Whangamata

I got a new camera and I finally uploaded a bunch of new pictures. My new camera's first trip was in October to a place called Whangamata on the East Coast, just south of the Coromandel peninsula. My landlord has a beach house (bach in kiwi-speak) there so I invited some friends and the dogs and off we went for a long weekend.

Tui helping with some advertisement. However Tui is named after the bird. Not the beer.

The beach there is beautiful and since October is still considered off season, it was pretty much deserted. The dogs had a great time running on the endless sandy beaches.

Megan and I took a trip up to Hot Water Beach where we "borrowed" a lovely pit that someone else had dug and sat in the hot water that springs up here.

We also enjoyed a nice game of mandatory minigolf on Sunday. A moment of inattention (see photo) "landed" Urie with a bad minigolf injury including a bruised kidney as well as a bruised ego.

Christine and I stayed past the weekend and took a trip to Waihi for a train ride. Unfortunately the trip we were going to take was cancelled, but they gave us a shorter ride in the cab of the train and we had a great time.

We also visited the open pit gold mine right in the town centre at Waihi.



I also had a chance to visit the very nice public toilets. Public toilets are relatively clean and very easy to find throughout NZ. No need to look for the nearest Mcdonalds when you have to go.

This one lane bridge is the major bottleneck to the Coromandel which is a very popular weekend destination for Aucklanders. This bridge is signal controlled, but most one lane bridges in NZ just have one of the directions giving way to the opposing traffic and somehow it works. I guess it's cheaper than building two lanes on the bridge.