HOLA!
I type this epic update on the bus back to Auckland from Rotorua. Good way to spend the time I feel...
So this week I have driven a car – a REAL LIVE CAR, automatic – from Auckland to Tauranga! Anna and I shared the driving, and she said, damning me with faint praise, that “letting me drive didn't go as badly as she thought”. It really wasn't that bad, once I'd stopped frantically pawing for second gear, and trying to put my foot down on the clutch....
I dutifully attended a murmur clinic on Tues morning (where GPs send in patients they've heard a murmur on, and James listens to them and decides whether or not to echo them. It was quite fast-paced but James still found time in between patients to get us a coffee, and look up the Hot Water Beach tide times for me! Legend). Skedaddled for the airport shortly after lunch, where I met Anna off her 4pm flight from Wellington. We picked up our nail of a Nissan Sunny from Jucy Rentals and Anna drove us from Auckland airport to Thames. Thames is the gateway town to the Coromandel, and while it must be very busy in summer, in winter it was decidedly devoid of life. The hostel was good though -YHA Sunshine Backpackers. We made ourselves some sausages and mash for tea, mmmmm (default Roz-Anna food after the first meal in Wellington!) We got chatting to Arnut, a Belgian law student/teddybear (I swear he is the cuddliest-looking man I have ever seen), who found the film “In Bruges” as funny as I did, and was happy to listen to me babble about how good the chocolate/moules/frites/beer is in Belgium. I love Belgium, mainly because of Veva and Jules tbh, oh and the chocolate – Georgina will remember how we holed up in a cafe in the torrential rain in Bruges dunking slabs of choc into hot choc. Now there's a travelling companion <3)
Anna, Arnut and I attempted to find a bar in Thames for a drink, but after wandering around unsuccessfully for half an hour, we called it quits and went back to the hostel for a snifter of whisky (Arnut's, from duty-free) and chocolate. I discovered that whisky really hurts a sore throat – something I had forgotten from radiotherapy – and Arnut had to finish mine but I don't think he minded.
Went to bed in an awesomely comfy dorm, the kind with purpose-built bunkbeds – not quite as good as the Napier ones but still bloody good.
On Wednesday we arose, had breakfast, went to Sola Café which was deservedly Rough-Guide-Running-Man recommended. Here is a pic of my coffee and of Arnut, so you can see how cuddly he was. Anna admitted that she would have fallen in love with him if not for Ferdinand, and indeed he is one of my fave people from travelling!
(pic following)
After a short lesson in driving an automatic, I anxiously got behind the wheel and drove rather slowly to Coromandel Town, with a couple of stops on the way for photos. Coromandel Town was also rather quiet, so we just had a look around the arty shops and then were on our way again. Anna drove us to Whitianga which was amazing. Our hostel was the YHA Beach one, and it was awesome! We had our own flat as no-one else was there, so the large open-plan kitchen and lounge were all ours! WHEEEE.
After dropping our stuff off, we got changed into bikinis and headed off to Hot Water Beach with our spade. Hot Water Beach is a place where a geothermal spring bubbles up at low tide, and you can dig a pool for hot water to bubble up into, and sit there chilling in the waves! Unfortunately a Kiwi Experience bus was already there and had disgorged several gap yahs, who had hogged all the hot water. We tried to dig our pool closer to the waves but the waves obliterated all attempts at a sand-barrier, so after hopping about a bit on the boiling hot sand we gave up and trudged mournfully off. Here are some pics though:
(to follow when I have decent internetz)
We drove instead to Cathedral Cove which was a lovely walk from the carpark, and was an absolutely stunning and quiet beach. Still a bit cold to swim.... am kicking myself for not swimming in the Bay of Islands!!
Grabbed some dinner supplies from the supermarket, had salmon and courgette risotto, drank lots of wine, tried to watch Phantom of the Opera (one of the DVDs from the reception) but the TV remote had died so no subtitles were available. But it was only the Gerard Butler version which Wayne assures me is crap. Decided to Skype instead – got to speak to not one but two siblings which was lovely :)
Had a gorgeous sleep in another comfy bed, and on Thursday morning it was sunny and warm enough to have our breakfast on the balcony!!! So exciting. After checking out, we went to sit on the beach and decide where to have our coffee (the excellent Nina's café). At Nina's we had a tasty raspberry frangipane cake. We also met a very friendly dog
(pic coming soon)
who has to be shaved in summer, according to her Hull-born owner. Good job – it was as warm as an English summer morning!
The nice man in Nina's told me where I could get chocolates and flowers for our hosts in Tauranga, so we went to Monk Street Market, which might be my favourite food shop in the world (after Moore Wilson's – that delightful supermarket-sized deli in Welly). It crams a vast array of delicious and hard-to-track-down ingredients into a shop smaller than Mmm's stall in the Grainger Market! And they had cheese! And posh chocolates! We bought some of the latter, went off to the florists for a tasteful arrangement of lilies, shoved all that in the car and drove (me again, eeeerp). The drive to Opoutere beach was uneventful, despite the hairpin bends in the mountain roads. Definitely not for the easily-carsick..
Opoutere beach itself is easily the most gorgeous and deserted beach I've ever been on – we had lunch on a little yellow bench under a tree, and then I went for a paddle and turned cartwheels.
We hopped back in the car again and set off for Tauranga whch is where we were staying with Gary and Amanda, the friends of Deb and Dom. After a wrong turn (because I'd just woken up from a kip and was not exactly with the map-reading) – we easily found their house which is right on Marine Parade, opposite the beach, and were welcomed like princesses with tea and snacks!! Honestly, the Reids are some of the loveliest people I've ever met; I knew Amanda was a kindred spirit when she asked if I wanted tea, and then said “What kind?” and opened the tea cupboard to reveal stacks and stacks of different kinds of tea. YAY FOR HIPPY TEAS!
I opted for “builder's tea” and we settled down for a chat and general introductions, and also being shown the guest room which was very exciting – ginormous queen bed and en suite!!! after 8 weeks of hostels this was absolute heaven. I spent a lot of time cooing over the kitchen as well – beautiful island units in engineered stone and all. Fabulous. Their house is still being done up, and is absolutely gorgoeus. When Gary and Thomas got home, we went out for a walk on the beach which was beautiful. Mt Mauganui is quite busy and developed, and the beach is very popular with teenage surfers after school; they were all riding by on their bikes holding their boards under their arms!! And for “winter” it is positively toasty – Amanda made me borrow her duckdown jacket which was beautifully comfy (I want one for Newcastle now!) but completely unnecessary – it felt like maybe a May evening.
Dinner was a lovely chicken satay curry and some wine, and then a quiet family evening watching telly which was somehow just what I needed. I managed to skype everyone too which was great after weeks of no video calls! Excitedly showed Dad the beautiful kitchen – complete with fancy hobs and incredible gadgets, and let him talk to Amanda and Gary, though I took him away once he began to embarrass me. (He told them they were allowed to use corporal punishment on me …o_O)
Oh and Geordie Shore and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding have just hit Australasian TV – I cringe. I tried very hard to convince the Reids that Newcastle isn't as depicted in Geordie Shore but I might have failed... Also they are completely unfamiliar with the concept of gypsy travellers – probably because NZ has so much room for everyone!
On Friday morning we got up fairly early to walk up Mt Maunganui with Amanda – she climbs this ridiculously steep mountain every morning! I realised exactly how unfit I was after 8 weeks of no running.... fabulous sense of achievement at the top though. Hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh. After breakfast of bacon and eggs Amanda took us for coffee at Deckchair café in Mt Maunganui where I was treated to some fab gluten-free orange cake. Mmmm.
Anna left for the airport after this, and as I was now staying another night instead of going straight to Rotorua, Amanda showed me around Tauranga which is a nice little town with a fair few shops. We got some sushi for lunch and went off to watch Thomas's hockey game. This is a very, VERY sporty family (I was quite embarrassed at my own lack of sporting prowess). The college was full of bouncy teenagers running around looking outdoorsy and preppy and almost American – I slunk about after Amanda feeling v. old, unfit, and British. The hockey game was as violent as to be expected when you give teenage boys sticks and a ball to hit – was rather enjoyable! I followed it much better than the rainy rugby match in Wellington, probably because I wasn't being rained on...
Friday evening was more of the same blissful chilling-out, with stirfry and films. I went to bed early – partly because I was exhausted from climbing the mountain, and partly because I was to climb it again the next morning! I was overly excited at having the queen sized bed all to myself – unprecedented luxury for travelling.
On Saturday morning, I met Jo and Jez who are from Nottingham too! They've been in NZ for 4 years and are good friends of the Reids. Jo had brought over lots of breakfasty things for after our walk, and GLUTEN-FREE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES. I love that woman. We further bonded over our Nottinghamness (Jo is from Arnold) and over how unfit we were for climbing Mt Maunganui – Gary came with us and RAN up and down the steps like a true ex-rower, and Amanda bounced ahead like a whippet while Jo and I wheezed away. Felt awesome to be at the top again though! And breakfast was a fantastic reward: peanut butter cookies and all. (recipe from Jo : “one cup sugar, one cup peanut butter, one egg. Beat, plop out, bake.” WOW! They were awesome.)
We had time to nip into town for an icecream (yoghurt berry, awesome) and then it was time to drop me off at the bus stop for the Rotorua bus – Gary and Amanda waited with me and saw me off with lots of hugs – awesome people :) thank you so much for having me to stay! And thank you Deb for putting me in touch with them!
One of the unfortunate things about my travelling experience, which I would like to change in myself but fear may just be human nature, is how badly the weather colours my opinion of a place. This is the fate that has befallen Rotorua. The Bay of Islands and Coromandel and Tauranga were all beautifully sunny, and I LIKED them. Rotorua chose to piss it down on me, so correspondingly I found it hard to love. Unfair but there you go. It's probably a perfectly nice little spa town in summer, but in the rain it ain't all that. However! I still had a good evening. Cooked me a risotto, had some wine, then went off for a wallow in the Polynesian spa. This was lovely – I borrowed a hilariously trashy novel from the hostel and read it while soaking myself in pools of varying temperatures and varying smelliness – the natural sulphur coming off the water takes a while to get used to!
We got kicked out at about 10.45pm and I ambled peaceably back to the hostel, chatted to the dormmates, and fell asleep still ponging of sulphur.
Sunday morning: tasty breakfast of the best gf bread I've had in NZ so far – Pavilion soy and linseed for any Kiwi squeeliacs – and then went off to explore Rotorua's park with a couple of the dormmates (German-Spanish Marc and Taiwanese Anna). We had an interested look at the plopping mud pools and steaming greyish waters, almost gagged at the rotten egg smell, and then when it started to pee it down, went for coffee and chinwags. After this I went off to the museum to look at the origins of Rotorua as a hip spa town where people went to “take the cure”, and to look at the remains of the old bathhouse. I didn't really have enough time to go to Wai-o-Tapu or any of the other geothermal parks, which is a shame, but I'm not sure how much I would have enjoyed them in the rain anyway. I really appreciate the freedom you get with a car – it's amazing! But I prefer to have a driving companion.
After raining on me for pretty much the whole day, Rotorua dried up in time for me to walk to the bus station and wait for my bus back to Auckland, which I suppose was its way of apologising.
(Personalising/anthropomorphising the weather is definitely the way to insanity. I'm pretty far along the path, I'd say.)
Now on bus. Feet wet.
HOME IN 12 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
x
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