Anyway, I was very very sad, and my first night in Whitianga was spent watching movies and relaxing to try to psych myself up to be back on the road.
The second day I decided to remind myself that while this new-found joy for being with other people is excellent, I do all right by myself too. I decided to take advantage of my new freedom by just seeing where the day took me from moment to moment, and making no plans. I stayed in bed until nearly 11 (yay!) and then I got on the road and zigzagged back and forth around the area of Shakespeare Cliff, Cathedral Cove, and Hot Water Beach. The day turned out to be EXCELLENT.
After lunch, I went to Cathedral Cove, which is reached by half an hour's walk along the shoreline.
I've been to a lot of "Cathedrals" of huge geographical phenomena in New Zealand, and the more I think about it the more I like it. Maybe this is what religion should be?
Anyway, Cathedral Cove is a huge rock with a huge hole in it right on the water, and it's pretty glorious indeed.
Hot Water Beach is a very small section of beach with a hot spring directly below it. If you go there and dig, you can make your own spa pool! You can only do it for two hours on either side of low tide. It can be tough to find the right spot to dig, but if the sand feels warm under your feet then that's a pretty good indication. It actually gets VERY hot-- like 150 degrees-- so you have to be really careful to get some cold water mixed in too.
When I got there there was already a big group digging a few large pools, and I joined in! Teamwork! Everyone was having a great time. The first few pools my group built were alternatively washed away by errant waves or WAY too hot, so in the end I snuck my way into a different pool. :p I luxuriated for an hour, hanging out with everyone, and then had a very cold run half a mile down the beach and back to the car.
The next day was pretty momentous-- back to Auckland, for the first time in nearly a year, and this time without Kara!
I took the 309 Road across the Peninsula because I wanted to see a kauri tree, which is New Zealand's biggest and most ancient tree. They used to be all over the whole country but were extensively logged, and are now mostly found in Northland, where I'm not going. But there are some on the Coromandel Peninsula! Pictures can't do them justice.