New Zealand Day 12 (Aug. 13), Coromandel Peninsula

We stayed the night with Treg's friend Paula and her son Davis.  She spoiled the girls with LOTS of sweets.  Toffee Pops made the top of their list for favorite New Zealand foods. (if you can really count cookies as a food)

The girls had a great time with Davis and loooooved his car.  Maunia especially because purple is her favorite color.

We were headed to the Coromandel Peninsula for the day.  We really did luck out as far as weather goes on our trip.  For going in the middle of winter in New Zealand, we really experienced very little rain.  Unfortunately, today was one of the 2 verrrrry rainy days.  The greenery was absolutely beautiful to look at though.  I was enjoying the ride (I love the rain) when Treg tells me he would like to ride with and chat with Paula would I mind driving the car myself.  Gulp!!!  I had driven a little in NZ but it wasn't my favorite thing to do, but I'm a good sport so I said sure.  Holy cow, I'm surprised my knuckles didn't fall off by the end of the drive.  It was really rainy and the roads were sooooo narrow, as in holy cow, I hope I don't cross over that 1 extra inch of space I have and fall off that cliff kind of narrow.  Add to that driving on the wrong side of the car and wrong side of the street and it made for a fun ride.  Paula took us the "scenic" route and the 2-3 hour trip took like 5-9 haha.

We stopped along the way and visited some little shops.  I got some fun local artwork and the girls got some crafty things.

When we got to our destination, we dropped off our suitcases and piled in one car to go exploring a bit.  We're driving along and Paula just very calmly says "Treg, you're going to want to turn right here"  "Right here??"  Treg asked perplexed (it was not anywhere near where we were headed)  "Yes, right here" Paula says calmly.  After Treg turned onto the side road, Paula again calmly says "We didn't really need to turn here but you were driving on the wrong side of the road and there was a car coming straight for you, I didn't want to scream and startle you"  We all laughed pretty hard at that...and she was so calm about the whole thing!

There is a hike in Coromandel, called Cathedral Cove, that is supposed to be one of the most beautiful hikes in all of New Zealand.  It's a 2 1/2 hour hike and we had to skip it because of the rain.  Treg was pretty bummed about that.  There was a slight break in the weather so we decided to hit "hot water beach" and just walk along the beach before the rain started up again. 

Hot water beach is known for it's natural hot springs.  If you dig down in the sand, hot water will surface and make you a nice hot tub.  There was no way these Californians were stripping down to swimsuits and digging a hole.  As far as we were concerned it was freezing and we were staying bundled!!  The girls did attempt to dig a hole but all they had was a stick and they gave up pretty quickly.

Maunia found this stick and for whatever reason decided to trail it behind her for the whole length of the beach.

Maunia (still dragging the stick), Treg and Paula



I love this picture of Sierra.  She just looks so happy running down the beach :-)

The rocks on the beach were really cool.

If you were successful in digging your hole, this was your reward.  Your own personal hot tub. People were there in bikinis, kids were in there naked...seriously it was like 10 degrees Celsius!!!
Sierra's last addition to the beach as we were leaving, yes it was a happy day!

Paula had gotten us this beautiful waterfront home with huge windows and a spectacular view.  I don't have any pictures because it was raining so hard when we got there my camera would have gotten trashed.  We hunkered down for the night (with toffee pops) and played card games. It was fun to sit and chat and play.  The weather that night was insane.  It was blowing so hard I couldn't sleep.  I was seriously worried the big picture windows were going shatter.  Coromandel was a beautiful place.  Tomorrow we head to Warkworth.