a return to cathedral cove

sea kayaking really is awesome.

we met on the beach at 9am with a group largely composed of other americans (i hadn't seen that many of my countrymen in one place since ultimate frisbee) to get suited up and equipped for a few hours of sea kayaking goodness. peter had never been but took to it quickly. we headed out to some of the islands near hahei beach and got a nice close up look at some of the least inviting coastline i've ever seen. we then headed on to cathedral cove itself, with about 20 minutes on the beach while our intrepid guide (roscoe. no shit.) prepared coffee and hot chocolate for us. roscoe had told us of the original settlement in the area ("the great maori explorer, kooti, first came here, saw how great it was and said 'choice!'"). i'm sure it went down exactly like that. anyway, we finished up on the beach, jumped back into the kayaks and headed for home.

the weather was PERFECT. we saw dive-bombing gannets. it was awesome. this is the second great experience i've had with cathedral cove sea kayaking and third great experience i've had sea kayaking.

after we left hahei, we went up north to visit shakespeare cliff and the marker commemorating captain cook's visit to mercury bay (transit of mercury across the sun, baby!) then went down to hot water beach, a beach at which peter verified that the water is, indeed hot. perhaps even too hot to put one's feet into it. i feel somewhat justified now.

the only major detour on our way home was to go to see a bit of karangahake gorge, where i showed peter what new zealanders mean when they say 'torch is desirable'. i got to go on a few trails that weren't open last time, which was cool.

we made it back home tired from a long weekend, but it was great. we had an absolute blast and i got to see a lot of the coromandel that i didn't get to see before.