The Girls Getaway

It's currently Tuesday and I've finished my class for the day. I'm currently, finally, doing laundry (though most definitely not properly - the machine was oozing bubbles like in a movie and the clothes themselves didn't even feel wet, but whatever) and I figured I might as well either put together my video from this weekend or write up the post about it. Clearly I've settled for the latter, but you can be expecting a video sometime in the relative future. Also, I truly love this picture from Cathedral Cove (big thanks to Celeste for taking it for me!) and I definitely feel it did not get as many likes as it should've (it's not even edited/filtered/whatever), on both Instagram and Facebook. Feel free to go "like" it if you haven't already. And you're welcome for me making it only "large" instead of "extra large" here on the blog post. If it wasn't silhouette/you could actually see my face, bet it'd be my new profile pic.
Anyways, this past weekend there was so much going on. The underwater club took their first trip to Goat Island. The canoe club had their first trip. A bunch of people went to Rangitoto. Many Loyola kids went to Hobbiton and Piha. I'm part of both of those clubs and have friends in both of those groups, yet I did none of that. Instead, Celeste and Shibani planned an all-girls weekend trip for Silje, Neelam, Sarah, myself, and themselves to go to the Coromandel Peninsula.

'Twas only a weekend trip (Saturday and Sunday) but it was jam packed. We fit a lot in. On Saturday, we took the ferry to Coromandel where we hopped on a bus to take us to our shuttle to take us to our hostel in Whitianga. There, there was a mix up with the booking but one group didn't show up so it worked out in our favor. Originally we were to be split and have 3 in one room, 3 in another, but due to the no show all 6 of us were able to be in the same room (coincidentally it was room 6). Once our accommodations were sorted we rushed off to catch another ferry to take us to another shuttle, which we were late for. Celeste and Shibani did such a good job with the planning that the shuttle was a private van just for the six of us, so it didn't much matter that we were an hour late. 

Our first stop on our private bus was to the Hot Water Beach. We were all famished by the time we got there, being as we hadn't eaten all day, so first and foremost we went straight for the little restaurant before actually venturing out to the beach. I got a "fish burger" which is really just a fish sandwich, and ohmygoodness it was great. Very worth it. Apparently it was so good I failed to take a picture before it was devoured. Sorry. 

Anywhos then we meandered down to the beach. Unfortunately, we were an hour past the time for the hot water part, due to the tides, but Celeste and I dug a hole anyway and were able to reach the hot water before a wave came and filled the rest of the hole with cold water. (Someone took a picture of us in our hole but I'm not sure who and I haven't been tagged in it yet, so maybe I'll add it later when I get it...) We also played in the water a bit and watched the surfers do their thing. 

Our next stop was the place we had come for - Cathedral Cove. It's definitely a reclusive place; it's an hour hike to the beach and another hour hike back to the parking lot. But it was nice. Celeste and I swam out to a rock in the middle of the water. People were doing flips off the rock, and I should've flipped, but I just jumped because I'm a wimp. Like I honestly might have to go back just so I can flip off of it, but that hour hike to and from is a very good Tasha deterrent.
It was cool being in Cathedral Cove because a lot of famous people go there to shoot their music videos and films, such as Taylor Swift's Out of the Woods and Macklemore's Can't Hold Us. (I can't imagine being part of the camera crew and having to bring all your equipment down that walk, but I suppose they probably just boated-in the equipment.) We could all have our 15 minutes of fame at Cathedral Cove with pictures like the one above, if only people would like them...(hmmm hmmm hint hint GO LIKE MY PICTURE PLEASE).
So after that we went to Shakespeare's Cliff, where the cliff looks like Shakespeare's face. Captain Cook named it in 1769, then in 1969 the Queen came to visit it. We first saw it from the road then we drove up to it so we could see the peninsula from the top, where we obviously had to get even higher and stand on the railing.

Neelam's addition to the hostel...
Mine is not good enough to post. 

For dinner I had lasagna and it was so hot I couldn't tell you if it was good or not because it burnt my mouth with every bite and took like over an hour to eat this little itty bitty lasagna because I kept trying not to burn myself and it was awful. But I do believe it did taste good probably.
Sunday we painted on the hostel walls and headed for the beach.
Beaches are so nice I love the water. It was really sandbar-y and I think my grandmother would really like it. Then Celeste, Silje and I took a banana boat ride and saw the everything from the water. We also went to this little natural skylight hole thing that I know what it's called from my diving in Florida but I forget what it's called...anyways, it's my new fav place in all of New Zealand. I wish we could've stayed there for a while but we had to get back on the banana boat to get back to the cab to take us to the bus for the ferry back to Auckland. But it was spectacular.
On the way back to Auckland I sat next to Dannie from the aquarium. She feeds the sharks and swims with them everyday for her job and sometimes they send her to the South Island to just chill with the penguins and whales for months. She went to Auckland University Technical University and is a marine biologist. She was talking to a 4 year old on her other side, and he was super duper excited, but I think I was more excited than he was, hearing her stories and such. lol oops.
But then we came back to the flat and I was in the middle of uploading my pictures when the lights went out. Apparently that like legitimately never happens in New Zealand, so everyone was freaking out, but once things calmed back down I went to bed instead of waiting for the lights to come back on.

 Til next time,

xoxo,

Tasha