Whakapapa

After a few weeks of planning with Johanna, we finally went to the mountains! 

We both have been wanting to go skiing for a while but the problem was we didn't have a car and we didn't want to go just the two of us, because then the petrol would've been so expensive. But luckily we found a Finnish girl and her boyfriend (or a friend, I don't know) to go there with us. So we went to Whakapapa and it took about 4 hours to drive there. And that has actually been the only time I've met any Finnish people here. But it's fine, I didn't come here to meet Finnish people and talk in Finnish all the time.

We left already on Friday evening (28.8.) because it gets so busy there in the mornings during the weekend so we wanted to be there really early on Saturday. Because if you go there late or during the day, the roads might be closed and you can't even get to the area. And we drove back to Auckland on Saturday evening because the weather was really bad for Sunday so we didn't wanna go skiing in the rain...

At first I planned to ski but there was a really cheap deal for rental, pass and a lesson so I decided to try snowboarding! Which I've never tried before so it was good it included the lesson. Can't say I'm good at snowboarding after just one day but it was so much fun and I felt so happy to try something new! And we've actually been thinking about practicing some more snowboarding with Johanna at Snowplanet, which is an indoor snow resort quite close to where we live.

Since I had the cheap deal, I wasn't allowed to go all the way up to snowboard but I bought a $5 ticket just to go to the top so I could see the whole area. And it looked so awesome from up there.

After Australia (where I missed one winter), I've become such a winter person. I don't mind if it's cold, as long as I can be around snow and do some snow activities. So you can only imagine how excited I was there; snowcapped real mountains (and a bit bigger than Ounasvaara :D) and amazing views with great company! It was such a weird feeling snowboarding in August but I truly loved it! And it was so weird because there wasn't any snow anywhere else than in the mountains. Like when we were driving there, we didn't see snow anywhere.

Whakapapa is in Tongariro national park where I'll go again later in the spring to do this one amazing hike. And there's some amazing Lord of the Rings shooting places! We saw a bit when we were driving there but didn't stop for any pictures so gotta take lots when I can go back there!

That's Mount Doom in the background!

On Sunday it also rained almost the whole day in Auckland so I spent the day in the city with Johanna. First we went to Safka which sells lot of European/Scandinavian food. There were Fazer chocolates/candies, rye bread (!!) and other yummy things. But they were all so damn expensive... But had to buy a bit of candy (Hyvää makumaasta) since it was -60%. :D

After Safka, we had some safka. Haha. And then we went to the movies to see We Are Your Friends.

Day 2

Day two in Coromandel started in a great way! It was already dark when we drove to this place the previous evening but when we woke up, we saw what a great spot we had chosen. Pretty nice view right after you wake up! :)

Our next place to visit was New Chums Beach. We definitely wanted to go and see that beach since in some vote, it has been voted as one of the world's top 10 beaches. The beach is protected and you can get there only by boat or via a 30 minute walk on a not-so-good track along the coast.

These first pictures are from Whangapoua beach.

And this is the New Chums Beach. So beautiful!

After the beach, we had one place to visit before heading back to Auckland. And that was Mount Paku. We had to walk only about 5 minutes up the hill and then we had these amazing views!

This is not from the mount, we just stopped along the way and took this on the side of the road.

Coromandel

Almost two months ago (22.-23.8) I spent the weekend at Coromandel with a German and a French. And I actually hadn't met them before, I just saw Valerie's (German) post in one of the backpacking groups in FB that she's going there and thought, why not go with her. You must think I'm crazy that I'm travelling with total strangers but here it's totally normal. Everyone has come here to travel so almost everyone ends up travelling with strangers at some point during their stay here.

We left early Saturday morning since it took about two to three hours to drive there. We stopped a few times along the way for some photos but the first actual stop was at Cathedral Cove. We weren't so lucky with the weather but at least it didn't rain at all during that day.

 

After Cathedral Cove, we did a little walk up a hill near Hahei Beach. This was a perfect little walk since it didn't take too long because we had to go for the next place quite soon.

 

After the walk we went down to the beach and tried this swing. It was so much fun! Even though a bit scary at first. I was so scared I'd hit the rocks.

 

Then we drove to Hot Water Beach. Which was a pretty cool place! "Its name comes from underground hot spirings which filter up through the sand between the high and low water tidal reaches. Within two hours either side of low tide, it is possible to dig into the sand allowing hot water to escape to the surface forming a hot water pool. The water, with a temperature as hot as 64 °C..." So at the beach, we dug a hole and went standing and sitting in the hot water. It was so weird. But so cool. And sometimes the water was so burning hot that you couldn't stand there for more than just a few seconds. We were there until it became dark and then we drove a bit closer to the places we visited the next day. At first we planned on booking a hostel but we ended up sleeping in Valerie's car since there was enough room for the three of us.