Our first stop outside of Auckland was Thames, a small to mid-size town at the foot of the Coromandel Penninsula. There is nothing much there except a second cousin that I have never met before. Michael is my aunt's cousin whose family moved to New Zealand in the 60s. He doesn't speak any Cantonese anymore and he's a priest, a traveling priest. He lives in a house with another priest and we were treated with great hospitality and felt very welcomed. We caught up on family gossip, drank wine and watched rugby on TV. I have to say we had a really great time hanging out with the priests! Oh, and apparently I am part Irish, not Scottish.

With the advice we got from the priests and other local Kiwis, we headed up and around the beautiful Coromandel coast, enjoyed some suberb camping on the beach and tramping (trying to get into the lingo here...) along the coast. And yes, we have seen more sheeps and cows than people! We have been doing a hike a day so far, hopefully we will be able to keep that up! Tonight we are staying at a backpacker's called Just the Ducks Nuts...go figure.