Six days ago, we ventured out to the Coromandel Peninsula to camp for the new year. Our fellow WWOOFers from the Czech Republic, James, his fiancée Danica, and their mates Dan, Tony, and Sophie all went with us. Upon arriving at the campgrounds, we went about finding the best site we could to set up camp. We ultimately settled on a small clearing in a glade of tea trees, and within the hour we had a little commune-like camp set up consisting of four tents and a gazebo. Here's our site, right after we finished setting up:
We went for a long hike through the rainforest surrounding our camp on the second day, which was New Year's Eve. The trail we took was called the Billy-Goat Track, and after a narrow hanging bridge, it led us up a long flight of rocky stairs to a range of mountains called the Pinnacles.
After we got back from the hike, we all got ready to bring in the new year. We grilled out for dinner and then hung around the camp playing cards, waiting for midnight. As the hour came near, Dan, Simon, Kellogg and I gathered up the fireworks we had and walked down to the ford in the nearby river, where we would set them off. We each held out a firework boomstick that fired off a half dozen explosions high into the sky, and as the clock struck twelve we lit up the night. The fireworks weren't so colorful, but they were very loud and equally bright, and after the boomsticks were spent a number of cheers went up from the surrounding camps. We then set off the smaller firecrackers that we had brought along, tossing most of them into the river and watching them explode underwater (fireworks work on black powder fuses, which don't go out in water. Makes for a good show). We were all exhausted from a long day full of hiking, so we turned in for some sleep as soon as we got back to camp.
New Year's day was full of rain, so most of us spent a lazy day around the camp playing cards and doing our best to stay dry. The two Czechs, however, went for a drive into the nearest town (which was called Thames) and then ended up sliding off the gravel road and plummeting to the forest floor six meters below. Their car wound up on its smashed-in front bumper, standing up with the roof against a tree. Andrew and Elena both miraculously walked away from the accident without a scratch, but their car was far beyond totaled.
The day after New Year's, we headed out for hot water beach, where geothermal activity heats water under the sand almost to its boiling point. With nothing more than a spade, you can make yourself a private jacuzzi; just dig down for about a foot, exposing the hot water, and mix in a bit of the cool ocean water to make the temperature just right. Once we had ourselves a good hot tub, we switched back and forth from there to the ocean, trying to stay standing as the sizable waves broke over top of us and then retreating back to the beach to warm up again.
That night when we got back to camp, three kiwis who were about our age made their way over from the site next door to introduce themselves and join in our game of cards. Their names were Adam, Daniel, and Page, and at the end of the night they asked me to go for a hike with them the following day. Since I wasn't too keen on my own mates' plans for a fishing trip on the other end of a four hour drive, I agreed to spend the day with the kiwis.
Adam was in our camp waiting when I woke up. We set to cooking some breakfast and played a few rounds of a kiwi card game he had taught me the day before, which is incredibly similar to Uno, except played with a normal deck. When the weather looked fair enough, we filled up some water bottles and headed out into the wilderness to find a trail that suited us. We came across a few signs that promised a good outlook from above, and we followed a narrow and winding trail up to the top of a small mountain. The view from the top was nearly perfect, the only blemish being a few power lines snaking their way through the forest below. After our descent and a bit of exploring through the woods and along the river, Adam, Page, Daniel and I went back to camp to wait for the others to return from their fishing venture. They taught me another kiwi card game that was roughly the same as our Kings' Cup, and we soon found ourselves lost in conversation, mostly about the profound differences between America and New Zealand. They must have liked what they heard, because now they're all determined to come visit me back home to see the States for themselves. By the time we'd finished playing and said our goodbyes, I found myself returning to an already sleeping camp.
The next day wasn't meant to be our last, but we decided to break camp and head back to the farm once we'd assessed the weather as all but promising. I traded contact information with the three kiwis over in the neighboring camp and told them I'd be seeing them when they got in to the States. We had everything from camp packed into the cars in about thirty minutes (Adam helped us out a bunch, good man that he is) and we arrived back at Graham and Michelle's farm at about three o'clock this afternoon after an hour's drive. We had our first proper showers since a week before, and we all put together a load of laundry for the wash. I settled down to wait for that to be done and read a bit more of the book I'd started back at camp. We had a dinner of lamb chops and curried vegetables, and after we'd done our dishes and hung our clothes up on the line to dry, Simon, Kellogg and I came down to Lizzie and her fiancée's place to check our emails...and, of course, update our blogs.
We'll be headed back down south tomorrow, stopping only in New Plymouth for a couple of nights before we get to Wellington, which is the southernmost place on the North Island. I'll post again when I next have internet. I expect most of our time in the next few weeks will be spent less on adventuring and more on seeking out the most promising WWOOFing and paying job opportunities, but even still, there's always something to write about in New Zealand.
Loving the New Year and so happy to have running water again,
Jack
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