Woke up to a beautiful sunny day. Had our last coffee at Esquire's coffee house Hobson. Atish had our van ready! Although he freaked Paul out a bit by his heavy caution to watch the engine temp gage. Paul "dude I thought you fixed all of the vans problems." Atish "Oh yes, just make sure you watch the gauge, it get hot pull over DO NOT DRIVE!" Paul "It's not going to over heat, because you fixed that, right?!" Shabree " nothing just watching" Atish " Oh yes I fix, but just watch it" Paul " Alright, we are driving across NZ, would you drive this across NZ!?" Atish " oh yeah, no worries!" Paul " The WOF (warrant of fitness) means it is safe to drive right?!" Atish " Yes, it is perfectly fine, just watch the gage and pull over!" So….feeling very confident in all our decisions we headed forth into the great unknown on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road! Paul did such a great job going against his instinctual driving skills. Once we navigated out of Auckland we found a gas station to fill up and get some ice for our chilly box! At this point we had no real agenda, we wanted to head east to Gisborne because that is where the sun was every time it was raining in Auckland.
On our beautiful drive we decide to take a detour to the Coromandel Peninsula. We took a left on hwy 25 (pacific coast hwy.) It was a great decision. Leaving the main highway let us see great country and our first Cow and sheep! We were driving along and crossed a one lane bridge (there was a red light green light system) and thought that was pretty cool. We stop at the first town on the peninsula called Thames. The lady at the I site told us we should drive an hour north and camp at long beach. Feeling excited to camp on a beach we headed north on a beautiful drive along the coast. The drive quickly turned stressful. The road offers amazing views, but the road it self is very narrow with no shoulder and no guardrail! It was a very long hour, you could not go very fast because the turns were all very sharp and all blind. We tried to laugh when the narrow road said it was getting narrower and that wide vehicles should use caution. Our van is not very big but when I was looking over a sheer cliff and Paul is staring another driver in the face because we are so close to them I was rethinking this drive. We are driving along cautiously and see a logging truck (great) and then I notice that with out warning our lane disappeared! Paul stopped, the truck squeezed by somehow, we took a deep breath and drove ahead on a one lane road. Along this one lane there were little turn out's but only big enough for a motor cycle, so we considered ourselves lucky to have the truck pass us at the beginning. A few km's later it was back to two lanes again just like that (how lovely). We turn inland and we are both grateful to be off that sketchy road. We see beautiful green hills ahead, and before we know it we are driving up the steepest mountain (not is sheer size but in grade.) I decided to keep an eye on the gage to make sure it's not overheating, because now to my left is a bigger cliff with no guardrail, and of course no shoulder! The thing with no gradual climb up a mountain is there is a side equally as steep, but now it goes straight down! I felt like we were on a roller coaster, right when you reach the top you cannot see what is below you. I felt like there might not be a road there but just a free fall! Paul was looking forward to it with a smile on his face and I was kissing my ass goodbye! Luckily the road was there and I suddenly felt silly about watching the gage and started wondering what kind of breaks our little nissan Serena had on her. Of course our little van that could handled the road just fine, and I figured the Kiwi's invented bungee jumping out of a necessity of driving the roads "loosing control no worries, just strap this rubber band to you feet and watch your van crash to the bottom, mate!" We finally made it to Long beach. The tide was out and we could see oyster farms! The spot was so pretty. We eagerly got out of the van and put our shorts on, not because we needed to after that drive but because it was sunny! The ocean water was very warm for early spring, and it did not feel like ocean water but more like lake water, if that makes any sense. I explored tide pools and was poking a little crabs when Paul found a trail head. The trail head led us to secluded bay equally as beautiful. After basing in the sun for a bit we followed the trail into a forest. The vegetation is so diverse here, there are costal looking pines, and a crazy tropical fern tree! We felt like we entered the land of the lost, and wandered if we might run into a dinosaur! No dinosaur's were found, but we did find a large Kauir tree. They are native to NZ and use to cover the north island, however once again the white man came and dang near logged them all. The trail was awesome, and we took our time looking at the different plant life, and listening to the bird's making noises we have never heard before. This bird sounded like R2 D2 from Starwars! Seriously it sounded very strange. A bird did swoop down to check us out…those of you that heard my crow story will understand that I took off running and about ready to cry! Paul told me it was ok and that he was not coming back, and if he did he would take care of him! What a great husband! He also had to walk with his arm around me to protect me. We made it back to our camp without any more bird attacks. We made spaghetti had a glass of wine and watched the sun set over the bay! This felt like the first day of our vacation! Then some locals came to the day use area and brought a small 4 wheeler. There goes our quite evening. Luckily the quad did not last long. It was kid size and the little one who was driving it told me " I have mi pad's on, cause i was driving mi motorbike, but I broke." She was very cute. Once that crowd left, our camp neighbors down the stretch started a dance party! They played techno till 2M. It was not super load but we could hear the base all night long. We were sure they had to be German's! Our bad night of sleep was quickly forgotten once we saw the picture perfect bay!
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