Gorgeous Gorge

We decided to spend our last couple of days on Waihi beach and stayed at a brilliant bed and breakfast aptly named Beachfront Bed and Breakfast. Great place, lovely hosts, perfect location. Probably the best stay of this holiday. So I spent some more time playing with Harald, walking and running on the beach, soaking in the nearby Athenree hot pools, and of course exploring the gorgeous Kahangarake Gorge. Although it’s on the infamous 101 AA list, we didn’t really meet too many people there. Nice hiking through the forest, exploring some old gold mining relics, which pleased the reisebegleitung to no end. Well the relics, not so much the walking. 🙂 the flat white cafe does good cakes and a surprisingly good veggie burger, the Waitete restaurant and ice creamery does good ice cream for non European standards (run by an Austrian guy). For our last night at Waihi we went to have dinner at the Falls Retreat, which is in the middle of nowhere, rustic setting, absolutely great food. You wouldn’t expect this quality and type of food in such a location, but there it is and it’s really worth every penny.

Unfortunately we couldn’t stay until Saturday, because the room was already booked, so we drove to Auckland on Friday morning, with just a little break at the Blueberry County to have some exceptional real fruit ice-cream and Blueberry muffins, who would’ve thought.

What could be better than to spend the last day at Piha beach? Braving the Auckland rush our traffic we drove to this lovely black sand beach on the west coast. I mean, it’s so unbelievable, it’s only twenty to thirty minutes from Auckland, and there’s this beautiful beach with great swell, wave after wave rolling in, and enough room for me and Harald to have some last intimate moments together for the foreseeable future. Sniff.

I’d booked the room with my BA miles so I’d booked two nights, because we’re flying out tonight at 1:05am Sunday morning and wanted to use the room throughout the day to make the most of it. And since miles are basically worth shit these days anyway I figured I could as well waste them on a hotel booking. Fuck the airlines, Fuck the ancillary fees. We finished of the last last day in style, keeping our good old tradition of having a really nice meal on the last night. I’d researched a little bit and booked a table at One Tree Grill, because it had an interesting menu, great reviews, and didn’t bother me with too much fancy shit, wine bullshit etc. And it was fucking awesome, great finish. I’m still savoring the last remnants of the tastes as we are en route to the airport. Love you NZ, hope to back one day. Please don’t sell out in the meantime, fuck the deep sea oil exploration and the black sand mining, be smarter than your aussie neighbours who’ve just decided to kill of the great Barrier reef and discovered coal as a great source of energy.