New Zealand

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We’d arranged to meet up with Norma, an old friend of Matt’s granddad, at the Botanical Gardens this morning. Matt wasn’t enjoying negotiating the Auckland traffic in a camper, but he did a great job (despite lots of swearing!)

When we arrived, the gardens were packed as it was ‘national older peoples day‘. The gardens were really beautiful set out in different themes with sculptures dotted around. Norma is a volunteer at the gardens and provides commentary on the little train that runs around the grounds, so we met up with her and climbed on board. She announced to everyone on board that we were visiting and even told some of Matt’s granddad’s jokes about old people which seemed quite fitting for the day.

Unfortunately she was being kept busy doing the train rides and we had to move on so we said our goodbyes and started our journey again.

We set off driving up the Coromandel peninsula to see how far we could get before nightfall. On the way we stopped at a square kauri tree which was up a very steep set of steps. I suspect we will ache tomorrow as it’s the most active we’ve been in a while!

As we drove up the coastline towards the town of Coromandel we stopped at a look out. The view down across Manaia Harbour was breathtaking. The water was a deep blue, the hills a lush, vibrant green, and there were islands dotted around in the sea. It was the view you’d get if you crossed Scotland, Wales and Cornwall together. We almost couldn’t tear ourselves away but we had to as time was getting on and we needed to make it to the campsite.

The campsite was pleasant and it had great value internet access which we made the most of. The evening wasn’t warm enough to sit outside so we huddles up in the van and read the massive stacks of tourist leaflets we’d accrued to plan what to do tomorrow.

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