My fleeting visit to Coromandel was over as soon as it began, as today I'm heading back down the other side of the peninsular towards Thames and then round to Auckland to meet Ray and Monique, who I will be staying with until Sunday. Ray is a friend of Dad's from the Bootle days and emigrated out here 40 years ago, so I've never met him before, apart from a quick Skype session. Nothing like throwing yourself into the unknown eh... The journey was quick but took me along the coastline for my final bendy road drive in the bean. Over 5,000km in 20 days we've done together and I have to say I'm going to miss it. Yes, it's got a few more battle scars than it did previously (broken parcel shelf that occurred on
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