Coromandel Trek

From Tauranga Dan skipped work for a week and we headed North, spending one night at the family ‘Bach’ (NZ holiday home) before travelling all the way North of the Coromandel region, parking the car in Colville and embarking on a three night trek around the tip of the region. From Fantail Bay to Port Jackson to Stony Bay I’d say we’d experienced some of the best views, worst blisters and hardest earned soak in a Thermal Pool by the end! A couple more more rough nights were spent at the ‘Bach’ picnicing, checking out the little shops and car hunting at the only internet hub. There wasn’t a chance Dan was bringing back a set of fireworks he had brought the whole trek so we set those off on the beach. The perfect ending to an amazing week!

Let the Journey Begin!

Yet another exciting chapter of my life has begun. October 31^st 2012 I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand. I was met by a friend and fellow traveler, Daniel, I had met two years ago on my excursion through Thailand. He excelled the position of a tour guide as we drove the 2 hours North to Whangarei where I stayed with him for the next couple days. That weekend we headed back down to Auckland where I was lucky enough to sit in on the somewhat eventful 4x4 portion of a forestry course Dan was taking with two other co-workers. Let’s just say I’ve never seen a man so very calm sitting in a truck with so few wheels on the ground as a team of safety patrol were dispatched. From there we spent the night in Auckland, where I met the rest of the team Dan works with. Sunday we said our goodbyes as Dan went back to Whangarei and I hopped on a bus destined for Waihi – a little town with a big history of gold mining located at the base of the Coromandel Region. After 2 days of exploring the mines I was off on another bus stopping in Tauranga, a beautiful ocean side town which I explored for a couple days on my own before meeting back up with Dan and meeting his family all together to celebrate the marriage of Dan’s cousin Isaac and his beautiful bride, Ana. Congratulations!