High Tea and the Coromandel

Wow its been some time since my last post. Not having a consistent internet connection makes it difficult to be a good blogger. *coughexcusescough*

After leaving beautiful blue Cape Regina, we spent a week in Omaha. We were tired from all the nauseating driving so BF and I ended up being pretty lazy that week! We spent a lot of time at the air rifle range in Warkworth. :)

Air rifle range

Mini putt!

Our wonderful hostess took us along to quiz night at a local pub. It was a lot of fun and we learned the phrase "shout a drink" which means to buy someone a drink.

We won!

From there we drove to Devonport where we left our car behind and took the ferry to Waiheke Island. If you ever go, I highly recommend taking your vehicle if you can swing it. (It's 200$!!) There is a lot to explore on Waiheke island and you just can't get to them without your own transportation. That being said, BF and I didn't get to see a lot on the island, but we were content to just wander around. It is intensely hilly, so it was a great workout for the glutes.

We had a funny incident when we first arrived on the island. Our hosts sent us instructions, so we hopped onto a bus. But we must've still looked a little lost as a man sitting near us took it upon himself to try to guide us. He turned to me and asked what directions we'd been given. Being a bit shy and very unsure, he must have had a hard time understanding me because he turned to BF and said "How's your English?"! And earlier that day I was reading an article about an English speaking Asian (her first language) in Japan being told that her "English is pretty good...for an Asian". It made us both laugh.

Sunny dinning table

Our lovely outdoor kitchen

Macadamia bounty! Only $5!!

There are a lot of strange mailboxes in NZ

I do have a bit of advice concerning the ferries in the Auckland area - make sure you know where your stop is! On our way back to Devonport from Waiheke, we completely missed our stop. There was no announcement or signalling whatsoever that the wharf we docked at was Devonport. And our ferry stopped for only a few short minutes before disembarking. We ended up riding the ferry to Auckland CBD and then buying another ticket to go back to Devonport.

Great vegan food at Zest in Devonport 

I've noticed more and more that while the Kiwi people, for the most part, are wonderfully kind and helpful, some things are very much in the "fend for yourselves" category. One such example being no announcements at ferry stops. Another example is driving. Two lanes of traffic will suddenly merge into one lane and the drivers have to drag race for who goes first. Oh, and traffic circles everywhere. Because traffic circles are cooler than traffic lights, right? But I digress.

We spent a night in Auckland so we could hit up a few places I had been really wanting to visit - high tea at Hectors Restaurant and dessert at Milse.

The high tea at Hector's isn't just any high afternoon tea. They can make it vegan! And of course, for such a nice place, we had to dress up at least a little. I bought my whole ensemble at a hospice store for 30$, shoes included. :D

The coolest part of high tea was learning that Hector's makes their own vegan coconut yogurt as well as their own vegan cheese! And absolutely order the cinnamon tea, it gets better and better with each cup.

Cucumber avocado sandwich and a
tomato with vegan cheese sandwich

Blueberry muffin and cream cheese icing,
coconut macaron, brownie bite, mini fruit tart
with coconut cream

Delicious currant scones

Best tea ever!

Definitely a splurge, but for the love of tea, finger sandwiches, and teeny tiny scones, it was totally worth it. It didn't hurt that the service was top notch and hey, dressing up is nice when any other time there is probably a stain on my clothes.

Later (and by later I mean an hour later :P), we hit up Milse, a dessert-only restaurant! It is a very tiny place but it is full of gorgeous desserts in a mix of interesting flavours. I really wanted to go during their a la carte menu, but we already had dinner plans so we could only order from their showcase. BF had a tamarillo and pistachio gelato stick while I had the matcha, honey, lemon, sesame and tamarillo entremet. BF wasn't a huge fan of the tamarillo flavour (similar to a sweet tomato), and I wasn't sure the tamarillo worked with the matcha but the desserts were beautiful and fun!

Matcha and tamarillo

Tamarillo and pistachio gelato stick

The next day we drove three and a half more hours to Purangi Winery located on the east side of the Coromandel Penninsula. A great winery with very tasty liquers. A must visit if you're in the area. Plus, you'll get to meet Danny. I guarantee you he'll make you laugh.

Fluffy!

It was great working there and an entirely different experience. Instead of the usual do-four-hours-in-the-morning-and-get-the-rest-of-the-day-off, it was wake up, lazily make breakfast, do the morning tasks, chill a little, clean some wine bottles/bottle some wine, chill some more, play hackie sack or ping pong, make pizza for customers, chill, make pizzas, chill, make pizzas, dinner at some point, evening tasks, ice cream and chocolate and more chilling. It was like working all day but at the same time not. Mostly because the company was so much fun, it was no effort at all.

Pizza for lunch

Of course, the two original reasons for coming to this region was to visit Hot Water beach and Cathedral Cove. Hot water beach is named thusly because hot spring water bubbles up to the surface allowing you to dig a hole and essentially, build your own hot pool. It's hot! The water is 60C when it reaches the surface. Also, if you do go, you can't just dig anywhere, dig near the bubbling sand. But not directly on it! BF and I had to give visitors advice because many were diggings holes randomly and then would walk away disappointed or very confused. It can get very busy there so Danny highly recommends going late at night. Oh, and bring a colander, it makes a great shower!

Digging our hot spring

Cooking muscles with hot water power!

Cathedral cove is stunningly beautiful. You've seen it if you've watched Narina. It was filmed as the gateway into Narina.

The entrance! 

Peeking through

Gemstone cove

There is so much more to see in Coromandel, but we're moving on south. Now we're staying near Rotorua, famous for its sulphurous hot springs.

All The Way North

90 Mile beach. A ridiculously long stretch of beach and a certified highway!

Right at the south point of 90 mile beach is a small town called Ahipara. It's a great home base for any beach activities or for visiting Cape Reinga. BF and I stayed at the holiday park in a little cabin. Being out of season, it was very quiet here for most of our one week stay. We helped the park owner Sandy clear out lots of bamboo from behind his house. One of the best things about staying at a place that welcomes backpackers is meeting other backpackers!

Teeny tiny cabin

Nightly bonding over tv and beer

Right near Ahipara is Shipwreck bay. Many ships met there end there but there is still a little bit of the ship "Favourite" still sticking out of the sand during low tide.

One sunny day we booked a spot on the Dune Rider Cape Reinga tour. If you are travelling alone and it's off-season, I highly recommend booking with Dune Rider or another tour group. It's cheaper than driving all the way to the cape and the tour will include other neat stops, food, and sandboarding as well! Another major plus is that you won't have to worry about your vehicle getting stuck in the sand if you don't have 4 wheel drive. If you do decide to drive on the sand, make sure to stay on the wet sand - dry sand is bad bad news. :P

The tour started out at Ancient Kauri Kingdom. It's essentially a kauri wood workshop with a showroom and cafe out front. Its main attraction is the giant kauri staircase in the middle of the building. The entire building was built around it.

A staircase inside a kauri stump

I thought the coolest part was seeing all the unprocessed stumps behind the building. The stumps are HUGE! Some of the (much) smaller pieces were carved and placed by the car park.

Next up was the Gumdigger's park. Many years ago, kauri amber, or gum as the Kiwi's call it, was a highly prized resource. It was used for all sorts of things from jewellery to linoleum to varnish. Think of the gold rush, but kauri gum instead. This park is actually the former site of many gumdigger holes that have been preserved and left as is. 

A giant kauri log that has yet to fossilize 

Gumdigger hole 

Sifting for gum 

Gumdigger home

Really long gumboots!

An incomplete sack house 

A machine used in gumdiggery

Gumdigger store

Afterwards, the bus headed onto the 90 mile beach.

Bus'n on a beach!

We stopped at what the busdriver called "The Bluff - the point of no return".

Look how intensely blue the water is!

If you decide to drive on 90 mile beach, there are a few ramps here and there you can use to get onto the sand, but the only way to get on or off at the north end, is to drive in and along Te Paki stream. That's right, you have to drive in a pretty wide and deep stream!

We're essentially driving up a river. It was cool.

At the start of that river are huge sand dunes. And what do you do with huge sand dunes? Sand boarding!!

It's a good workout

Sandboarding was one of the best parts of the trip. Its quite the workout walking up that huge sand dune but the trip down is a major adrenaline rush. Be prepared to get a lot of sand in every orifice though. I had sand in my ears!

Now, for THE best part of the trip - Cape Reinga! The meeting place of the Tasman sea and the Pacific Ocean. This is a very sacred place for the Maori as it is the place where spirits can return to their eternal home, the spirit world (or the underworld).

Cape Maria

The meeting of the Sea and Ocean

Isn't that gorgeous!? And that blue is all real, no photoshop or tweaking whatsoever. 

Can you see the little tree sticking up on the right side of the rocks? That is an ancient tree that is the leaping point for the spirits. That tree is said to be thousands of years old, but has never flowered.

About 2/3 to the right and 1/3 down

Having reached the top, BF and I have now started our journey back south. We'll be stopping in Omaha for a week, followed by a week on Waiheke Island. Our plan is to quickly look around the southern part of the north island in time to get to the south island by the summer. A little factoid before you go: 90 mile beach is actually only 90 kilometers!