Whangamata and Opoutere Beach

Better news today!! It really poured down for the first part of the night, then at 3.30am we were woken by a siren!! I got up, but there were no signs of anyone worrying except another couple camped near us. It turns out that it was the fire service call out siren, however if it had been a continuous blast it would have meant we were to evacuate as there might be a tsunami on the way....its good to know! 😉. Anyway when I eventually surfaced just before 8am I spied some blue sky out of the window, and M said the sun had been shining since 7.0am, a slight exaggeration, but a great improvement nevertheless.  The fridge is working again but all my milk had gone off, fortunately the site has a small shop so I was able to have my morning coffee with my breakfast after all.

Much better view this morning, lots of black swans on the mud flats 

The Athenree Hot Springs Holiday Park is an excellent site, spotlessly clean and well maintained and use of the hot pools is included in the site fee. The staff yesterday could not have been more helpful and this morning the owner called by with a couple of bookmarks and thanked us for coming! 

We left a bit after 10.0am having decided to drive up to the Coromandel with the idea that we would not go very far. We were back to hill, bends and native forest with the occasional splash of blue from Morning Glory twine-ing itself through the bushes. I forgot to say that yesterday we drove through kiwi growing and orchard country and we stopped to buy blueberries and strawberries. 

Good example of native bush 

We stopped a while in Whangamata, bought some great cookies to take for Orlo, all wholesome ingredients and no palm oil, so he will approve!! He has been learning about the effects of palm oil collection. Last time we were here in 2010 we were towed in by the AA and had to wait hours for a replacement Campervan, not so this time, thank goodness! We had a wander, a coffee and chat with the lady in the info centre, a quick look at t shirts, but didn’t buy one, then we were off on our way again. However we only drove 15 mins up the road and turned off to this delightful spot where we now plan to stay the rest of the day and overnight. We are on a small river mouth and apparently there is a lovely beach 700m walk away. After lunch we will go and explore.

SO FAR, IT HAS  NOT RAINED TODAY!!....finger crossed!

Later:

Slight drizzle now but it’s been fine today!! Low cloud, but we had a good walk through the forest and along the beach where we met two people!!

U

Look carefully, not just footprints in the sand, there is a NZ Dotterel.

We saw several on the beach, they are protected.

 Once we got back I relaxed and sat and made some lace. It has been very warm 23-26C and humid but with shorts and sun top on I was comfortable.  The cicadas are in full ‘song’ we have heard them in all the coastal places we have visited on both islands.

We are staying on the Coromandel until Friday when we hand the van back, so will be taking it relatively easy for the next few days. Small mileages and some tourist-ing! 

Weather: much better than expected! Mainly dry! 

Total km 67.

NB 80km is 50 Miles