Whitianga

While in Auckland, we have been staying with Jigar's childhood friend, Butti (real name: Niral) and his wife, Vatsa. They took Thursday and Friday off of week so we could all go up to the Coromandel Peninsula for a few days.

Wednesday night we went to a midnight show of The Dark Knight. It was awesome! But we didn't exactly get an early start the next day. We left after lunch and drove up to Whitianga (pronounced "fitianga"), a couple of hours north of Auckland. It was a beautiful drive.

Friday was gorgeous! It was sunny and warm. The skies were blue. We went to Cathedral Cove. It was a bit of a hike, but it was worth it. In the new Chronicles of Narnia movie (Prince Caspian), the kids get pulled from a train station in London into Narnia. When they appear in Narnia, they are in a cave. That is Cathedral Cove. It was very majestic.

On Saturday, we got to see the worst storm that has hit New Zealand in 10 years. Vatsa and I stayed safely in the hotel. Our foolish husbands went out into the storm. But I'll let Jigar write a post about that.

Today we came back to Auckland. We stopped by a mall on the way back into the city. I think that the entire population of New Zealand (about 4 million) was there! We got some hot chocolate (it was so good!) and headed home. We had a lot of fun.