New Zealand is a very beautiful place, and the country side is filled with tons of dairy cattle and sheep. I've noticed that there is a lot of rotational grazing done in NZ - some small paddocks may have 200 or so cattle in them. Many of the dairy farms graze their cattle out in paddocks - so far I haven't seen any large barns or intensive operations. There are a ton of dairy cattle in the country, but the cattle don't produce as much as our Canadian cattle. Very neat to see the differences in the industry, even if it has just been from the seat of the Kiwi Experience bus.
Jackie, Morgan and I boarded the Kiwi Experience bus at 8:30 am on Monday January 2nd. As soon as we got onto the bus, we started meeting our fellow "Kiwi Ex's" who would be traveling with us as well as staying in the same hostels. People from all around the world come to NZ to hop on the Kiwi Ex bus - the bus runs a hop on/hop off policy. Basically if you find a town you like, you can hop off the bus and stay for as long as you want, and hop back on whenever. Most places the bus stops it will stay for a night or two, and the bus driver helps coordinate your activities for each stop, as well as accommodations. The bus usually stops to allow everyone to grab breakfast and lunch, or even to a supermarket to grab food to cook your own meals. I would definitely recommend Kiwi Ex for anyone who wants to see all of NZ in a short period of time (And doesn't want to worry about driving on the wrong side of the road... Ha) On our bus we have people from England, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, Denmark, Brazil and of course Canada! (there are 5 Canadians on the bus!) It's so easy to get to know everyone quickly because you do a lot of the same activities with other Kiwi Ex travelers. By the end of the first day we felt like we had known everyone for a month! I have gotten to know a girl named Judith from N. Ireland quite well, as we sit together on the bus and have done a ton of activities together.
Anyways, getting back to the exciting part - Monday took us to out to the Coromandel Peninsula to Hahei Beach to kayak on the ocean out to see Cathedral Cove. It is one of the most photographed places in NZ - and there's a good reason; it's absolutely beautiful. The cove has been formed by volcanoes and the ocean has eroded the limestone and pumice rock into coves, with many caves only accessible from the water. We kayaked into one of these caves, which they call Lovers Cave because it is only accessible by water, and has a little beach on the inside... Aaand they find "lovers" in there on occasion. Our guides made us hot chocolate on the beach in Cathedral Cove, and we wandered about for a bit.
Back in our kayaks, we took a tour around some islands farther out into the ocean, and then caught an ocean current back to the beach. We were about a mile and a half out into the ocean from the beach. Learned a valuable lesson when we got back to the beach - wear tons of sunscreen down under! Got a nasty burn. That night we wandered down to Hot Water Beach, only a short walk from the place we stayed at. Hot Water Beach is aptly named, as volcanic heated springs bubble up from below onto the beach, and at low tide in the evening you can dig yourself a hole on the beach and mix cold tide waters with the almost boiling water coming up from below. Almost like having a bath on the beach. The water got extremely hot after a while, and after slightly burning my feet, I took a run into the ocean to cool off. Definitely a pretty unique stop in New Zealand!
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