Anyways, I rode over the hill with Michael. We actually spent like an hour and half together because he had 4 or 5 drops after he picked me up. It was good time. It's nice to ride with someone you can trust so you're not nervous on the ride. It's also nice to go with Michael because you get a scenic tour of the coromandel, going around to the various cafes and restaurants and such. We had some pretty deep conversations today too so I feel like I really got to know a lot more about him. I'll likely get one more ride from him next week when I go back over to Whitianga for one last attempt at a Kayak tour.
When I got to Whitianga I went right to the iSite for suggestions on places for coffee and lunch. The girl working at the iSite wasn't that great at her job. I asked her for a good cafe to read my book at and she started recommending every cafe in town. I obviously didn't go to the iSite so she could tell me that every cafe was the same, I went there to find out which is the best cafe for what I want. I later asked her "If you were going to read your book at a cafe, where would you go?" and I got the answer I was looking for - Cafe Nina. It was such a cute little cafe and the coffee was great! I was very happy I went there :)
As I was finishing up my coffee it looked like it might be getting nicer out so I decided to take the ferry over to where the beaches are and where I could catch the shuttle to the kayaks. When I got off the ferry I walked down the beach a ways, farther than Alanna and I went last time, towards a cafe we had heard about before, Eggsentric. I had the Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon for lunch. It was the best meal I've had since I arrived in New Zealand. AMAZING! If you every come to Whitianga, you have to go to Cafe Nina!
Before I went for lunch, however, I found this great little chair along Flaxmill Bay Beach and sat and read my book. Here's a few photos:
The view from the chair.
While I was sitting there reading it started to rain. I tried waiting it out for about 10 minutes but it didn't stop and was getting windy so I went over to Eggsentric for lunch.
After lunch it was too late to the do the kayak tour. The sun was starting to come out a bit though so I went down to the beach in from of the chair and went for a quick swim. The water was so clear - I couldn't believe it. It wasn't all pretty and blue because the sky was still pretty cloudy but it's nice when you can see straight down tot he bottom of the water without problem. After me swim I laid on the beach for a few minutes reading and taking photos of the view. I also took a video of a rock that was being tossed around in the water. You can watch it here.
Here are some photos I took while lying on the beach:
Pretty clouds, aren't they?!
After the beach I walked back towards the ferry. I walked past the local cemetery on the way and wandered in to check it out. There were some really old and really cool gravestones:
Not a bad view to have for the rest of eternity!
After the cemetery I took the ferry back to Whitianga and spent maybe 30 minutes lying in the grass watching the fishing boats come in and out of the harbor. I took some cool photos here but it's taking forever to upload today so I'll do another post of those tomorrow.
About 4:30 pm I decided I needed to start trying to get a ride back to Coromandel. Last time me and Alanna did this same route it was pretty hard for us to get a ride so I was mentally prepared for a long wait. I got my first ride after maybe 5-10 minutes. The guy only took me down to the main intersection before the end of town. It wasn't far but at least standing at this intersection I knew everyone would be going towards Coromandel Town. It didn't take long for me to get a ride here but I got a ride from the most unlikely of people - a trucker, Willie, carrying an overside load. I was standing at a corner and he waved at me as he was going around the corner but I thought he was just waving. I didn't immediately realize that he was offering me a ride. I looked back though and saw him still waving at he while he pulled over, motioning for me to get in. I did and he was very nice. It was pretty funny though because the lead car also had to pull over so I could get in. I went around some really steep, windy roads with him but we made it safely! He took me about half way to Coromandel town to the logging road he was driving to. He was going to pick up some logging machinery to move it to another location. He dropped me at the entrance to the logging road. It was a place where I was pretty visual but also where the cars we going maybe 80 or 90 kph, pretty fast. I had to wait there maybe 15 minutes before I got a ride. There wasn't much traffic but a nice man finally picked me up. And he actually knew Willie, the guy who gave me the first ride in the oversized load truck. (And Willie knows Hunchy, the guy who's taking me pig hunting on Saturday morning). While I was standing on the side of the road waiting for a ride the rest of the way to Coromandel it was amazing how unstressed I was about standing on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere in New Zealand. As I've been on this trip I've really started to learn to leave things up to fate and not get so stressed out about everything. Not that I don't still get stressed at times, but when I find myself worrying I just think, "whatever is meant to happen will happen". That keeps me quite calm most of the time. When I think of how well everything has turned out to date and how many starts had to align for all of it to work out I realize that if something is meant to be it will. If it's not, it won't, and that's all there is to it.
When I got back to town I went to pick up my check at Top Pub and ended up having dinner with Aimee and Terri Ann, two my fellow bartenders, who are also sisters, and Terri Ann's 3 year old son. It was nice to spend some time with those ladies outside of work.
Then back to the cafe where I've been relaxing, socializing with the new girls Anna and Anja, and working on my blog.
And that's all for tonight. I'll post some more photos from today tomorrow.
Best!
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