After breakfast, we headed to Te Puke at 9 o'clock. We wanted to look for a job. We both had no idea how we were going to do this with our sleepervan. Our plan was to find work first and see what would happen. But then everything changed once again. Happily and highly motivated, we raced from Rotorua to Tauranga, as we entered the wrong destination in Google Maps. We got in the mood with "Toxic" and "One love" and sang and danced as much as we could. What did the other drivers think? :D No comment :D In Tauranga, we wanted to pick up our ATM card. Fail. It was not yet available at the branch. Next plan. We went to McDonald's and searched job portals for jobs in the area. Unfortunately, unsuccessful. We also had to start thinking about where we wanted to stay overnight. Suddenly, Bibi mentioned that she had messaged an Austrian woman on Couchsurfing. The woman wanted to do something with us, was currently in Te Puke, and was house sitting. Ok, house sitting. "What is that again?", Bibi and I thought. You take care of pets and do all the household chores while the homeowners are on vacation. She also said that there was enough space for us to stay overnight. "Why not?", Bibi and I thought. Done. We bought some groceries and drove to Nicole's, the Linzerin, who was currently house sitting in Te Puke. We got along very well with Nicole right away. A very nice, sporty blonde who loves to travel just like us. She showed us the house and introduced us to the pets. "Mocca" a small black dog, "Katikati", a rather shy black and white cat, and about 100 colorful birds that happily flew around in their cages. In the evening, we had delicious homemade tortillas, chatted with Nicole, and finally watched "The Hobbit" in English, which we gave up after about 20 minutes and watched a comedy in English instead.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Early in the morning, we had an appointment with Tracey. She would arrange a kiwifruit job for us, as access to kiwi farmers seemed to be a bit difficult. We met in Te Puke at a backpacker hostel. A few others also had interviews with us at the same time. It sounded very promising. Despite this, Bibi and I were not quite sure if we should get into the business. Because... here it comes... you had to pay Tracey $50 to get a job. We decided to sleep on it for another night. In the afternoon, we had lunch together with Nicole and then headed to Rotorua. We wanted to go rafting today. We were really looking forward to it. Finally, some action in the currently quite depressing everyday life of our backpacker life. We were picked up by a small shuttle bus when we arrived. Germans, English, and Austrians were on board. A multicultural mix. We jumped into a tight wetsuit and also got a helmet and life jacket for safety. At first, we were briefed on what not to do, and then it started. When the first water entered the boat, I wasn't sure if that was really supposed to happen. But, of course, a lot more water followed. And then came the biggest waterfall ever. "Okere Fall". We were supposed to squat in the boat and hold on tight. Suddenly, the boat fell horizontally down the waterfall. We surfaced for a moment and then ended up in the water vortex again. Finally, the boat was able to break free from the vortex and we were all fine. Almost all. Our guide was not there anymore. Worried glances looked back. All you could see were his legs sticking out of the boat. Fortunately, nothing happened and he burst into laughter. "Shit happens," he said casually. After our great trip, we bought the essentials at Pak n' Save, which is much cheaper than our beloved Countdown, and went back to the Hot Water Pools in Rotorua. We showed Nicole the mud pool and then jumped into the hot pools. There, we met a New Zealander who brought real mud, which apparently everyone sitting in the pool smeared on their faces. It's supposed to be good for the skin. It definitely looked very funny because everyone had this mud mass on their faces. :D
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
On Wednesday, I woke up highly motivated, prepared a power breakfast, and started sewing our curtains. It was worth it that I packed a sewing kit in my backpack. I cut the bedsheet we wanted to use for curtains into the right sizes and started sewing the curtains. It didn't take long until Bibi joined with her half-asleep face and sewed eagerly. "I feel like a child in Africa who has to do child labor," Bibi joked. Finally, our work was finished. We had lunch and in the afternoon, we dared to start the conversion of our campervan. First goal? Wood would be great. We painstakingly looked for something like a hardware store. Wherever we saw wood, we went there. Found it. In the storage department, there were only men. A young man named James took care of us three girls and brought us the cheapest chipboard he could find. "Can you cut the board?" we asked. With a shy look, he started cutting with a second employee. We also needed something to raise our bed in the van. Wooden posts or something like that. Of course, our James also brought us wooden blocks. The other employees teased him while doing so. One of them made fun of him and howled like a wolf. A second one stuck a note on the window that said: "Focus James ". We couldn't stop laughing. On the one hand, James was really kind to us, on the other hand, we felt really ridiculous because we didn't actually have a fixed plan on how to build the frame under our mattress. The ideas came from Bibi and me. James just carried out what we suggested. Although he was always thinking hard. Nothing came from him. "Sweet," he always said. We left the wood there until the next day. Then we asked Toyota dealers and mechanics how much it would cost to remove the seats. Starting at $400, we weren't interested. "Ask Shane if he knows someone who can remove the seats," I suggested to Bibi. "I can do that," Shane said. Oh my god. We already felt so dumb. Our Shane. Our savior of the day. We should come by tomorrow. So the beginning was already done.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Highly motivated for today, we started with mango-orange tea, toast with cheese and cucumbers, and yogurts. At half past ten, we first went to the lumberyard, picked up our wood, and headed to Tauranga to meet Shane. Now it was time to remove the seats. He thought it would be easier than it actually was. Finally, with a socket wrench, we managed to loosen the seats. That was done. Now there was only the problem with the rails. Suddenly, Shane discovered screws under the carpet. Yes. That was it. Bibi and I unscrewed the rails while Shane took care of his office work. We cleaned and vacuumed the car again because it smelled really bad and there was a lot of dirt in the rail holes. Then we laid the floor with the carpet we bought. In the meantime, Shane had to go to the mechanic with his car. After our lunch at McDonald's, we wanted to build our subframe for our mattress. Shane was so kind and helped us with that. He provided us with screws and a cordless drill. Bibi and I drilled and worked diligently. Shane was amazed that we managed to do it on our own. "Crazy Austrian girls. Kiwi girls would never do that," he said surprised. Long live the Austrian farm girls . Finally, he fixed the curtain rods for us, although he was a bit clueless and simply drilled the screws through the hand brackets, but it didn't matter. It held the way we wanted it to, and that was important. So we had our finished van :D Crazy :D and now? Of course, we wanted to sleep in it right away. What else? We drove to Nicole's house, packed our bags, and decided spontaneously to travel to Coromandel. We gladly took a three-hour drive. We cruised along the bends along the bays to Coromandel. There, we stayed overnight in a simple parking lot. Exhausted, our eyes closed.
Friday, November 4, 2016
Early in the morning, we put on our jogging pants and first went to a public toilet. Google Maps led us to the public toilets at the harbor. Outhouse without flushing. What more could you want? We changed and did what needed to be done and headed back to Coromandel. On the way back, we stopped at a bay. Somehow, we had to brush our teeth and have a bite to eat. Brushing our teeth by the sea was much more hygienic than the Maori pool, you have to admit. :D Our breakfast was quite modest. Except for a few slices of toast and the remaining hazelnut spread, we unfortunately had nothing. We sat on the rocks at the bay and had breakfast in pretty windy weather. After that, we had no plan and first went to a supermarket. Our travel guide suggested the Driving Creek Railway and Potteries as a sightseeing spot in Coromandel. Before that, we visited a nice quaint café, ordered gluten-free cookies and cappuccino, and played Scrabble. Our mini train tour through the Kauri forest started at 11:30, where unique ceramic sculptures by Barry Brickell followed the tracks. The tour led to the top, the Eye Full Tower, where we enjoyed a fantastic panoramic view of the whole Coromandel. That was really worth it. Motivated, we wanted to continue along the coast to the individual bays of the Coromandel Peninsula. At first, the road was normal two-lane. Slowly but surely, two lanes became one, which ultimately led us to an intersection where two gravel roads stood on the left and right. Whatever, we decided to go left. Trees, bushes, willows, and meadows adorned the gravel road. Behind us, the dry soil stirred up like on a concrete construction site. After what felt like half an hour, we came to a lonely village. My travel guide said that this was the last shopping opportunity. That could be funny. We continued driving. Nothing as far as the eye could see, except for a few sheep occasionally. "No one will believe where we are again," Bibi joked. We couldn't believe it ourselves. Soon, we arrived at wonderful unique bays. The waves crashed against the rocks. We stopped on the side of the road and climbed down the rocks to the sea. The water sprayed and hit us quite a bit. But we didn't care. We felt free. Free in a lonely area where there was simply nothing. The sun shone on the sea, making it shimmer in all sorts of colors. Wow. Amazing. We moved on towards the north. We even drove through creeks with the car. Soon, we approached Fletcher Bay, which also had a campsite. It was a bit strange because there was no office in sight, but this campsite was not free. We drove around the campsite and checked if there was anything more upscale than cold showers and outhouses. In vain. A small cabin caught our attention. The owner stumbled out of the cabin and asked if he could help us. Luckily, we could pay with a debit card. We hadn't thought that there would be neither a bank nor shops nearby.
Saturday, November 5, 2016
We started the day with toast and hazelnut spread. What else? For today, the Coromandel Coastal Walk Tour was planned. We set off at half past seven. Our trip started over green meadow hills. After an hour, we arrived at a lonely bay, Poley Bay, where we found wonderfully sparkling Maori shells, the so-called Paua shells. Hand-sized shells that shimmer in all colors on the inside. Our tour led us through the idyllic Coromandel Forest. We were rewarded with uniquely beautiful views of fantastically lonely bays. After 3 hours, we reached Stony Bay. An abandoned, as the name suggests, stony beach. This place used to be inhabited by a farmer family 50 years ago, and the bay was dedicated to them. We actually didn't want to walk back for three hours again since it also started to drizzle lightly. But somehow we had no choice. Bibi wasn't very motivated. We also ran out of drinking water and promised ourselves to only take a sip after each strenuous stretch. We even made it back in 2.5 hours. Towards the end of our hike, we discovered a hidden black beach. How crazy was that? The sand was simply gray-black. :D It was hard to believe what New Zealand surprised us with this time. With blisters and grass stains, we fell exhausted into the warm grass. Now, the Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove were on the agenda for the next day. On the way to Hot Water Beach, we stopped in Coromandel, treated ourselves to pizzas, and did a little shopping. We also made a short stop at the Wairua Falls. 5-meter high waterfalls. When we arrived, we looked for a campsite. A holiday park. I hate holiday parks, but I didn't care because it was already half past eight in the evening.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
At six in the morning, I saw hot showers again for the first time in days. Although you could only take a 5-minute hot shower, it didn't matter. Wow, what a feeling. I felt like I was reborn. Later, we had toast with cheese and cucumbers and yogurt with bananas for breakfast :D We chilled in our van until checkout. After that, we moved to Hahei Beach, where boat taxis went to Cathedral Cove. We relaxed on the warm fine sand for a while and then hopped on a boat taxi. Hui, in 5 minutes we were already at Cathedral Cove, a cathedral cave. A bay on the Mercury Bay section of the Coromandel Peninsula. Unfortunately, we didn't see the dome from the inside. But from the outside, it looked incredibly beautiful and gigantic. Our boat taxi took us back to Hahei Beach, where we devoured the remaining pizza from the previous day. After that, we also visited Cooks Beach, took a short nap in our van there because it was really stormy outside, and then continued towards Hot Water Beach. Low tide was supposed to be at half past five. People crowded already at the beach access. We strolled along the beach and finally came to a section where reddish-brown rocks protruded from the cliffs. Huge rocks also protruded from the sand on the beach. Many tourists eagerly waited with shovels for what was coming. We didn't know either. We just watched. After a while, it got too crowded for us and we left. We found a nearby camping site in Tairua. There, we had Grilled Chili Salad, Shrimps and Fries in a nice restaurant, bought a Ginger Beer in a store afterwards, and ended the evening at the campsite.
