After 5 weeks of school holidays and 2 weeks of backpacking, I was exhausted! So I was excited (and relieved) when Amanda asked me if I wanted to go with her to her host family’s batch (like a cottage) in Cooks Beach, Coromandel. Without hesitation I said yes!
Friday night could not come fast enough. With a playlist ready and food packed we hit the curvy windy roads to Coromandel. I was so excited to get away and have a nice relaxing weekend (like I do at the cottage at home) and lay on the beach all day and just not do or think about anything. But the minute we walked into the door, Torah (the 10 year girl of Amanda’s host family) and her friend Shelby ran up to us and just started talking a mile a minute and yelling and screaming and asking a million questions! I just laughed! Ok so not exactly what I had in mind... But Yolande (Amanda’s host mum) reassured us that they would settle, they were just excited to have others there. Yo and the girls had been there all week! Must be nice eh! Having been in the car for 2.5 hours Amanda and I decided to walk down to the beach to stretch our legs and get some fresh air. It was a short 7 minute walk to the beach. But there was no beach tonight, the tide was so high that it came right up to stairs leading down to the beach. We sat on the top step and listened to the waves and looked at the stars which were insanely beautiful since we were far from any city lights. We sat for a bit and just enjoyed nature and each others company. (Amanda will laugh at this, she’s too silly to appreciate these comments haha. But I’m feeling a bit mushy because Amanda has since returned home to Sweden and I miss her so suck it up Amanda!)
The next morning we woke up to Torah and Shelby making pancakes for everyone. Now this was more what I was thinking haha. Before heading to the Hot Water Beach, Amanda and I went back to Cooks Beach to check it out in the daylight and go for a quick swim. The water was freezing and 10 steps out Amanda thought she had been bit by a crab, so I was like nope, not doing this! My family will find this entertaining seeing as they used to have to pay me to get into the water at our old cottage. I would get $1 if I was the first one to jump into the water. Still didn’t happen very often…
The sun was bright, the weather could not have been better so we were off to the Hot Water Beach for a day of sand and sun (and later sunburns ouch!). The Hot Water Beach has a small section where people can dig holes in the sand at low tide to make little hot tubs. But it is extremely busy and within 5 steps you can have a freezing cold pool then one you can’t stand in because it’s so hot. It’s really weird but neat. We got there earlier then low tide so we went swimming in the ocean first. This was the first ocean I had swam in in New Zealand when I visited Coromandel back in October. But at this time it was still winter and the water was absolutely freezing! This time it was very refreshing. Since the tide was going out it created massive waves. So we braved it and went out into the waves. Man were they strong! It was the weirdest feeling, one minute you could feel the water pulling from the shore as it went back into the ocean, you seriously had to ground yourself and the water was only at your knees. Then this massive wave would come up behind you and if you caught it right would carry you back in. I was amazed at how strong the tide was and some of us got dumped pretty bad by some of the higher and stronger waves. But all in all it was an incredible experience and after an hour we were exhausted. We relaxed on the beach for a bit and had some lunch. Then we decided to test our luck with the pools. With spades in hand we trekked over to the pools. After testing the sand in 10 places and attempted twice to dig holes with little success, we hopped into an empty pool and took some photos haha. Then back to sun bathing in the sand. When we got home my back looked like a tomato! Ya not fun! But it’s brown now!
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| Making pancakes for us! |
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| Gotenburg, Amanda's home! |
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| Cooks Beach |
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| The water came up to the rocks the night before! |
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| Apparently I don't know how to dress myself... |
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| Look at those waves! So fun! |
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| Hot Water Beach |
That evening the girls went fishing with Torah’s uncle so Amanda and I had the evening to ourselves and what did we do... watch One Direction, This is Us! Torah and Shebly are OBESSED! And that’s an understatement. So of course they brought the movie along with the CD and magazines all about One Direction. Now Amanda and I have for some strange reason (an ealry mid-life crisis, a quarter life crisis?) have been fan girling One Direction since November. Ya we don’t understand but it just happened... So we cuddled up on the couch and watch This is Us, while singing along, laughing and tearing up at some points. I’m going to be so embarrassed about this later haha. Oh well...
On Sunday we ventured to the beautiful peaceful Cathedral Cove. I’ve been here before but I think it is my favourite place in New Zealand so I was excited to get back to spend the day. We walked along the beach, swam in the waves and rested in the sun. All around perfect day to end off a perfect weekend. This was a very different travel weekend to what we are used to but I think it has been one of my favourite weekends in the 5 months that I have been here. I was happy that I got to spend some time with Amanda before she left for home.
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| No words... |
The Au Pair lifestyle is a fun one but can be hard because people come in and out of your life pretty fast. But having said this I think relationships happen faster because you know that our time is limited and they become stronger because we can relate to each other. We are all in the same situation, we left our family, friends and homes to travel literally across the world on our own. I have known Amanda for 5 months now but she has become my go to person and I miss her. But thank goodness for technology! I usually wake up to her spam texting me funny pictures and hilarious stories! So even though we are far apart we can still share a laugh :)
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| 50 Shades of Tanned... |
sucka mitt hjärta men brist ej
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