Day 16 - Tuesday, February 7
The Bay of Islands & Cape Reinga is kind of like an add-on loop to the standard Kiwi Experience circuit. As a result, many of the people on that bus trip were not continuing south from Auckland, and the bus going south from Auckland was a different driver, largely different group of people, etc. But going south from Auckland, you're essentially with the same group of people and the same bus driver for a long stretch of time, potentially your entire multi-week trip. So on Tuesday, I met a lot of the people I'd be spending the next couple of weeks with.
As an aside for a second, I probably didn't adequately explain what the Kiwi Experience is (KEX for short). To some degree, it's not very different from any other bus tour. Basically, they run buses daily between neighboring locations along a large circuit stretched across the north and south island, and most people get on the bus in the morning, get off at the next location that evening and then get back on the next morning. But some people choose to stay in places longer than one night, and in some places a multi-night stop is standard. The KEX is marketed towards the young backpacking crowd, and as a result, virtually all bus passengers are 18-35, with an average age of early/mid 20's. As a result, it is also known as a bit of party bus, with most people drinking and going out most nights on the trip. I'm definitely one of the oldest on the bus. At each location, they provide information, discounts and guaranteed spots for a variety of activities, most of which are of the extreme sport / adrenaline rush variety that New Zealand is famous for. They also set you up with a hostel to stay in each night. If there isn't a supermarket close to the hostel for that night, the bus will stop at a supermarket so you can get groceries to make your own meals, alcohol, etc. The vast majority of people make all of their own meals. The bus also stops along for cool hikes, nice spots for photos, etc. Though it provides a lot of flexibility in how you choose to see the island in terms of how long you take and what activities you do, it also provides the convenience of you not having to figure out where to go, or what to do, or booking any hostels or activities because they take care of all of that for you - and they're quite good at it. It's also great for independent travelers like myself because it's a great way to meet a lot of people.
Okay, so back to Day 13. We got on the bus in Auckland and headed down to the Coromandel Peninsula, which is just southwest of Auckland. The great thing about visiting New Zealand in the middle of summer is that there is about 15 hours of daylight each day (6am to about 9pm), which means if you get to a location at noon or 1, you still have 8 hours of daylight to enjoy the day. One of the biggest attractions at today's location is the hot water beach, where you can dig a hole in the sand, and all the hot springs and geothermal activity fill the hole with really hot water. Most people go out at low tide, when it's easiest to dig down far enough to get hot water. We arrived down there about 130, which was perfect because low tide was at 215. The beach was filled with people all trying to dig holes to enjoy the hot water beach. I stuck my foot in one of the existing pools and it felt like I put my foot in a fire - much hotter than I expected. You can also just walk out into the ocean and dig your feet into the sand and it is very hot even though the ocean water is like 65-70 degrees (F) - pretty rad. I forgot my camera, but don't worry - google image search to the rescue:
After that we headed over to Cathedral's Cove, which was a really nice beach that we hiked (trekked if you're a Kiwi) down to, with really cool limestone rock formations. Apparently, they shot some scenes in one of the Narnia movies there. It was a gorgeous location and the weather couldn't have been better. Lots of pics from there in the album, but here's several of them:
We stayed at a campground that was right by the hot water beach. I had a lot of fun getting to know many of my fellow KEX passengers that evening, and then we all headed back out to the beach for midnight natural hot-tubbing:
All in all, a great first day to start my trip south from Auckland. Waking up the next morning to get on the bus at 730, however, was not so fun.
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