Photo montage!

It's been 13 days since I popped my shoulder now (and almost as long since I last updated the blog - shocker!), but this time Doug and I are going to make sure that I rest properly before getting back on the river. Physio is booked soon too, so it shouldn't be long before the shoulder is back up to full power. It already feels much better without any physio so the signs are good. With nothing better to do, we have spent the last 2 weeks touring around the northern part of the north island - driving up the Coromandel Peninsula, heading out west to Piha and then going through Auckland and making our way up the east coast towards the Bay of Islands via Russel. Here are some pictures.

This is a shot of the beach near Cathedral Cove. You can see a cave bored through the cliff on the right hand side of the photo; that's the only way to get to the shore of the cove without getting wet. At about 30ft high and probably double the width, it's quite a spectacular entrance. It's a long walk down from the car park and according to my legs an even longer walk back uphill.

This one is to appease my Dad, who was asking for photos of the terrain. Here is some terrain. This is the main road into Coromandel from the North - steep, windy and a little too narrow. All of the 'main roads' in NZ are like this, the only guarantee that you get being that it will (mostly) be paved/sealed. The state highways are generally more forgiving but not much better. 

If you turn off the main roads however, you don't know what you're going to be presented with. Frequently it's a 'metal road', or dirt road to everyone else in the world. Again; steep, twisty and narrow is the order of the day.

They aren't always bumpy though. In fact this one could hold its own against most of the highways in NZ. Yep, that's a grader up ahead maintaing the road and I'll go on record when I say that overtaking it by pulling into the ditch it leaves on the other side of the road was one of the more 'interesting' experiences I've had since I got here.

Well, once again I'm running out of time on the internet, another photo update will come along soon.

Catch you all soon,

Sam and Doug