A summer story - part two

From Cape Reinga we south on the 1st of January to Kerikeri, with two very important detours. First we stopped for another swim at 90 Mile Beach (which was crazy cold compared to the first swim, don't know what the deal was there) and second, at Mangonui for the best fish and chips in the country. The half crayfish'n'chips option was tempting but slightly out of the price range!

Once in Kerikeri we met up with Bastiaan and Pip and then headed over to Bas' friend Andrew's place (well, his parent's place) where we hung out with him, his parents and their friend and his fiancee Bridgette for the night. The spit roast was delicious and having the chance to have a shower and sleep in a real bed again was great!


After a bit of sightseeing around Kerikeri the next morning we battled the traffic back into Auckland and then went to see Avatar with Dad. Very lame plot but impressive computer graphics skills nonetheless! The next leg was Auckland to Wellington with a night in Taupo at Adrian's aunt and uncle the Hancocks, followed by a few hours at the National Army Museum in Waiouru. It's one of those places I'd driven past a hundred times but never been in - so finally we did! The war medals were really interesting as were the bits and pieces about some of the minor wars etc. that NZ had been involved in. We hung out in Wellington for a bit - well, Adrian hung out, I had to go to work for three days... But after that brief sojourn it was back up to the sunny north. We drove up to the Coromandel on the 8th for Liam and Kelly's wedding in Pauanui on the 9th of Jan.
We met up with all Adrian's St Pats mates on Friday evening and then before the wedding we helped Liam work off his nerves with a bit of a hit around on a tennis court. It was a beautiful wedding, right on the beach and they both looked so happy which was lovely. The reception had great food and we all had a wonderful time dancing around and listening to the great speeches. The song the St Pats boys sung about how Liam and Kelly met was a highlight and I'll try to post it when this website lets me!


After the wedding we spent two nights at the campsite at Hot Water Beach, further north in the Coromandel. That place is excellent! Supposedly one of the top ten beaches in the world as voted by Lonely Planet, when the tide is out it uncovers some natural hot springs which you can dig into and make your own natural hot pool. We checked it out on the first evening, just to see what it was all about, and then in the morning we went down again trying to get a spot. It was pretty packed in the morning with all the kids (low tide was about 10am) so it was difficult to get a spot but we managed to get our feet into the incredibly hot sand for a bit! During the day we headed up to Hahei and Cathedral Cove which was beautiful, and then it was back to Hot Water Beach for our third attempt at making the perfect hot pool. Our reconnaissance mission paid off and we had the perfect hot pool which was nearly too hot to sit in! It's a fight to constantly build up your sand wall against the incoming waves but it's a good workout all the same!
From Hot Water Beach we did a small tiki tour around the Coromandel peninsula on the way back to Auckland - complete with hokey pokey and goody goody gumdrops icecreams, yummmmm. Once back in the big AK we did a walking tour (one of Adrian's most favourite things...) of North Head and had a fabulously extravagent dinner at Kermadec (extravagent because we completely forgot to use the Entertainment Card, d'oh!). And then it was over! Adrian hopped back on a plane to London via Singapore and I went back down to Wellington after a few more birthday celebrations with Mum, Dad and friends.


A holiday to remember - here are all the photos!