We don’t like Auckland! We have been there twice now. And twice it has rained!
We are now in a camp site called Waihi Beach, at the bottom of the Coromandel Peninsula, home of hot water beach, where we hope to go tomorrow, so more about that then.
We left Matakohe and drove to Auckland (where it rained, if I haven’t mentioned that already). We spent the afternoon there in Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World (or something like that) which was an acquarium type place, that was actually pretty impressive. A ’snowcat’ taking you through the ‘Antarctic’ to see penguins, a conveyor belt type walkway through a glass tunnel with millions of fish and sharks, and some mad lobsters, eels, and other freaky things! Just the way to spend a rainy afternoon! They also had a ’30 second’ test – to see if you could keep your hand in water the temperature it is in the Antarctic for 30 seconds. I managed 5!!! Jonny however managed the full 30 seconds! And couldn’t feel his hand for a while afterwards!
A fishy experience
We met up with Wayne (Jonny’s brother-in-law) last night as he was up in Auckland and he took us out for dinner. We returned the favour by making him tea in our spaceship. Not a fair exchange I think!
This morning, we got talking to the people in the camper van next to us. Turns out they were leaving today, so they gave us all the food etc they had left over! Bread, milk, sugar, butter, and best of all … half a box of red wine! So we packed up and headed on early this morning. It’s a bank holiday weekend here (labour day) and we were warned that the traffic might be bad. The weather was also to be bad, but it has been fine today…because we’re now out of Auckland!
So we’re at our camp site now, sitting outside in the (near) dark, trying to maintain an internet connection! It’s a lot busier here than we have seen at a camp site yet and there are millions of children running around chasing seagulls etc, so it’s quite entertaining!
'Gorge'-eous
We then took a drive through the town to a viewing point overlooking Martha’s goldmine! So that was quite impressive too! Big massive hole in the ground. (Didn’t find any gold though!)
So then it was back to the campsite to make some dinner!
Tomorrow we’re going to explore the peninsula and try out the infamous hot water beach!
Jill
