-Chapter 20- our first travel stops: the Shire & Coromandel

Our first week of travel was completely pre-planned. First, we wanted to visit the Omanawa Falls, famous waterfalls near Tauranga. The path to them was considered so dangerous that the entire area was closed off. Despite that, many tourists tried to reach them every day. We didn't make much effort to find them because on site, we only saw a road with no signs or indications of waterfalls. Instead, we drove to a campground in McLaren Falls Park nearby. It turned out to be a big meadow in the middle of the forest with many hiking trails. Among them was a Glowworm track, where we were supposed to see fireflies at night. When the time came, we had to overcome our fear of going alone into the dark forest at night. When we arrived at the right track, we hesitated. It was so dark, and there was no one to be seen except for a man who turned on his headlights when he saw us. Luckily, we decided to go into the bushes because it was really amazing! Where else can you see fireflies in real life? After 10 minutes, the man honked his horn, turned off the lights, and drove away. That was our sign to turn back...

Our next stop was Matamata. From there, we visited the Hobbiton Movie Set, where we had to take a guided tour. The expensive admission was definitely worth it. We took a bus to the set and were guided around but also had time to explore on our own. We were surprised to see mostly retirees there. I couldn't imagine before that older people also like "The Lord of the Rings' movies.

After a drive of about an hour and a half, we arrived at our first stop in Thames, a small coastal town that we really liked. We slept at a free campground right by the sea, where it was so windy that Celina accidentally hit the door of the nice retiree's white motorhome next to us.

We drove up the narrow, winding coastal road to the town of Coromandel and then across to the east coast. This route was the most impressive so far. Although we had to maneuver our old car through the narrow, curvy roads, we drove through huge mountains covered with tropical plants and had amazing views of beaches. However, there is only one road in Coromandel, and we had to pass long stretches of road construction sites where the road surface consisted only of loose gravel. When we finished the last one for the day, we heard a continuous, high-pitched squeaking noise from the front of the car. We thought it was all over and stopped at the next opportunity on the roadside. We felt a little relieved when we saw that it was just a big stone jammed in the front tire. At first, we tried to remove it with my dad's Swiss pocket knife. When that didn't help, we panicked and woke him up to calm us down. He said it would wear off, and after a few minutes, it did.

In the evening, we finally arrived at our destination, New Chums Beach. Or rather, we arrived at a beach (which was also incredibly beautiful) from where the climb to New Chums Beach was supposed to start. First, we had to wade through ankle-deep water to get to the other side of the beach. Then, very typical of New Zealand, signs showed us the way over rocks by the water. We wondered if this was really the official way, but in fact, we even met a few hikers coming from the other direction. After the rocks, we reached a narrow trail that led us through dense New Zealand bush and far away from the beach. It kept going uphill... Finally, we could hear the sound of waves from a second beach on the other side of the forest. We walked down the path through the forest, and a huge, incredibly beautiful untouched beach came into view. It was really impressive. Apart from another girl, we were the only ones around. We stayed there for a while, took many photos, and quickly hiked back to the car.

Attention, here comes the best experience of the day: When we returned to the first beach and wanted to climb over the part with the water, Celina slipped in the now waist-deep water. She was injured, and her phone didn't respond anymore because it had touched the water. We hurried to the nearest campground (where we had to sit on the couch in the motorhome bus of an old couple to check-in).

For the next few days, Celina's phone stayed in rice. Thanks to my exaggerated packing list, I had brought my old phone with a broken but still functioning screen as a replacement to New Zealand. So at least Celina had some kind of phone for the time being. The remaining days, we visited the mainstream places, Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach, which we liked but were not as impressive as New Chums Beach.