hi.

so i left Auckland heading south east, to the Coromandel.
so long ago... it seems like years ago.

it was on Dec. 4th. more than a month ago.
after 2 lifts, i spent the night in Tairua, in a hostel just next door of my last ride - Misha and Dave.

next morning they took me on a 2-3 hours hike in the broken hills area, just off Hikuai.
it was very nice, and we even went through a 500m tunnel with glow worms in it!!!
afterwards i went to a hot water beach.
just a crazy place!!!
you go to the sandy beach, on a low tide, and start digging yourself a hole in the sand. some sort of a little pool. and the water fills it - like on any other sandy beach.
but here, the water is hot. boiling hot.
you have to find some cold water to make it bearable.
and then - you just lay down in a hot-pool, on the beach, looking into the ocean not even 5m away from you.
so good!
i went there alone, but then joined 2 Israeli girls - maayan and noga, and later we joined our pool with 2 local guys - Ty and mike.
i spent 3-4 hours lying in that pool, occasionally refreshing myself in the ocean...
i ended up going with Ty and Mike to Ty's place, spending the night there... we had a nice time visiting some friend of them, playing some games and eating a nice dinner.

on Dec. 6th Ty gave me a lift to hahei beach, where i walked to cathedral cove.
it was a coastal walk, 1.5 hours.
so i did it barefoot.
coastal.
as if.
it took me about an hour there, and about 2 hours back.
my feet were so sore!!!
but it was a nice walk, with 2 beautiful bays on the way.
and afterwards i even entered the ocean for a little while.
afterwards i had a ride with Joe (an american nice lady) to coromandel town. we went through "road 309" - a gravel road, and stopped on the way to see some kauri trees. huge and magnificent!

next day i did a little walk near the hostel, and headed to cape colville, to Fletcher bay (north-western point of the coromandel).
it took me 3 rides, stopping in 2 beautiful bays on the way to get there finally with Joan and Brent - a very nice Canadian couple.
the whole area is very nice, and has no paved roads.
in Fletcher bay we stopped for the night, and while having dinner, Brent spotted dolphins in the bay.
so i entered the water.
and after 2-3 minutes Joan joined me...
the dolphins came as close as 2-3m away from me, and were really big (~2m).
it was so cool! (and cold, but that's the price you have to pay...).
and later a local couple (from rotorua) that were there (to be known later as Craig and Annette) showed me pictures they've taken, and promised to email them to me.

next day we did a very nice 6 hours walk together (Fletcher bay to Stoney bay and back), stayed another night there.

on Dec. 9th we drove (well, Brent did the actual driving ;)) all the way to Thames at the south western base of the coromandel peninsula, and our ways parted.

the day after i went on the pinnacles hike, a very nice day hike. all through this hike i crossed ways with Merry and Riki (an American Jewish from NJ and an Austrian lady, respectively). it was a very nice hike, as you can see in the photos (i think).

from there i set out on dec. the 12th towards omanawa falls.
i got there, went down to the beautiful falls, with a very clear nice pool, but unfortunately it was to cold to get in. but still i stayed there for a while.
even more unfortunately, on the way back, i lost my way. i wondered aimlessly (or almost so) for about an hour before i got to some greenery and found my way out.
not able to get a ride, i just spent the night nearby.

that's it for now, but i hope to have more soon...

oh, and the photos that go along with that post can be found in:
http://tomeraroundtheworld.shutterfly.com/action/?a=0AbNGzFq3Ys2LDIg

have fun!!!
miss you all!