After the whirlwind of Fiji and then meeting almost every single member of Karl's family and many of his friends, we have gone out on our own. We are traveling around an area called the Coromandel, which is on the east coast of New Zealand. It's filled with incredible beaches and we plan to camp for a week or so at various places. The big news- I got a surfboard! We drove to Hot Water Beach and took our boards out yesterday on some waves Karl said were "smallish", which were big enough to give me a few washing-machine style tosses in the ocean. I managed to get my feet on the board a few times, but made some spectacular bails. My hips are bruised and my hair feels like a pile of seaweed from all the salt water, but we are having a blast.
The amazing thing about this place is that at low tide all these people gather on the beach and dig big body-sized holes. There are hot water springs that fill the holes with warm water and keep the sand hot for hours.
So after a while of being tossed around by the ocean, we walked down the beach and found a hole that had been abandoned and jumped into water that was hotter than a bathtub! It was incredible. More stories and pics to come.
XO Jen
