Well that was a weekend :-)

First off, sorry for this being a weekend late. We've been in the land that WiFi forgot over the weekend. Secondly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY PIERS! Sorry I missed your birthday mate and I'm amazed to hear that Sharon didnt make it past two VCs and a Vino Collapso before Collapsing!

Anyway where did we get to? Well on friday we wandered down to the shore, I would say sea but the tide was out so far all we could see were mangrove trees and swamps. There were cute tiny crabs scuttling around in the mud to look at. We finally made it out of Auckland late on Friday evening after having to take Penny back into work to sort out a staffing crisis and possibly the greatest Fish and Chip based experience I have ever had. Its a two hour drive from Auckland to the Coromandel Peninsula and much of that is in twisty mountainous terrain, which was dark and foggy. We finally made it to our little green house at about 11pm and were completely wiped out by the journey. I couldnt sleep being in a random house and kept waking up in the night. Also Faye tried pushing me out of bed with her knees so that didnt help.

Saturday morning we took a drive over to Hot Water Beach. More mountains to drive along this time with lots of low cloud and about 10 meters of visibility. So if we were going to fast for the corners we wouldnt know it until we are about half way over the edge. Nik drove slowly to compensate. Hot water beach is at the base of some of these mountains with hot springs trying to force themselves up through the dense rocks, but failing. So the boiling water comes up through the beach instead. This means that if you dig (with your rented spade) into the sand a little way you can make yourself a pool of hot water to sit in and admire the view. The issue is that everyone knows about it so when you get there there are about 30 people, all with spades hunting hot water under their feet and vieing for position to start digging. It can get very silly at time Im told with people breaking the dams of other peoples puddles and walled defences and stealing their hot water. We started digging our little hole as the tide went out and our little sea defences kept getting washed away but we did manage a puddle big enough for 3 of us and 4 if we huddled. Then we met up and started chatting with a german couple called Chris and Hannah (or possibly Anna it was hard to tell with his accent). They had another spade so we made our puddle larger and invited them to join us. So far international relations were going well. Wall still continued to fall in in places. Then we got chatting to an irish group (well Nik did, hes good at that) and invited them to join our puddle. At this point the spring shifted and everyone jumped out with roasted shorts and feet. Then we got the french involved (well one VERY viking-ish frenchman) who appeared to have been created solely for the purpose of creating large sand sea defence walls and then it all just got silly. We ended up with walls so high that we had to dig inlets to let the cold water in before we were all boiled alive. It was a great deal of fun and very refreshing. And just goes to show that when no politicians are involved we have absolutely no problem with international relations.

We then wanted to do some bone carving in Whitianga (pronounced Fi-ti-an-ga) but unfortunately the shop Nik new of was closed so we went for coffee next door instead. So instead we went home to cook Bar B Que instead. Penny and I decided to go for a possible run and got to the end of the road before deciding to climb a Pa site instead (think fortefied mound like a castle mound only with terraces in the sides rather than a building on top) that the Maori used to use to defende themselves. I can see why they used them, we were able to see all the way across the town in every direction. It was positively scenic.

Nik handed in his man card for dinner and I cooked. There are many things I've learned on this holiday, some of which include my new enjoyment of Asparagus and Calimari Rings, and that it is possible to bar-b-que asparagus with pleasing results. No one died from my cooking and we even had some steak left over for our adopted black labrador May and Basement Kitten. They belonged to our hosts (next door).

Today we got up late, because we could, and decided to take a drive over to Cathedral Cove. On the way we played in rock pools and found Hermit Crabs and some strange fish, star fish and brittle star and prawns. We got to Whitianga again and the carving place was open but not for carving unfortunately so we gave up on that and headed for Cathedral Cove. If you have seen the film Narnia its the scene where they walk out onto the beach. Its just incredibly pretty and Faye made the mistake of letting Nik have the camera, there will be a lot of strang angled shots of us I am sure and he kept shouting over the beach "Work the camera baby! and other such things which was entertaining.

What cathedral cave does have is an impressively long walk up and over a large hill to reach it. Its worth it when you get there but our calves were in bits by the time we got back to the car. Fortunately we found ice cream and that made it all better. We've filmed quite a lot of the return journey because it was a bit breathtaking but I shall have to edit it as no one (even myself) wants to sit through an hour of watching a car drive up mountains.

Tomorrow we have a 7 hour drive to Napier simply so that Faye can storm a vinyard and drink their samples table dry, and I am sure it will be more stunning scenery. In fact I think its safe to say that New Zealand is the landing ground for all the pretty bits of the planet that they couldnt fit in anywhere else.

Its been a long day, despite telling Nik I wouldnt need any dinner I am hungry now so a boiled egg might be in my near future. I hope everyone is coping with the cold and the snow and that someone has dried off cornwall and put it back down safely.

Love you all

Archie and Faye xxx