24 October Monday
Labour day in NZ
Left site 9.30 going to Coromandel. Horrible drive today, twisty gravelly
and tiring for Colin, didn'teven stop for lunch. Arrived at (DOCsite) Fantail Bay aprrox 4 ish, it is a lovely spot with a pebble beach across the road, we are one of three on the site, there are even showers (cold). Walked down to the beach and had a paddle then sat in sunshine before dinner.
A damsel in distress pulled in with a flat tyre which Colin changed for her . after dinner sat on beach watching the sun go down,
lovely end to a difficult day.
25 October Tuesday
It is a beautiful start to the day opening the curtains and to see the sea through the trees,
Colin said the 2 men and lads went out fishing at 6, on return they showed us their catch of 2 snappers, one was huge.
the sun has come out well and we put 2 mattresses outside and just laid in the sun, one of the lads came to borrow a large saucepan to boil a fish head and later they brought over the smaller fish to us for lunch, they had smoked it (Colin took the head off before eating), it was delicous.
went for a walk in afternoon and persuaded colin to go for a swim, it was chilly but not too bad, after wading up to our waists we bit the bullet and got our shoulders under and had a short swim, I went and had a cold shower to wash off the salt, which wasn't too bad.
A couple turned up in a small bus towing a trailer with a boat on top, inside the trailer was a quad bike which they used to tow boat trailer to the water. went down to the beach for a bit after dinner before sorting more photos for blog.
The most relaxing time.
26 October Wednesday
The last 2 tea bags - oh no !!
Tried to get away at 8.30 but got talking to camping neighbours, they are on a 3 week holiday, they went out fishing last night and caught enough for dinner , as a consequence left site just before 9.30 on our way to Thames. Coast is as scenic as usual, caught up on facebook then went into Emails to find Jason at Cargo Online needing Colin to fill in a Customs Clearance form urgently, printed form off in library and Colin completed it after getting all our documents from van ,then got library staff to fax it to Oz.($12) Colin rang Jason to ask him to confirm by Email that form was ok. He let us know we needed an adress in Oz, so put in hotel in Sydney, hopefully everthing now ok.(Colin checked phone,still got $14 on it, only put $20 on to start with), left library after 2 pm, eventually found somewhere to stop on way to Miranda for a bite of lunch. We decided to find campsite south of Auckland for the night. The first one we stopped at had no hot water due to a ruptured gas pipe on the North Island . As nobody in office we decide to go get some T bags and tobacco and made a decision to go to Clarks Beach Holiday Park instead. Lovely site (most expesive $36) but he gave us $1.50 for 3 showers plus half hour free internet card ,after making us promise not to feed the dog.Parked up and you can see the sea,
wonderfull.Went through photos for blog and just started dinner when Mark the site owner came over and asked if we wanted to go for a trip on his boat for half an hour Colin went with him(he needed to give his boat a test run after beeing parked up for the winter).Rose ate dinner, by the time Colin got back it was getting dark but he had a big grin on his face.Cooked his food then went off to put phots onto blog and check Emails, Jason now wants a copy of Rose's passport.(sort it out tomorrow).Late to bed tonight, been an evetfull day.
27 October Thursday.
Got talking to a lady in the kitchen this morning and she was telling us she had never been off the North Island but was going with husband to South Island in December, we told herof a couple good camp sites and some places of interest they might like to see.
THEY DO NOT PUT AWNINGS ON SIDE OF THEIR CARAVANS THEY PUT EXTENSIONS
Off to Papakura for library. Sent off fax of passport and sent Email attachment of photo of passport as well, asked Jason to ring us if anything else needed.
Decided to head for DOC site at Waipu, on coast. It made a nice change to drive on a motorway through Auckland. Avoided toll road going north and dropped onto coast road . Stopped at a town called Leigh, the beach is lovely.
Got to site at 3.45 pmand booked in for 2 nights ($34) Uretiti Recreation Reserve - Bream Bay.They have a warden on site now over the summer (so had to pay)
NOW SEEN 28 REAL LAND ROVERS.
Sat in sunshine (getting to be quite a habit) trying not to burn. Had another lovely stir fry with Brocolli (just for Colin), but rice not noodles - scrummy.Went for a walk on the beach - proper sand, it is a long gorgeous bay(swim tomorrw)
followed by a walk around camp site,it's such a nice warm evening. Noticed it got dark later.
28 October Friday
Warm night, looks a bit cloudy first thing. Left site about 9 to go to Whangarei to use library, it seems they charge like a wounded bull,so the lady sent to the Mall where we had coffee and logged on for free.Jason received passport photos ok.We updated blog and put some more photos on, then sent Emails to kids and friends with a link to the blog. Stopped at Ruakaka and bought some fish and chips and bought back to site(they were heavenly), the batter was really light and crispy, the fish (Hoki) was really meaty, our first hot bought meal. Laid in sun and read befor going down to beach, the tide was a long way out,had a paddle then sat on the sand for an hour before going back to van, started to cloud over a bit from 4.30.still full up from fish and chips so just had tea and biscuits for dinner. Backed up photos then went back down to beach for a walk, tide now in but very windy.
29 October Saturday
Sunny one side of the van and cloudy the other. Put bedding outside to air and went for strip wash in van rather than cold shower. Had a family of quail come to visit us.
decided to stay on site another night. Colin rang Sandra and everything ok at home.
Went to Waipu Museum in the morning, it tells the story of the Scots who left Scotland for Nova Scotia but as times were just at hard there they moved to New Zealand in the 1850s, the way they worked with the maori and the community they set up at Waipu, including at the beginning of January a Highland games, we watched a short video of a bi-ennial rugby match between Waipu and a town from south island called Colco, the team from Waipu play wearing kilts-you wouldn't want to laugh at them. whilst we were out the site manager Sandy charged the computer battery for us, what nice people. Had another walk on the beach, the sun didn't properly come out till 4.30 today but still warm, it is so nice.Cooked last stir fry with brocolli (Colin will be pleased). Walked around site again before going to bed - bit chillier now in the wind.
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