Taupo

Howdy all!
I finally got up and moving.
After a lovely Easter weekend in Auckland, I adopted two German girls, Sandra and Annika, that I met i Paihia and set off traveling with them.
We went to the Coromandel Peninsula.
We spent Tuesday night in Thames.
Then Wednesday we go up and hit the road.
We stopped and hiked the Kauaeranga Kauri trail. It was very nice but as it was a kind of wet day, there was a pretty constant stream flowing down the trail as well as 4 "flood route" suspension bridges that we had to cross (Yikes!!!).
We then continued north up the west coast of the peninsula to Coromandel town. It was a cute town and our hostel had a hot tub! About a minute down the road from the hostel was a cave and I got to see my first New Zealand glow worms (while standing in six inches of mud).
The next day, Thursday, after the girls did some train ride to a view of something that I opted out of to save $20 on a rainy day view of some mountains, we cut east to Whitianga.
We were detoured a few times due to flooded roads.
We spent two nights in Whitianga.
While there we went to the Hot Water Beach where you can dig a hole in the sand and it fills up with hot water. But because it is a school holiday, the beach was very very full of families and tourists. We got our feet in though, it was very cool.
Then we went to Cathedral Cove. After a 45 minute hike up and down and up and down, we opened out onto this isolated beach with amazing rock formations (I don't have time to add pictures now).
We also had a big night out while in Whitianga. It was a local radio station's "7th birthday" so after watching the royal wedding, the girls and i had a night out. It was fun.
On Saturday we head south and west on out way to Taupo. We had to stop a few times to puke as Sandra was getting car sick and once to get new tires as we realized ours were about to explode. But we made it.
So now I am in Taupo and needing to get a job to finance the rest of my trip and to buy some warm socks as Taupo is chilly chilly.
The search begins tomorrow.
Wish me luck!!