We are venturing out of Auckland. The first two days were spent in and around the city. Today we made our way to the east shore. It was obviously much cloudier/less sunny than in the past few days. We stopped at a McDonald’s for breakfast (the “English brekkie” was terrible) and it was raining by the time we were done. Unbeknownst to us this would be the start of over 36 hours of rain. The road across the Coromandel Peninsula was very windy - back and forth, up and down. With the adverse weather this made for slow progress. By the time we were close to our first destination it was very obvious we would not do a lot of outdoors stuff today. Hot Water Beach is a large beach on the eastern shore called Hot Water because of the natural hot springs underneath the surface. It is somewhat easy to dig up the sand and create pools of warm water to sit in. The pelting rain, cold, and strong wind kept everyone - including us - off the beach today. 

Cathedral Cove was the next stop. Apparently this was a filming location for part of The Chronicles of Narnia. In better weather parking within any distance of the trail is impossible. For us we found a spot right away. It’s a nice walk through the woods and between fields. It’s not far from the sea cliffs and there were many nice lookouts to various islands not far off from the coast. After about 30 minutes we descended some steps to a small hidden beach and to the left was the arch. It was probably the biggest one I have ever seen close up. More than 30 feet high and 50 feet long it was impressive and even more so with the crashing of the waves right outside the other entrance. There were other stone formations within sight although it was high tide so those were inaccessible at the time. There was even a small waterfall that had formed due to the rain that was almost a shower of 20 or more feet on the beach. I suppose in nicer weather it would be a wonderful place to spend the afternoon, but for us we took our photos and began the return trip. We made a slight detour into an open field to get another look from a cliff over the water. Going off the path we found out how much water there really was. The grass was like a sponge and we quickly had shoes that had soaked up more water than they could hold. By the end of the walk my very non-waterproof hoodie was soaking wet as well and providing neither protection from the rain nor warmth. 

The drive down to Tauranga was even slower as people forget to drive when the sun goes away. We made it to our place around dinner time. We stayed with Lois, an elderly woman who paints for a living. She was very talkative and an interesting character. She travels around New Zealand and lives out of a car for three months at a time painting the landscape around her. She does not overly concern herself with wealth or material possessions. I feel that the people you meet and the stories they tell are one of the great gifts of traveling. This especially becomes true when hostels or bed and breakfasts are chosen over hotels. We had a long talk that night about her childhood, life, and family. Eventually sleep called and I found a soft bed with clean sheets more than inviting enough to quickly drift off into slumberland.