Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!

Hello people,


This is your Dutch reporter reporting from Raglan, surf capital of New Zealand. My trusted sidekick and partner-in-crime, Francesca, is right beside me. Yesterday was quite the active and rain-covered day. We started our real Stray trip; the Moe-pass. We also had a new bus and a new driver. Our new driver’s name was Nat. She had just come back from a full circle around New Zealand, but had to fill in for another driver, who had broken a few ribs snowboarding. Needless to say, she was pretty tired. We also had a new crew to travel with. Surprisingly, there were three more American girls, three Germans, a Dutch girl and a British girl. I’ve never really seen that many Americans backpacking, but I guess it’s the season. Anyway, we jumped in the front of the bus and introductions were made.

The morning started early with a drive towards the Coromandel Peninsula, located on the far east of the northern island. We stopped at a marketgarden and picked up some fruit for the following days. Nat also purchased some veges and kumara (Maori sweet potatoes) for a classic Kiwi BBQ that she would make for us later that day. We made good time getting to Hahei, the small town we were to stay in. Our drive was pretty scenic, through a hilly landscape, just very rainy. We bought a purple fleece jacket for Francesca, as an extra layer, thinking ahead for future hikes and other adventures. Early in the afternoon we made it to our destination. There was not that much to do in Hahei, other than a great little hike to Cathedral Cove. Francesca and I had already decided we would do this hike, regardless of the weather. We dressed up warmly and packed some drinks.

When we got outside we saw we were not the only ones ready for the hike: pretty much everyone else had also unpacked their hiking boots/sneakers. We all headed out together to the beach, where the hike would start. We had to jump over/run through a little river that ended in the sea to get to the starting point. As we were climbing up the cliff we had to get over to the Cove the rain started coming down more and not long after people started looking like drowned rats. We kept going though, unphased by a few drops of water. After an hour the track started going down again, and we ended up on a quiet beach. On the left side we saw the Cathedral Cove and walked over. We took quite a few cool pictures and had some water. After that we walked down to the right side of the beach, where a nice little waterfall had started. Another great place for some epic pictures!













The weather did not permit us to stay much, much longer so we started hiking back. The group had fallen apart by then, so Fran and I walked back together. We took a little detour through Puriri Grove, which was hardly a track at all. It was covered in ferns and more importantly, mud. It was also a pretty steep way down, so we had to go slow. Eventually we made our way through and ended up on the old track again. We got back to the hostel around 16:30PM and had an awesome hot shower.

What comes after a well-deserved shower? Right, a well-deserved meal. Whilst we were hiking Nat had started preparing the food. We sat down in the communal room and played some card games waiting for dinner to be served. The BBQ meal consisted of a steak, a sausage, some kumara, a pepper-salad and a regular salad. Good stuff! We both finished a large plate full. But wait, that was not all! Nat had also made an apple crumble pie with custard and Hokey Pokey. Hokey Pokey is New Zealand’s favorite ice cream; a mix of toffee and vanilla ice cream. Delice!

After dinner we played a few more games, which were great fun. We got to know our group a little better, which made the atmosphere much more agreeable. Nat had told us about Hot Water Beach earlier that day, and said she had inquired whether it would be possible to go check it out. She gave it the go-ahead, so around 9:30PM we headed out in the bus. Some people thought they could dig a hole to relax in, but Fran and I were not so brave. We just rolled up our pants and went with. Hot Water Beach has some geothermal activity fairly close to the surface which heats up the sand above it. We had to cross an ice-cold river that went knee-high. When we got to the small patch where the source of the heat was supposed to be there was only a little area that felt hot enough. Or, to be more precise, it was too hot! Furthermore, the tide was not low enough and the sea a little too rough. The water filled up the holes that were dug. We were glad we had kept our clothes on because not one hole was actually filled with human, rather than sand and/or water. After this little adventure we went back to the hostel for some sleep.

Ciao!