The word "hill" have a brand new meaning!

It is presently noon and I managed to find an internet place to get away from the sun for a little while! It is very hot today and I just finished climbing up the steepest and highest hill of the north island... and when I say hill, I mean 4-5 km long steep hill! When I take a break and look behind me at the ocean, I just can't believe I've hiked up that far from sea level! It is a really good feeling to get to the top and start going downhill! I often go faster than cars on the downhills as I have more space to take the corners. Cars go around 20-30 km and hour up and down those hills! I made it up to 69.5 km and hour on my bike this morning! (That was on a straight stretch!)

The last two days I spent resting at a really amazing hostel in Coromandel City called "The Lion's Den". The lady that owned the place was so nice! She even woke up at 6 AM yesterday to bake us a banana cake for our hike! Me, 3 girls and a guy (all from different countries!) left at 8am yesterday, drove for 2 hours to the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula and hiked for 4 hours to a lookout point! That must have been one of my most amazing hikes ever! For the first hour, we walked through cow and sheep pastures. It was all open, green, rolling hills with a few obstacles along the way (had to be careful as I was walking in my sandals!). The ocean was always on our side with its rugged coast line. And then I managed to get attacked by a bunch of hungry ducks! They were walking all over me! Had a good laugh anyways!

I am having a hard time finding internet places that allow me to download my photos... and when I do, it is very slow! So I apologize for the lack of photos! It will come!