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Published: November 28th 2018
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27th November
Surprise surprise, it rained all night again. I retreated to the kitchen for breakfast. I used the 2nd rashesrof bacon and half a sausage from yesterday's breakfast to make sandwiches. Sorted my van, showered and dressed by 8.30. Ready to go but nowhere to go to.
I leaf through the ever increasing stash of leaflets and settled on heading towards Whanganui with the intention of going to the local Information centre to find a walk. I see a sign for The Winter Gardens and Lake Victoria and pull in to the car park. As I soon as I get out of the van I am mobbed by about 30 ducks.
I have coffee at the cafe then have a walk around both Lake Victoria and The Winter Gardens. I must say that the local councils look after the green spaces very well.
Feeling peckish I decide on lunch in the park and head back to the van to collect the makings of lunch and find a table to sit at. Once again I am mobbed by the local bird life. They soon get the message that they’re not getting anything from me a slowly disperse.
It is about 2 by now, so need to decide where to head to next, check the map and decide on New Plymouth via the coast road but to pull over at the next sign for a campsite I see.
The route is less stressful that normal although it is still raining occasionally. I check the map and see if I can to a place called Owaha Beach, but sat nav does not like it. So carry on until I see the familiar blue sign with a tent pointing me towards a campsite.
I book myself into a lovely site at Kaupokonui, no tsunami warnings just a sign saying the fish and water may be contaminated due to a recent beached whale. Not sure if I fancy walking on the beach with a rotting whale carcass, but there you go.
I made a cuppa and did a reccy of the facilities. The heavens look as they are going to open at any moment, but hold out for a while, so settle in my latest book, by Jeffrey Archer and make the most of the view.
I head into the kitchen to cook and eat my evening meal as I am not convinced that it will stay dry. After food I get chatting to another chap on the site, I told him that I fancied a walk on the beach tomorrow but not sure if I could manage the climb up the 30 metre sand dune to get there. He told me that at low tide you can walk around and that high tide will be at 2 tomorrow afternoon, so I should be ok to walk around it in the morning. So that is my plan for first thing then.
I made the bed up, had a wander around the site and tucked myself in with my book, about 20 minutes later I flung open the van door to take in the spectacular sunset.
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