Sorry another extended absence... small internet is a costly affair in this country, ranging between $6-8/hour... would you like a limb with that as well? So I save my internet times for moments like this when I have a crappy bus waiting time.

I don't mean to sound negative today, I'm just missing Lucy (my car) in a BIG way! To travel the 90km from Tauranga to Whakatane it is taking me an entire day! I had to leave the hostel at 9:15am to get a lift into the city (no public buses on Sunday) the travel from Tauranga to Rotorua (1.5hrs), am now having a 1.5 hour wait until I get on another 1.5 hr bus to Whakatane. I should have just hitched. (But I would never do something as reckless as that mother dear.)

Anyway, enough on my rants, I do appreciate that (normally) there is a good public transportation network of both buses and shuttles so it is very easy to get around this country and into the strange places.

Speaking of strange places... where have I been this week?

I go tup to Auckland last Sunday morning, impressing myself with my memory of a city I had never driven in and returning the car with no problems. It was nice to be back in the city and visit some of my old haunts and fave spots ... mmm asian food court... I ended up spending 2 days there just enjoying city life but also realizing why South Islanders constantly slag it off. It is a beautiful city, but it is a city. It's not as laid back as the rest of NZ and the people are different - they're city folk. It's nice to have the contrast and I appreciate both sides, but can see why they give each other shit now!

So I headed out to the country to the Coromandel. This was the first "out of Auckland" experience I had in NZ - we went there the long weekend in Feb - and I had memories of spectacular scenery. They were right. It's an amazing place and I went straight for the beach areas (don't get jealous, I still haven't had a beach day). I stayed 3 nights in Whitianga (Fit-e-an-ga), wandering the beach (wearing a sweater!), visiting the Hot Water Beach (hot springs under the beach create hot pools so you can build yourself a little spa pool at low tide), Cathedral COve, Hahei (some may call it Habel...), Cooks Beach (where the infamous Capt Cook first landed in NZ), and maybe somehow managed to fit a winery into the schedule...

Friday I moved on to Tauranga, having another day of peaceful wandering, staying out of the damn wind that won't die down! Yesterday I went out to Mt Maunganui, a mountin just beside Tauranga, and walked around it and the beach and suburbs beside it. Later on a bottle of wine shared with some fellow travellers and talking shit... as you do!

Now, as I mentioned, I am taking the longest travel possible to Whakatane where, hopefully in the next day or two I will get out to White's Island, a still active volcano lying in the Bay of Plenty. And then, maybe, just maybe, a day on the beach...???