Blogs from Waihi, Coromandel, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

16th November Woke up at 7.15, needed to be off site by 8am. Shoved some cereal down my thought, got dressed, packed the van up. No time for a cuppa. Head in to town, first things first, NEED coffee. Will anywhere be open, it is still only 7.50. I spy a bakery with tables out on the pavement, park up and get a LARGE flat white. I sit an the table outside watching the world go by as I sip it. After about 30 minutes, I begin to feel awake. I really have no idea what to do with my day. I have a walk through town, pick up a few supplies and get back to the van. I have a look through the brochures and maps and decide on Waihi. There is a walk around ... read more

Erstes Ziel am heutigen Tage war an der Bay of Plenty die Stadt Whakatane. Hier wurde auf vielen Flyern das Schwimmen mit Delphinen angeboten. Dort angekommen, mussten wir leider erfahren, dass wir zur falschen Zeit am richtigen Ort waren. Die Delphine halten sich in den Wintermonaten nicht mehr an der Küste auf, sondern schwimmen weiter draußen in der Bucht. Nach kurzer Beratung entschlossen wir uns dazu, den sonnigen Tag im Camper zu verbringen und bis zur Coromandel Halbinsel zu fahren. Unseren ersten Halt legten wir am Waihi Beach ein. Dort konnte man an einem schönen Sandstrand außergewöhnliche uns sehr seltene Muscheln finden. Die schönsten und größten haben wir natürlich für euch mitgenommen. Mal schauen, wie die Muscheln die lange Reise nach Hause überstehen werden. Danach fuhren wir weiter nach Hahei. Dieses schnuckelige Örtchen ist der Ausgangspunkt ... read more

Finally some sun!We bought body boards so we could make the most of the surf. The waves were massive, 5 to 6 feet. The water was clear, the sky was blue and the sand was hot hot hot! The next day we went to see "Marths's Mine", a gold mine that used to be underground tunnels but is now a big open cast mine. When they have finished mining they will fill it up with water to make a swimming/boating lake, it will take many years to fill.... read more

‘I’m going upstairs now’ William has just told me … and we are living in a Toyota Previa! For the next 19 days William and Emily will be sleeping in a top-box, as their mother and father fight for inches and the duvet in what we are already calling ‘the hearse’. Spaceships© are cool. Spaceships© are groovy … perhaps the images on the website of lots of cheerful, carefree and (importantly) very flexible twenty-somethings should have given it away! The permutations of eating, cooking, sleeping, storing and driving for a family of four all within a volume less than a typical downstairs toilet would surely have challenged Mr Rubik! Awake this morning by 7.00 am (Yes – including Diana!) it still took us nearly three hours to leave the campsite … granted there was some ‘horror’ ... read more

We did some walks before we left Hahei. There is a really nice water worn rock they call Cathedrel cove about 30 min for our backpackers that we wanted to see before we left. After that it was down to Waihi. Well we took a long deture because Niv (the guy I am traveling with) wanted to see some gold mines or something. Anyways it wasn't on that road so we went all the way back to Thames and then back over to Waihi. Just outside of Thames there is some walks that take from 2 hours to 5 days. We took the 2 hour one and put on our backpacks to see what it was going to be like for 5 days. It wasn't so bad for me but Niv had alot of stuff he ... read more