Now that I have to post after-hours from work, this is a lot easier - no self-editing, just writing fast and fuck-all posting. I kind of like it...

I had a fun, low-key weekend in the Coromandel peninsula. Took the bus out there, and on Sat. rented a car to explore. Being without a car since mid-August, it felt absolutely fantastic to be behind the wheel again. Even if said wheel was on the wrong side of the car.

To back up, I also feel like I've acheived a milestone in my adult life, having rented a car. I thought it was a perk being in London pre-21 to drink as I pleased, but being able to sign off on a car agreement pre-25 is even better.

FREEDOM! It could've been a Vespa, a mo-ped, a Segway - who cares. Anything that can move faster than I can walk and take me places on my own whim is a blessing.

Not that I wasn't a little wary of driving on the left. I made the renter go find one of those arrow stickers for the dashboard, so I could jet-set driving-for-dummies-style. And the only embarassment came from driving down the block with the emergency brake on (the rental guy chased me down to the dive shop to straighten me out).

Once I got going it only took about 20 minutes to get in the groove. My only issue was swerving too far left, almost in the ditch. Oh, the one-lane bridges are a little scary, too. And I might've gotten a bit too carefree - at one point I hit an enormous divot, and may or may not have done a mini-Dukes of Hazard-esque flight-by-car, and landed hard on the front passenger side of the undercarriage... oops. But they haven't come looking for me yet. I'll just watch my credit card bill for fines.

I rented snorkel gear, and went up to Cathedral Cove, which is an absolutely gorgeous beach. What they didn't tell me, though, is that the path to get out there is a pretty serious hike. It's steep, and had I known I would a) not have worn "jandals" and b) not have hauled the whole damn bag of equipment with. The wetsuit wasn't really necessary...

But there's nothing wrong with a little sweat, especially when you can cool off in the ocean. I stopped at Gemstone Bay to snorkel, but got a little freaked out once in the water, since there was no one else around and I'm an ocean-novice. I'm pretty fearless in the lake, but I've rarely had to deal with tides before. Needless to say, I was floating along and had a few neurotic visions and packed it in. (I know, I know, I really have to stop with the Ally McBeal DVDs, they're making me crazy. But it's all my coworker has at her place...)

Snorkeled a bit more in Stingray Bay, which has a more tame white-sand beach, where I humiliated myself in front of a kayaking tour chasing big blue fish around in circles. Then I headed to Cathedral Cove, which was unfortunately crawling with people. Still, I could happily live the rest of my life out right there.

Later I drove to Hot Water Beach, which is a riot. There's geothermal streams under the beach, or something, I don't really understand how it works, but you can rent a shovel and dig yourself an all-natural hot tub. There's just a small portion of the beach with hot water, so everyone was all clustered around one point, where the water was actually boiling, bubbling out of the sand. And they build these elaborate walls, that the tide wrecks and then everyone groans/yells about the cold water... It's hilarious. I really wanted to hang out with the rowdy group of guys who had brought a huge cooler of beer, or the ladies drinking champaigne straight out of the bottle, but it's not like you can just walk up and ask to share someone's pool.

But it was a great day, I got sufficiently sunburned, so I call that a success.

Sunday I returned home by ferry, which was actually really interesting because you can see Auckland's Sky Tower from the Coromandel peaks, and vice versa - I just never knew what I was looking at before. It sort of puts into perspective how small this country really is.