Shave Him! Captain Cookie decided it was time to get ship shape, so we headed for what seemed the best barber’s shop for the job: ‘The Stylish Man’.
Casually heading down the main street in Auckland the follow day and a girl stops us in the street:
“Cookie! Is that you? The guy with the blog?” …” I recognized you from the free beer post! You can’t forget that face…”
Crikey, you’re in a country for a few weeks and Cookie’s already being waved down by fans :) A bearded icon! It’s like going out with a celebrity ;) Awesome! Haha
Well I must be a few grams lighter now! Also hopefully a few degrees cooler in this humid heat, always feels a bit weird after a big trim though.. Surprised that Katie still recognized me without all the face fuzz, thanks for the offer of dinner next time we’re in town!
Before:
This was a detour from the Te Araroa, taking in the Coromandel Walkway, Cathedral Cove and the Pinnacles, rather than the official route south of Auckland. We had planned to walk all the way to Rotorua, but didn’t quite make it due to bad weather.
We’re making a detour! There’s apparently some great stuff to be seen, done and tasted over here in the Coromandel Peninsular. So we’ve decided to switch out a chunk of our south bound Te Araroa trek and pop over here instead :) 
Yep that’s right, we’re taking a sizable departure from the Te Araroa Trail and heading in the wrong direction, North! The Coromandel was one most recommended places to visit by friends we quizzed about New Zealand, so we didnt want to pass it by when it’s only a ferry ride away.
I suppose not so surprisingly there are a few sheep here in New Zealand ;) But as we came round the corner here I’ve never heard such a strange cacophony. And enormous field stuffed with sheep all “AAAaaaaaaahhhhh”-ing their heads off. High pitched, low pitched, squeaky, all kinds of sheep accents - a whole chorus of them. Oddly fascinating to listen to this super multi layered sheep soundscape! We got some on video so we can treat you to that later ;)
We’ve been following the Port Jackson Road from Fantail Bay to the DOC campsite here, it’s a fairly quiet gravel road. There’s actually a track we discovered from Port Jackson (with amazing views), not marked on the topo 50 maps, that follows the cliff edge avoiding half of the Fletcher Bay Road. 
