Hey Big Brenda!

I was so excited on Sunday morning – on my way to meet KP in the Southern Hemisphere!! The flight was a dream, with unexpected movies and a meal. It was all going so well until I hit New Zealand customs. Once I got my bag I was all ready to rush through customs for that ‘Heathrow moment’ with KP when I was halted by a massive queue. It was so frustrating because I knew I was so close yet so far! But I got there in the end (after they had x-rayed my bags and taken a very close look at my waboba ball to check that it wasn’t a biosecurity risk). It was awesome to see KP and Alec waiting there and the ‘Heathrow moment’ was worth the wait. We were then picked up in a minivan that took us to the ‘Jucy’ headquarters where we picked up the one and only Brenda, our beloved campervan for the next few days.

We hit the road straightaway and Katherine got us out of Auckland (with the help of my excellent navigation of course). We drove for a couple of hours through beautiful scenery and arrived at a holiday park just in time to get some fish and chips, before they closed at 7:30pm! The next morning we headed down to the beach. We spent the morning chatting, reading our books, and playing with waboba in the sea. After a quick lunch in the only café around we headed back down to the beach but this time we had a different plan for the afternoon. This particular beach is called Hot Water Beach because in certain areas there are hot springs underneath the sand.

We had rented a spade from the holiday park and intended to create our own natural hot tub in the sand by digging a giant hole! It is only possible to do this 2 hours either side of low tide which meant that from 2pm that afternoon we could start digging for hot springs. When we got there at about 2:15 there was already a swarm of people busy shovelling sand. We sat for a few minutes surveying the situation and deciding where we would stake our claim. A lone traveller took this opportunity to sit with us and asked if he could join us as he didn’t have a spade. When we eventually decided on a spot, we got to work straightaway. The extra pair of hands proved very helpful as it was actually pretty tiring. If you stopped to look around it was quite bizarre seeing so many adults having such a fun time just digging a hole in the sand. In some areas the water that came up was so hot it would burn your feet. A group of 4 people digging a hole next to us had scolding water bubbling up into their hot tub whilst ours was quite hot but it cooled down a couple of times when a bigger wave would wash in. So when they were leaving they broke down the wall so that their water could flow into ours. It was like someone turned on the hot tap in the bath to warm it up. So we sat back and enjoyed the rewards of our hard work! Katherine and I took the opportunity to

give ourselves a ‘hot sand exfoliating treatment’. Afterwards we cooled off in the sea and attempted to wash all of this sand off! It was a completely unique experience so a big tick for day 1 in New Zealand.

The next morning we headed out on the road again to check out another beach. This time Alec drove us so it was important to hold on tight as Brenda raced round the corners at an uncomfortable speed! We had a long walk along the beach and a quick dip, which couldn’t quite be described as a swim. Along the way we all made sure to pick up some local Kiwi shells (one of which has made it all the way back to Sydney – fingers crossed it can make the eventual journey to London as well). After this, we stopped off at a small vineyard for some lunch. Alec and Katherine had been given a recommendation by somebody they met in Auckland who said that this place makes its own cider and amazing wood-fired pizzas. As soon as we went in, the owner enthusiastically introduced himself and welcomed us to Purangi Winery. He talked non-stop at about 500 words per minute for the first 15 minutes. I’ve never seen Alec struggle to get a word in edgeways before. We tasted the cider, which was delicious and ordered a pizza – instead of different types of pizza he just listed all the toppings they had and we said yes or no (well

basically we said yes to nearly everything). We sat outside in the sun drinking homemade cider and eating pizza. Happy days. But it was about to get even better when the owner brought us about 8 different types of homemade liqueur to taste and some local fruit – the feijoa. We were all loving it but I think Alec was actually in heaven. Until he fell backwards off his chair! Luckily onto soft grass so no harm done. After a very slow and slightly boozy lunch we pottered over to Cathedral Cove. We wanted to hire kayaks but when we found out that wasn’t an option we just got a water taxi with a very friendly Kiwi and explored it on foot. It’s basically an amazing walk-through cave shaped like a cathedral arch. After soaking it all up, we enjoyed the turquoise blue seas and relaxed on the beach. That evening we headed back to Purangi Winery where we parked the campervan in their car park and drank endless jugs of cider all evening. Unfortunately, our fun was slightly curbed by a lone traveller who wanted to join us. Normally this would

be fine, except that he talked continuously for the next 3 hours entirely about himself. The only escape was to take ourselves to bed. Except that he followed, and was parked right next to us. So we had to pull the blinds down in Brenda and desperately hope that he wasn’t planning to go to the same place as us the next day. Harsh but fair.

On our last full day we headed to a place called New Chums Beach which was cut off from the road so we had to walk for 30-40minutes across uneven, rocky terrain and through a forest of overgrown trees. The destination was worth it though. Almost deserted, it was a beautiful beach with a backdrop of dramatic high cliffs. Parts of the cliff had very small caves that would create an echo of the waves crashing. Pretty cool stuff. Then, in the afternoon we headed to the slightly quirky Coromandel Town. It was smaller than expected but still had character. When we got to the holiday park we found it had a heated pool so immediately we went for a quick dip. We weren’t in for long though before the rains came. Obviously we were already wet so that didn’t matter, but it made it very cold when we did finally get out! In the evening, we wandered down the main (only) street of the town checking out the options. It was a curry takeaway, fish and chip shop or a fairly smart looking pub/restaurant. Since it was our last night together, we treated

ourselves to the smarter place and this turned out to be a very good decision because the food was the nicest we’d had in New Zealand. So good we had to have some desserts! We finished up the evening with a drink in the only other place still open and played desert island films.

The following morning, Katherine drove us all back to Auckland. We made the most of our last journey in Brenda and it was so sad to say goodbye to her when we had to drop her off. But we managed to tear ourselves away from her and headed to the airport in the shuttle bus. With the squishiest of squishy hugs we said goodbye, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and went our separate ways. A great trip all round but next time we will make it an awesome foursome with Matt as well!