28th and 29th April

Wednesday 29th April
This morning we left the comfort of Judy’s unit and once again hit the road heading north. Our destination is Opoutere on the east coast of the Coromandel peninsula. I drove the first 100km to Tauranga where we stopped for ‘morning tea and scones’ at the home of a friend of Terry. Kerrye and Pat were neighbours of Terry when they lived in Auckland. Kerrye and Pat took over the care of Terry’s beloved cat. Sophie, when she left Auckland so there was a somewhat emotional reunion on arrival. Tauranga is a big town (city) on the coast and is very hilly. On leaving there we drove on to the small town of Waihi - a gold mining town. We stopped a while and walked up to look down into the Martha Gold Mine - the biggest hole in the ground I have ever seen.

I kept a lookout for a few discarded gold nuggets but was not fortunate enough to find any! There is also the remains of a huge mine pump house. (I must ‘google’ Waihi when I get home as I am sure there is some interesting history to read about).

We then drove on to Opoutere, where we were booked into the YHA. Our accommodation is half of a little hut set among tall trees. Like the previous hostel it is very basic but clean - twin beds and a small table, that is all. The only snag is that if we need the loo in the night it will be walk by torchlight to the main building. Nothing more for me to drink this evening I guess!

We did not bother to stop off for supplies on the way, thinking we would settle in first, take a look around the area then perhaps go and get a takeaway or eat out. But we were foiled! There is absolutely NOTHING here except a few houses and beautiful scenery and bush walks.

We took a walk though a nature reserve which opened out onto the most fabulous unspoiled beach I have ever seen, with offshore islands. It was real paradise.

We were the only people there and all we could hear was the pounding of the Pacific waves on the shore and the call of the birds, especially the distinct call of the Tui.

Dinner tonight will be eating what remains in our food box - a couple of toasted slices of not so fresh bread, a tin of salmon with mayo, fruit and yoghurt! Good for the diet I suppose. I blame Terry of course!


Tuesday 28th April
Today we had a quiet day taking advantage of staying in Judy’s comfortable little apartment. A day with no driving was welcome. We just pottered around and took a short visit into Whakatane to do some shopping and to have a brief look around. It is a lovely coastal town. We had a walk along the beach during the afternoon. This house is tucked down behind the sand dunes so the beach is right on the doorstep. It is completely unspoiled - no buildings or promenade, just sand, trees and driftwood. It probably looks much the same as it did when NZ was discovered! There are some interesting looking offshore islands and it was a shame that the weather was cloudy so the scenery was not very photogenic.