New Zealand Adventure: Waitangi Day Weekend

Route from home to Whitianga

Last weekend (Feb 6-8) was Waitangi Day weekend so we get a three day weekend! Yay! Two three day weekends in a row. My friend Alix invited Bevan and I to go with her and her boyfriend Sean to her grandmas house in Whitianga for the weekend. It seemed like a good (and affordable) three day weekend. We left after everyone got off work on Friday night so we didn't get there until quite late.

View from the house we stayed at.

View down from the balcony at the house. It was cool to be
above the canopy because there were lots of different
native birds.

Map of The Lost Springs. The Lagoon isn't a heated pool but
the other pools are heated. The Crater Lake pool is the warmest.

Saturday we got up but the weather wasn't great. Alix's grandparents were kind enough to make use breakfast and do the dishes! It probably doesn't feel like a huge luxury to many 25 year olds but I was thrilled that I didn't have to cook or do dishes. Being an au pair has really made me appreciate how much work it takes to run a house and how nice it is when someone else does it. Because the weather wasn't great we decided to forgo the beach and go to mini golf instead. Half way through mini golf it started raining but luckily it wasn't too bad and cleared up quickly enough that we could finish our game. After mini golf we got some lunch and ice cream before heading back to the house. Alix, Sean and Bevan had some down time while I went on a run. Unfortunately Alix's grandparents live on the top of a hill and the only place to run is down the hill which means at the end when my legs were tired I had to go back up the hill. It was really hard. After our down time we went to some Thermal Pools/Spa called the Lost Springs. I didn't take my phone to The Lost Springs so I only have the map that they have on their website. It was really cool though. They had build it up to look like caves and they had tons of cool rocks and geodes attached to everything. There was also lots of foliage so you hardly knew you were near a town. I really enjoyed hanging out at The Lost Springs. We didn't do much, just floated around. It was great to just chill out. When we got home we had dinner then played cards/Farkle or as Bevan calls in Nang. Farkle/Nang is a game you play with dice. I used to play it all the time at home but I hadn't played it in ages. It was super fun to play again. I don't like calling it Nang though. I think Farkle is a much better name for it but I was out voted on it.

Cool rock sculpture in Scorpion Bay

Route to Cathedral Cove

Me in a tree at Scorpion Bay

Sunday the weather was better so we took a trip to Cathedral Cove. Cathedral Cove is a big tourist place. You park and then you have to walk 35-40 minutes to Cathedral Cove. We had a hard time finding a park so we ended up parking on a residential street a 15 min walk from the start of the trail. At the top of the trail I got a coffee from the coffee cart (I love coffee!). The man at the coffee cart was able to pin point my accent to northwest America and guessed Montana which was pretty cool. We started off on our trek. Bevan found a cicada and I insisted that I wanted to hold it even though they freak me out. So he gave me the cicada. I held it for about 3 seconds before it poked me with its proboscis. I promptly screamed and flailed about flinging the cicada into a poor unsuspecting man who was walking back to the car park. He was a good sport about having a cicada thrown at him. I got teased a lot. We had planned on having lunch at Cathedral Cove but we were a bit hungry so we stopped at Scorpion Bay which is a little bay on the way. We had our picnic lunch there. After lunch I climbed a tree and we wandered around Scorpion Bay for a bit before heading to to Cathedral Cove.

View from the tree I climbed in Scorpion Bay

At Cathedral Cove we hung out for a bit. The waves were pretty big and we had a lot of fun playing in them. I think that there is a benefit to having grown up around the ocean because they seemed to play in the waves quite easily while I felt like I was a bit thrown around by the waves. We had lots of fun. Bevan and I played around. He would lift me up over the big waves which was really fun, well except for the time he didn't lift my high enough and a wave broke in my face. I had so much fun playing in the waves. After playing in the waves we laid on the beach for a bit before going back to the car. On the way home we had to stop for an ice cream, YUM!
After our trip to Cathedral Cove we packed up and came home. Monday was the Super Bowl and Sean had a party to go to so it was leave Sunday night or get up crazy early on Monday to go home. Sunday night was definitely the better option. I was pretty happy that Alix invited us. It was a great weekend.