Saturday May 1st 2010 - The Drive to Rotorua

Tip: bring the appropriate power adaptor for your electronics (camera, laptop, iphone). My Eddie Bauer adaptor didn't work but the Lodge Manager Sally was nice enough to give hers to us

Tip: I found out that even Road Star Plus auto insurance coverage does not cover international driving outside of Canada and the US so after trying 3 different 3rd party insurance providers b/c Eurocar wouldn't let me insure it after the fact I found out that I can return the car for a full refund and take it out again. So get the insurance during time of booking and don't make my mistake

Tip: To convert to Canadian multiply the amount by .75 approximatlely. A well price beer is $5 which is $3.75!

On a recommendation had a good breakfast at the Cogill. Had a Eggs Florentine with bacon ($14 NZ) with a New Zealand style late ($4). It had a nice covered deck that worked for a Saturday morning. It was surprised to see the same international CD's that I see in a Cigar store in Yaletown called revoluction. I was tempted to get an Arabian CD for $32 NZ because I knew that we had 4 hours drive to Rotorua and many more for our next stops, but I ended up getting an connection for my iphone

We had a pleasant surprise when Candice, my younger sister and I found a South African store along the highway to Rotorua and stopped for some Spiced Biltong, Guava juice, and other snacks for the ride. Thanks to the Navman GPS we arrived at the Ventura Inn and have booked a Maori Tour for tonight. I'm tempted to book out a bmw or sports car to enjoy these windy roads it's a lot of fun, but I think Candices luggage is slowing down our small compact 4 banger

April 30th - Coromendel Peninsula

So 14 hours elapsed from our 8:30pm Wednesday flight on April 28th and we arrived on Friday April 30th 5:30am. Had a surprise delay at Eurocar. I forgot to check whether my Roadstar plus provided auto insurance while in New Zealand. I just found out minutes ago from ICBC that it covers only Canada and the US :( .
tip: New Zealand is 19 hours ahead of Vancouver BC in the Pacific Time Zone.

Coromendel Peninsula Highlights:

• Beautiful Beaches and Sea Rock formations at Cathederal Cove



• Hot Water Beach



• Location: North Eastern part of the North Island
  
  

The drive to the Coromandel Peninsula took us about 2 hours. We check in our lodge at the beach and was told that low tide was at 2:30pm and we had to be there if we wanted to enjoy the hot water beach. We stopped by for lunch in town and off to the Hot Water Beach. We took our spades there and arrived 30 minutes before 2:30pm there was already a crowd of people gathered around a particular rocky area at the beach. We took a couple of shots at digging a hot water pool, but this wasn't possible with the tide. The earth heats up the sand beneath the beach and heats up specific areas along the beach. We found a couple of pockets if we dug deep enough and scolded our feet.


I was chatting to a friendly gal at the Hot Water beach cafe about our disapointment of the hot water beach when she mentioned that the Cathederal Cove might be closing permanently. We quickly took a short drive to Hahei beach after to take the 45min hike to the Cathederal Cove beach. The hike briefly reminded me of the Peru inka trail as I haven't done a hike since Dec 2009. Cathederal Cove was a small intimate beach with postcard picture ops and beautiful and inspiring backdrop that was worth the hike. You have to see the pictures to understand as my words are not do it
justice

Day 1 - April 28th 2010 - Ready for the trip

so it begins waiting for the first flight at the YVR waiting for the 13 hour flight to Auckland. I'm armed with a light mini netbook asus 10" netbook for internet bookings, picture downloads, and blogging and email during downtime; iphone for my music, pictures, and mobile email; blackberry just in case the iphone didn't work out; a Lonely Planet book; a 7mb digital camera for pictures with a 8GB SD cards with a 1GB spare, and an itinerary reviewed by two people at my work that used to live in New Zealand as well as a friend from class that travelled there with his wife in 2006 . Apparently you can use the iphone sms and call functions with data roaming off and surf for free in hotspots.

Things that were actually useful

• Iphone w/ Earphones - useful got pics, entertaining games, music in the car when you have no radio, and email updates when passing by rare wifi hotspots. Tip: download air new Zealand iphone app for trip planning
  


• Lonely Planet - the bible of travelling enough said.
  


• Navman GPS - the $8NZ a day paid off once I left the parking lot. We hardly got lost with the amount of driving I had to do. We Picked it up at the Auckland Airport
  


• Digital Camera
  


• Printed Itinerary - used mostly expedia and Egencia, the corporate version, priceline, Jet Star for air flights between New Zealand towns.