Goodbye to Julian!

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This morning we left Whitianga & crossed the Coromandel Peninsula via the 309 Road stopping to see (& hug) the huge Kauri trees (<600yrs old!) in the Waiau Kauri Grove and the Waiau Falls. Unfortunately it was a bit too cool to swin in the pool but it looked like a lovely spot to do so when the sun's out. Julian did test the water by slipping on the wet rocks & ended up pretty much sitting in the stream! Luckly the sun came out & I think most of his clothes dried out on the back seat before he had to pack them! The socks we stuck out of a back window so they dried really quickly as we whizzed along the roads! We poked around in Coromandel town & posted some postcards then drove down the west of the peninsula stopping briefly at the bird hide in Thames (some herons, ducks, a spur-winged plover & several UK species). We decided to detour round to Miranda (no,we weren't attacked by Reavers) to check out the shorebird centre, nice place but as it was low tide the birds were too far out to be worth the hours trek to the hide.

Finally, we had to admit that Julian's time was nearly up & headed back to Auckland where I checked into my hostel (again in Parnell), we pottered around Parnell for a while (the yarn shop was closed, sorry Claire!) & had ice-cream & tea before Julian headed off to the airport with the rental car (we'd negotiated the full day today & return to the airport - well, I say negotiated, we're paying for the extra time!). He's currently checked-in (hopefully) & awaiting his flight home. It's been a great few weeks & although we did lots of driving most days it still felt very relaxed as we had no real timetable or strict plan. Hopefully I can run off to some of the islands off Auckland this week to get away from the city for a bit!

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