back to Auckland

We took our first trip out on our own over the last couple of days. Straight east of Auckland is the Coromandle Peninsula. There is a bunch of water in the way, so the drive takes a while. We left Sunday and drove to a couple of can't miss beaches. Hot Water beach is exactly what it sounds like. At low tide, you walk out on to the beach and dig a hole that fills up with water from a hot spring back in the rocks. You really have to experiment with different spots to get just the right tempreature otherwise you end up scalded or cold. Also went up to Cathedral Cove. About a half-hour walk from the parking lot takes you down a cliff to a beach where the water has carved out a huge tunnel between 2 beaches. It was really spectacular. White cliffs with royal blue water, and very few people.
We have also finished our first official tramp. 2 days up to the Pinnacles (neat little mountain in the middle of the Coromandle national park). And as it turns out, backpacking is really hard. At least the carrying all your shit part is. The last couple hours of day 2 was all down hill with a thirty pound pack and brand new boots. My dogs were barkin'.
We stayed at a campsite near the hut on trial. I had heard hut and thought of a modest little one room shack, with a few nice touches. The place was amazing. 80 beds, showers, a massive kitchen with sinks and gas stoves. great big decks with picnic tables and benches. It was kind of a bummer we had the place to ourselves. It would have been fun to see what the place is like when it is full on a busy summer weekend.
The next day we drove out to the tip of the penn. to (what looked like on the map, the little town of) Port Jackson. Turned out to be little more than a beautiful little campground. No town to speak of other than a couple of farm houses. Getting there was a bit dodgey. The dirt road was narrow, and wound around very steep hills/cliffs that ended in the ocean, so it was a slow go. The rewad was a spot on a 2 mile streatch of beach in a beautiful protected cove with steep hills all around us. We had a fire and cooked some crappy pre-packaged chicken soup (all we had with us unfortunately) then watched the waves until it got to dark.
Today we had lunch at a little cafe in the town of Coromandle (great mussle chowder) before getting stuck in traffic on the way back to Auckland. We are now waiting to get back into Cassy and Rich's house, killing the time trying to figure out where we are going to stay for the next few weeks.
We're doing Thanksgiving tomorrow with Cassy, Rich and a bunch of their friends. Lieschen will surely have plenty to say after that is through. We should probably have a batch of photos up soon as well.