in the direction that we THOUGHT was towards Auckland. The road kept getting smaller, and soon turned into gravel, and then there was suddenly a fence across the road, and horses on the other side. We had looked at a map, and it seemed like we were going in the right direction, but obviously, we had made a wrong turn somewhere. So, we started to turn around, and then a car came the same way we did and was just as confused. There was a driveway just down the road a little, so we followed the car ahead (who looked like a family) to the house and they had said that we ‘missed’ a fork in the road a while back. So, we backtracked until we got back to the boulders entrance and just kept driving down that road. It turned out, if we had just turned the other way down the road we went on, we would have been on the right track. Once again, we were running low on gas, so throughout this entire time, we were wondering if we were going to break down or not (or at least I was thinking that) Oh well, it was an adventure. So, we were on our way once again. We drove through a national park, which was pretty, but had VERY curvy road through it, so all of us, besides Mark (because he was driving) were getting pretty motion sick but we survived without anyone actually becoming sick! Matt had also read about the giant Kauri trees that were in the national park, so we stopped to look at “the Father of the Forest”. Now, we were walking through the forest, and there were signs to different trees, and paths. Matt had said that it was near “The Four Sisters” so we followed that sign, and saw this pretty big tree. It was impressive, but we were like “We thought ‘the father of the forest’ would be bigger”. We took pictures and saw ‘The four sisters” which are four trees that share the same roots. Matt was sure that the tree that we saw wasn’t the Father. SO, we keep exploring, and followed a path and THERE IT WAS! It was LITERALLY the biggest thing I have ever seen! It was REALLY the “Father” of the forest. The pictures really don’t do it justice and there are no words to really describe it, other than it was a GIGANTIC tree. Haha! Anyways, we got back on the road to Auckland. About an hour or two outside of Auckland, we got to stop and go traffic, we figured it was because it was the end of Easter Weekend, and everyone wanted to get back for work the next day. We soon realise that there is a road closure too, so we get on another highway heading for Auckland but there was still slow traffic. By this time, we had been in the car for about 6 hours and we getting a little ‘cabin (or should I say car) fever’-ish. We were acting crazy. Matt really wanted to find a song that was on one of the 6 CDs that Mark had brought (by the end of the trip, we basically knew all of the words to all the songs...well...except for me, who just made up words to go with the songs)... Anyways, Matt knew it was on one of the CDs and had gone through them all but still didn’t find it. So we made a plan to go through each CD and once we realised that it wasn’t on the CD, he would give it back to us girls in the backseat. This didn’t work...he still didn’t find it. So, I handed him each CD one by one, and one time I handed him one, he put the CD I JUST gave him into the glove compartment and put the one he just took out of the CD player back in it. This was the affect of being in the car for that amount of time. Once we got into Auckland, Mark drove down three one way roads in a row, but somehow none of us reacted in any way, or no one else on the roads did anything to warn us. We were, once again, hungry, tired and wanted out of the car. So, we first found an Indian restaurant to eat at (“We went out for an Indian” as Mark would say in his Scottish language...haha). The food was delicious but the service was not. By this time, we were just happy to have food to eat. Alex was smart and book a hostel for us in Auckland and we then drove there. When we were walking from the car park to hostel, I slipped on the sidewalk and totally bailed. Luckily, Alex was too tired to laugh, and we just kept walking. Haha! They had made a mistake with our rooms though, so we got two double rooms, for the price we would have got for being in a ten person room. It was pretty great deal. We showered, hung around and then went to bed.
Tuesday : Once again, we got up and checked out. And decided to go up to Coromandel which is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL! But, as with our luck, it was once again rainy. We had decided that we wanted a beach day, and there were hot spring beaches there. So we drove up there and just as we were getting there, in front of us there was a HUGE amount of water flowing (not just sitting, but actually moving) over the road. There was a police officer there, and we asked him if there was another way there, and if not, if he thought we could make it across. He said that it was the only way over, and that we could TRY, but high tide would be in a few hours and he doubted that we would be able to get back. Meanwhile, there were plenty of cars driving through this flowing water, but we decided, that in a rental car, it probably wasn’t the greatest idea. So, there went our plans of sitting on the beach in a hot spring. So, our plans changed and we decided to just go onto our next destination. As Matt was the one to know where things were and was the one to read the travel book, he noted that there was a nice waterfall on the way and a gorge with some paths around it. So, we went adventuring and found what we THOUGHT to be the place to park for the waterfall and trails. Unfortunately, we were wrong once again. We were walking down a wide gravel path, past a old cyanide plant and found a trickling creek, which we thought MIGHT be the waterfall...we were wrong...again. We asked a woman who was walking her dog and we found out we had to go up the road a bit more. So, once again, we got back in the car, and drove to where the gorge was and decided to take a while walking around it, and it was BEAUTIFUL! The place we were was also an old mine. Matt went exploring in some old mining caves. There were suspension bridges over the gorge as well as parts of the paths through old gold mines. Unfortunately, we did not have a torch (or flashlight) but Matt wanted to explore. I made everyone join hands, so we didn’t get lost, or step in a hole, and we managed to find our way through the mining holes with Matt’s direction and a camera flash. I have to say that this adventure was one of the highlights of the trip. We saw such a gorgeous gorge (hahah! ) and cool goldmines with glow worms. It was SO sweet, and reminded me of what a beautiful country I am in! After this adventure, we wanted to see the waterfall, so a little drive up another street and we saw the waterfall that Matt had read about and it was BEAUTIFUL! After we had seen a few waterfalls, Alex posed the question of why we think that waterfalls are so beautiful. And it’s true...it’s just a bunch of water flowing over a cliff, but I still believe that they are one of the most beautiful things! They just seem so enchanting and somehow mysterious. (Note: If anyone really wants to impress me...bring me to a waterfall... ; ) hahah!). We once again piled into the car and drove down to Tauranga where Alex had already booked a room at backpackers. We got there, unpacked our things and meet our roommates who were mostly from Canada (One from Nova Scotia, Two from Quebec). The other girl was from New Zealand, but was travelling for work. We were exhausted from once again being in the car all day so we decided to get something to eat and have a relaxing night. We went out for ‘an Italian’ and went back to our hostel and played scattergories and just relaxed before bed.
I might upload pictures a bit later! But for now this is all you get! :)
Hope everyone is well,
Love,
K
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