Tui-tastic

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We're now staying in Coromandel Town having left Northland and driven through Auckland and out east onto the Coromandel Peninsular. This is an area we should have visited some weeks ago but we detoured south to avoid the flooding that struck the area and destroyed some of the roads. After visiting Dargaville and the Kauri Museum at Matakohe we spent one night in Helensville as a stopover and were delighted to find an outdoor hottub from which to view the stars.

We're in the countryside at "Tui Lodge" (surrounded by noisy Tuis) where we're making full use of the outdoor trampoline. We're also near some great beaches and coastal walks (including 'Cathedral Cove' where we picnic-ed on the beach in a tree while the tide was coming in and 'Hot Water Beach' although the tide was in blocking access the natural springs that flow up through the beach) and the towns of Thames and Whitianga (where we sold some of our guide books and promptly took our twelve dollar bounty to the supermarket to buy a case of beer for the rugby tonight).

On Thursday night we observed the occult of jupiter (when the moon passed right in front of the planet and its four moons).

Happy Father's Day for tomorrow to all the Dads out there reading this (including ours!)

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