Coromandel

I've been working in a cafe in Auckland for about six or seven weeks now. Even though I like the job, I like traveling more, and when I noticed that I have three days off this week I immediately booked a trip to Coromandel Peninsula. I topped up my bus pass and booked two nights in two different hostels; one in Coromandel Town and one in Whitianga.

The day before I left, I had the evening shift in the cafe from 6pm to 12:30am. I had intended to pack before my shift started, but of course it didn't work out as I planned. We (me, Sami and Enni) were shopping in the city centre and met a Finnish tourist while waiting for the traffic lights to change green. He heard us talking in Finnish and we invited him for a coffee with us, because you seldom meet other Finnish people here.

Hannu was middle aged, had traveled to 50 different countries, but didn't speak many words of English. He looked as much like a tourist as one possibly can and I quickly noticed that we have absolutely nothing in common. (Except that we both like traveling). Enni knew some same people and places as Hannu, and I decided to let her and Sami to do the talking. We ended up taking him up to Mt Eden to see the view and to Mission Bay beach, where we had lunch. Then we took him back to his hostel and came back home, and I had to go to work. So, because I had no time to pack my stuff before the shift started, I packed after work and went to bed around 2am. That's otherwise ok, but I had to get up at 6am to catch the bus, so I was a little bit tired in the morning and slept until we reached Thames, where I had to change to another bus.

The road to Coromandel Town was great. It was narrow and winding, and the scenery was amazing. Coromandel Town wasn't that great; it was a small town that used to be lively during the gold rush a couple of hundred years ago, but now it was inhabited by old fat men who wear vests and have long beards. One day was enough to see it all, and then I continued to Whitianga, where I met my friend Kathi, who is a backpacker from Germany. We went sea kayaking to Cathedral Cove, which is possibly the most photographed place in the whole NZ, and if you look at these photos, maybe you'll understand why!

Cathedral Cove, Whitianga, Coromandel, NZ, Earth.

Same beach, different side.

It was a perfect day; the weather was great and the kayaking was a lot of fun. The scenery was amazingly beautiful; it looks nice in the pictures, but it's even better when you paddle through it. We paddled to a cave and through an archway. On the way back to Hahei Beach we saw dolphins! Wild dolphins! First we saw their fins, and then we started paddling towards them to see them better. We got really close to them and saw them jumping, and one even swam right under our kayak! Unfortunately I don't have any photos, because I was doing the paddling while Kathi was taking the photos.

In the evening we went to the beach near our hostel. We had a bottle of wine and our sleeping bags with us, and we just stayed there chatting and looking at the stars. I thought the day couldn't get any better, but as we were lying on the beach we saw a shooting star! A perfect day and the best day in NZ so far!