Auckland – Coromandel bay
On the 16th of May Fabian and me went to the Airport in Sydney to fly to Auckland (New Zealand). There we would meet Manuel (Fabian's brother), Chuss (my Spanish friend that I met in Laos) and Frederico (an Italien guy that Chuss had met in Thailand). So we were a quite merry party!
We had decided to rent a campervan and to cruise around New Zealand. It is quite cheap as you combine transportation and and accommodation. Moreover New Zealand is the kind of country where you need at least a car, cause otherwise you miss out on a lot!
After we met in the Airport we went to a hostel and started while having a couple of bottles of wine making a plan for the next 2 weeks. Moreover we selected the caravan that we would rent. It turned out to be really affordable cause a caravan for 5 people (actually for six) for 2 weeks would cost everybody 180 euros! Nice!!!! I like bargains. Usually it is not soo cheap to rent one in New Zealand but right now it is not exactly high season as the winter is about to start and it is supposed to be quite cold.
We spent another day in Auckland walking around, visiting the harbour and checking out Devonport. Devonport is an island right across from Auckland. Well nice but nothing special, just a bit of walking around, enjoying nice views and excellent coffee :-)
On May the 18th we picked up our campervan! The boys were very nervous about the fact what brand it would be, cause they really wanted a VW!!!! So while I was busy with the rental procedure they kept on interrupting inquiring about the brand !!!!! But they had to be patient! :-)
Fortunately we got a VW, so everything was good and everybody was satisfied. Officially 3 people are allowed to drive, so we signed up the boys. I don t feel very confident driving on the otherside of the road AND a vehicle that is much bigger and heavier than an average car. Neither is Chuss very keen on driving especially after our little accident in Indonesia. Therefore we were quite happy to pass on the responsibility of driving to the boys.
New Zealand consists of two main islands, the northern and the southern island and together they are about the size of Great Britain. Soooo BIG but New Zealand has only 4 million inhabitants. Now you can imagin how densily populated it is..... NOT at all! It is VERY VERY quite with a lot of nature. As it is soo big and we had only 2 weeks time and we didn t want to spend all they long in the caravan, we decided just to visit the northern island. Yes I know, everybody who has been to NZ, will now tell me that the southern island is soooo nice and it is such a pity..... Yes it is a pity BUT we simply had a lack of time!
First we made our way up to Bay of Islands. There you have the opportunity to go dolphin watching and sometimes you can also swim with them. I was sooo in for that !!! :-)
After a wonderful breakfast at the beach I checked out the offers for dolphin watching. Eventually Chuss, Fabian and me went to see some. Swimming with dolphins is only possible if they have no babies... NZ law. WHY? because dolphin babies have to eat every 3!!! minutes and if they have human buddies to play with, they get so excited that they forget to eat and that is harmful to them! Okay anyway it was cold and windy so I didn t really feel the urge to go swimming in the sea.
Yes we saw dolphins and they had a baby... so no swimming. Lovely creatures but difficult to take pictures of them. Moreover we saw sea lions hanging out on an island and a few tiny penguins. So a very successful afternoon.!!!!
After we came back we moved on to the ninety mile beach. This beach is really 90 miles long and at certain spots you can dig into the sand to find clams which you can eat immediately. So of course we had to see that.
@wild camping in NZ is also illegal so we had again the same problem like in Australia. Find a safe spot somewhere, where the police won t find you. Hmmm but this time with a huge campervan! Fortunately it is not high season, so the police actually doesn t care to much. The boys found some pretty random spots, but we never got woken up by the police or received a fine....!!!!
So after we spent the night close to the ninety mile beach we had breakfast at the ninety mile beach (there was absolutely nobody except us!!). Afterwards we started digging for clams.. but no luck!!!! well.....
From there on we went back to Auckland passing by our rental company cause our heating didn t work. At their agency they explained that the heating works only if we are plugged to electricity. Hmmm therefore we would have to stay at a campsite.... No way, far to expensive!!!! Ahh and well in NZ it is not sooo easy to find a shower, as you can t shower at the beach, or you can but it is just too cold, so I grabbed the opportunity and took a shower at the rental company (the offer free shower incl towel!!!).
Next we went to Coromandel Bay. We went along the coast as this is supposed to be a very nice scenery. And BOY it was!!! black beaches, blue sea and the sunset. What more can you ask for. Nobody expected such beautiful beaches in New Zealand even though we were wearing hats and jackets at the beach ;-)
Kisses from New Zealand
Astrid
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