Driving from Auckland to Hahei

The plan today was to pick up our rental car near the airport, then drive to Hahei on the scenic route. 


All was easy enough until the town of Thames where we stopped for lunch, a quick trip to the thrift shop, and to grab some food supplies. 


However, I may have underestimated the intensity of the drive along the Coromandel Peninsula. 



As the person sitting on the cliff side of the road, I was mostly gripping the handles and seat for dear life. Being on the other side of the road was disorienting!! JL did an amazing job driving along the twisting, narrow roads with big trucks passing so close on the other side. The scenery was gorgeous, but I had a hard time looking at it. 





Green-lipped mussels are produced around here - you can see the boats:


We finally made it to our hotel in Hahei. It’s a cute little town that I’m sure is hopping in summer but is pretty quiet right now. We had enough time to check out the beach before sunset. 








Tomorrow morning is another adventure, this time at Hot Water Beach and an afternoon boat tour! Now for a glass of wine to calm my nerves…





Popular posts from this blog

Cultural Thoughts

Image
Turkey: Istanbul was a culturally varied, welcoming place. At restaurants, the hustle performed by the servers waiting at the street was intense. Everyone wanted your business! At our first restaurant, the server proclaimed that he loved Canada and that his girlfriend was from there, but he couldn’t name the city she was from. 😂 Other vendors played a similar game, trying to engage you in conversation. The easiest approach was to ignore them, unfortunately.  Most places tell you not to flush toilet paper, but to instead put it in a small waste bin. Smoking is MUCH more common than at home, and we are very unused to smoke at restaurants.  Lots of seagulls and hooded crows were to be seen around town.  Greece : The restaurant service flow was a little different from in North America. When we were done our main courses, we had to signal the server that we wanted the bill. They simply wouldn’t bring it until asked! Once we asked, though, we would often get a small dessert, f...
Read more

Whirlwind Melbourne

Image
After a lovely sleep (well, I woke at 5:30, but that’s just me), we headed out to explore a bit of Melbourne. Breakfast was at a tiny coffee shop and the girls loved their hot chocolate.  The cafe was in a narrow alley typical of the Melbourne CBD.  It must have been some breakfast to make a sign about it! Next up was the National Gallery of Victoria. It was free! Unfortunately everyone was tired at this point.  But Isabelle still managed to climb a tree! Poor JL.  Such a pretty city: Then it was back to the airport! We had a TON of time to kill, first at the Singapore Airlines lounge. They close in between flights, so we snuck a few minutes in the Air New Zealand lounge: Once boarded, the girls slept pretty much right away while JL and I had our preselected meals. I had a lovely barramundi.  We’ve now arrived in Singapore and are waiting to board our flight to London. This one’s a monster 13.5 hour flight! See you on the other side. 
Read more

Second Day in Wellington

Image
After another lovely breakfast, we took a walk up Mount Victoria to find a couple of the Lord of the Rings filming locations: Next up was a visit to the Weta Workshop where they make special effects for lots of movies. Unfortunately, photos inside were forbidden, but it was really cool to handle actual prop swords and helmets used in the films.  Watch out, JL!!!
Read more