Matarangi is where we spent Christmas, in the holiday home of some of Holly's relatives. The drive from Coromandel Town to Matarangi was spectacular, steep climbs and descents were lined with palm trees, huge ferns and Pohutukawa trees.
The house was only a two minute walk to the beach so that was the first port of call! I finally got Holly keen for her first swim and afterwards she agreed it wasn't so bad
after all. Again it was more of a surf beach so not the best for swimming.
The next day we headed to Whitianga to see what was about, and after a bit of toing and froing and buying a hat we decided to go on a glass bottom boat tour into the marine reserve and past Cathedral Cove. We saw loads of fish as you might expect and even jumped off the side for a snorkel! Though only me and one other took them up on the offer.
It was really strange knowing it was Christmas time but it being warm. There were people on the beach in santa hats and Christmas trees everywhere while we were walking round in shorts and flip-flops. Though it didn't really feel like a proper Christmas it still came around. I had a walk on the beach on Christmas day but sadly not a swim as it was a bit windy and the sun wasn't out. We spent the afternoon much like a Christmas afternoon at home, eating and drinking! We had freshly caught scallops, along with lamb and pork.
Now that we had a car and everything was a bit more accessible, we headed back to Auckland for 2 more days to do the attractions a bit further out. First stop was the Zoo! We saw plenty of animals, including Lions, and some very small penguins.
The car now also has a supply of food in it so we don't have to eat out as much and should save a bit of money (hopefully). The next day we went to a planetarium, it was awful and not worth the visit so we soon decided to head off to our next destination, Thames.
The plan for Christmas is to stay in Matarangi, which is located above Whitianga. We decided to stop half way round in a place called Thames, only because it broke the journey up a little, but I was very glad we did. Thames is an old gold-mining town with loads of character. The people are incredibly nice and its more of a village feel, even though for a while Thames had more occupants than Auckland. There was a path along the coast that we stumbled across that was absolutely covered in artwork of animals merging from one to another which was pretty cool. When we were there the Thames market was on, which felt remarkably like a small village craft fair, there was even tea and coffee being served out of the town hall. Although it was quaint the market didn't keep us occupied for long and that's when we found the Driving Creek Railway!
After Auckland we headed back to Whangaparaoa for a couple of days, but the weather was pretty bad with a passing storm so not a great deal got done. On the 15th we went to Mairangi bay which is still on the outskirts of Auckland. By this point I had about decided a car was needed because trying to catch buses was proving annoying since although they were very cheap, they weren't very reliable. We were staying with one of Holly's relatives called Karen who was so nice! Her daughter, Maxine who was our age spent most of the day taking us around various car places before we finally found Turner's Car Auction where we found a little Nissan. After a lot of looking, test-driving, and bidding I got it for £1200. Its only got 93000KM (58000 miles ish) on the clock though it is nearly as old as me as it's from 1996! However it does have air-con and is automatic so can't complain!
