Rush Hour On The 309

Unlike the action-packed week in Sydney, we actually took some time to cool our jets on the north island of New Zealand. We hung out in Auckland, Waitomo and Coromandel for a week without plans, alarm clocks, or any major plans. Did I mention no real plans? Heaven.


In Waitomo, we spent the better part of 2 days hunkered down with a few bottles of wine, a woodfire stove, and a couple of books in the rain before we headed for the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. We learned that you actually need to book things in New Zealand, and can't just show up at your leisure to do what you'd like, so we ended up in a boring boat ride rather than cool splunking. We were glad we did it, but overall it was meh (as accurately represented by anonymous child's face in the picture).

We made a quick detour to Hobbletown, which is some sort of Lord of the Rings thing where there are doors in hills, at Ben's request. We came up short there as well because people actually book that in advance as well. (PS- it's like $200 DOLLARS! AND (worse, in my opinion) they make you spend 2 WHOLE HOURS.) New Zealand Tourism- 2; Ben + Emily- 0. Time for a quick beer, and then we moseyed onto Coromandel.

Now, let me tell you about Coromandel. It's like a retirement paradise. Beautiful views, great easy hikes relatively close, some of the worlds most beautiful beaches. Every where we turned, it took our breath away.

We ventured out to Cathedral Cove for an easy day hike (check out the photos above), and the nice Kiwis recommended we take "Highway 309" on our way home. It's a shortcut right across the peninsula. We should have been tipped off at "shortcut," but we weren't. Were we deterred by the gravel road with hairpin turns? Nah. How about by the pigs crossing the road? Nope. Or the fact that we saw ZERO other human beings on the 309 for three whole hours from 5-8 PM? Seemed legit. Classic day on the 309.

On our way home, we ended up at the Mussel Kitchen purely by happenstance (aka we needed a break from the crazy traffic) and it is one of the best places on earth. Great mussels, live music, cold beer. The River Jesters are legit- we even bought their album for the rest of our New Zealand road trips. Nothing like a cold beer after rush hour hour on the 309. Yes, please and THANK YOU NEW ZEALAND.

If you're heading to New Zealand's north island in the January timeframe, here are some tips:

• Summer there does not equal normal summer expectations. It's cold. I wore my winter coat most of the time. Pack for spring weather at best.
• The 309 is a dirt road that is used exclusively by pig farmers and misguided tourists.
• Make plans early. It's their high season and EVERYTHING books up.
• Coromandel is a MUST. YES YES YES. Do it. We wished we had closer to 5 days here rather than just 2.5.