Technical issues resolved, hopefully.
Here are a few more photos from the ferry:
Alanna and I.
Me, in my great new "jumper" that I bought for $2 at The Bizarre in Coromandel Town.
After we got off the ferry we walked towards the beach and stumbled upon a cute little cafe to eat lunch. I had a bacon and egg burger. It really wasn't anything special but it's so nice to eat beef after going week without it. You really never know how much you rely on something until it's unavailable.
After lunch we went down to Flaxmill Bay Beach. It was fantastic. You can see a video of the beach in the link in previous post. Here are some photos for your viewing enjoyment:
Gorgeous view.
Gorgeous Yaahts.
Gorgeous beach.
Beautiful seagul
More Seagull.
A bunch of cute kids enjoying their holiday at the beach.
A cool rock.
Dad and son enjoying a day of fishing.
More Seagull.
Here's a link to a video of my favorite seagull.
At the beach we mostly just hung out in the sun, talking about our lives, our travels, out futures, etc... and went for a quick swim. When we got to the beach the tide was going out and the water was very cold. After a bit though, as the tide started to come back in, the water got much warmer and swimmable. As we were leaving the beach we saw small jelly fish pieces (or at least that's what someone told us they were. Here's a photo:
And more random photos from today:
The industrial-style bottle of suntan lotion that Alanna purchased.
Our toes covered in black sand from the beach.
Cutest/smallest library I've ever seen.
Alanna enjoying the ferry ride.
Two funny signs hung in a storefront in Coromandel Town. I think the bottom one is a great play on the english language. The top one is just funny. Imagine enforcing that one...
Okay, so after we left the beach we got back on the ferry and took it back to town. The ferry crosses a small piece little inlet area. It must be a ways around because the ferry is running a good business but I think it only takes about 2 minutes to cross on the ferry, if that. It's really short. You can't even really enjoy it because it's over before you even realize it's beginning.
When we got back into town we got right on the hitchhiking thing because we wanted to get started while people were still crossing the mountain. It probably took us about 30-40 cars to get our first ride. We had a fun time hitching though because people give you the funniest looks/hand gestures while you're standing there. We made quite a game out of waving back to them as well. We tried to have fun while car after car after car refused to pick us up. Eventually a nice woman picked us up but only took us maybe 4 kms to the next beach. Something is better than nothing though, right? There we had to wait again, maybe about 20 cars this time, until 2 young Israeli girls picked us up. Again, they only took us about 3 kms but they dropped us in a very bad spot for hitchhiking - the traffic was moving very fast and there wasn't really a place for anyone to pull over. Eventually we moved down the road a bit to a place where there was at least room for people to pull over and they were coming around a curve so we figured they'd be going slower - but that wasn't totally true. Two young guys drove past us at breakneck speeds - really too fast for the curve - but they ended up coming back and picking us up. I'd generally not take a ride from a guy that circled back but they were young (20 years old) and seemed harmless enough. They ended up being totally harmless - except the guy driving who is a crazy driver and I thought was going to kill us at one point when he passed another car on a mostly blind curve. We did make it Coromandel Town though alive. In town we stopped and saw Elli at work for a minute and then decided to hitch back to the cafe as we didn't want to walk. Here again we got to see the funny expressions and "sign-language" that people use to try to communicate to us why they can't pick us up. It's really a very entertaining time and would likely make a funny video if you did a highlight reel. Eventually a woman picked us up and took us straight to the cafe.
As a note - don't do the whole avoid eye contact with hitchhikers, it's just rude. At least smile and wave or do some funny facial expression. It's much more enjoyable for the hitchhiker. And we understand if you don't pick us up, you think we're creepy, but that's okay, we know we're not and we know someone will eventually pick us up.
Alanna won - she said it would take us 4 rides to get home. I said 6. These guesses were made after the first 2 people took us a total of maybe 8 kms of our 40 kms+ journey home. I'm glad it only took us 4 rides. They were all friendly and nice. And we got a lot of practice smiling and waving at strangers.
Today was probably one of the funnest days I've had so far here in NZ. Relaxing and having fun with a girlfriend. Can't beat that!
I'm just loving life!
Best!
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